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BlogThe Sources of Personal Income Since 1947
(Click to enlarge.) See the blue line in the upper half of the figure above? That line shows the portion of personal income made up of wage and salary disbursements, as a percentage of total personal income. (As the figure notes, I’ve subtracted social insurance contributions such as Social Security taxes. Also, employer contributions to [...] -
Greece: How to Slow the Nosedive
The Huffington Post, February 9, 2012. Copyright © 2012 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. All rights reserved. The latest negotiations between Greece and its lenders have ended, at least momentarily. Athens has agreed to endure ever-more painful pension, spending, and wage cuts, with monthly minimum salaries dropping 20 percent. The powerful leaders of ”the troika”—the International Monetary Fund, […] -
Blog
State AGs Cave to Banksters
(cross posted at EconoMonitor) Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism has long been skeptical of the negotiations by the State Attorneys General and the banksters over the foreclosure frauds (see here). And while I had held out some hope that California and New York would either refuse to join, or would insist on good terms, today’s [...] -
Blog
Pessimism on Greek Bailout Deal (If You Need Some)
To provide a little more perspective on the news of the just-announced Greek bailout agreement, I point you to this CNN Money piece from yesterday in which Dimitri Papadimitriou notes how abysmal the underlying economic growth trends remain (Greek employment depends a lot on shipping, which is faring poorly) and reminds us that the package, [...] -
Blog
Bernanke Visits Alternate Universe
Well then. Apparently not everyone agrees that the Federal Reserve is having trouble balancing its dual mandate. Rather, I should say that not everyone agrees about the nature of the imbalance. From the Boston Globe‘s reporting of Ben Bernanke’s appearance in front of the Senate Budget Committee, we find this: “It seems to me that [...] -
One-Pager No. 25
Put an End to the Farce That’s Turned Into a Tragedy
The 2007–08 global financial crisis was the second most disastrous global economic event of the last 80 years. Thanks to severe austerity measures and a fanatical commitment to fiscal consolidation, Europe’s overall economy is now close to stagnation and extremely high levels of unemployment prevail in many countries, especially in the eurozone periphery. In Greece, […] -
One-Pager No. 25
Θέστε τέρμα στη φάρσα που κατέληξε σε τραγωδία
Η παγκόσμια χρηματοοικονομική κρίση του 2007–08 είναι το δεύτερο πιο καταστροφικό παγκόσμιο οικονομικό γεγονός των τελευταίων 80 ετών. Χάρη στα αυστηρά μέτρα λιτότητας και σε μια φανατική δέσμευση στη δημοσιονομική εξυγίανση, η συνολική οικονομία της Ευρώπης βρίσκεται τώρα πολύ κοντά σε κατάσταση στασιμότητας και εξαιρετικά υψηλά επίπεδα ανεργίας επικρατούν σε πολλές χώρες, ιδίως στην περιφέρεια […] -
Blog
The “Shovel Ready” Excuse and a Fed for Public Works?
The latest chapter in the “why was the original stimulus so small?” story is a memo from December 2008 that reveals Larry Summers’ assessment as to why the stimulus (ARRA) had to be limited to around $800 billion—about half of what was necessary, in Summers’ estimation. There are various conclusions you can draw from this [...] -
My Big Fat Greek Speculative Rally
CNN Money, February 8, 2012. © 2012 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. NEW YORK (CNNMoney)—Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Greece is close to getting another bailout from the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, the so-called troika. Greece may also be close to a deal […] -
Working Paper No. 706Inflationary and Distributional Effects of Alternative Fiscal Policies
This paper augments the basic Post-Keynesian markup model to examine the effects of different fiscal policies on prices and income distribution. This is an approach à la Hyman P. Minsky, who argued that in the modern era, government is both “a blessing and a curse,” since it stabilizes profits and output by imparting an inflationary […] -
Blog
Europe’s “Bankers First” Approach
“…while Europe’s leaders haven’t hit upon a way to forestall a years-long span of catastrophically high unemployment and falling living standards, they do appear to be really really really really committed to saving banks.” That’s Slate‘s Matthew Yglesias, who notes that this (seemingly exclusive) focus among European elites on saving their banks likely ends up [...] -
Press ReleaseEuropean Economic Crisis Likely to Worsen and Threaten Shaky US Financial System, Levy Scholars Say