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BlogWe’ve had the tragedy. Is this the farce?
The Wall Street Journal reports on signs that risky lending is once again on the upswing. For example: Credit-card issuers mailed 84.8 million offers of plastic to U.S. subprime borrowers in the first six months of this year, up from 43.7 million a year earlier, estimates research firm Synovate. Nearly 8% of loans for new [...] -
Blog
A Greek glimmer
A Wall Street Journal “Heard on the Street” item plays up the early good news from Greece’s austerity program: In the first half, Greece’s budget deficit came in at €9.6 billion, down 46% from the same period of 2009, the Finance Ministry said this week. Revenues rose 7.2%, while spending fell by 12.8%. Revenue growth [...] -
Policy Notes No. 1Economic Policy for the Real World
The nation’s economic challenges are daunting. Restoring robust American prosperity and widespread economic opportunity will not be easy. But, as Hyman Minsky stressed, “Economic systems are not natural systems…. Policy can change both the details and the overall character of the economy.” It’s clear that what we are now facing is not simply a cyclical […] -
Conference Proceedings
19th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference on the State of the US and World Economies
A conference organized by the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College with support from the . On April 14–16, more than 200 policymakers, economists, and analysts from government, industry, and academia gathered at the NYC headquarters of the Ford Foundation for the Levy Institute’s annual Minsky conference on the state of the US and world economies. […] -
Press ReleaseGovernment Response to Financial Crisis Prevented Second Great Depression, but Recovery Faces Extreme Limitations, New Study from Levy Economics Institute Says
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Blog
Better treatment for R&D?
A post in the Wall Street Journal’s Real Time Economics blog notes that counting research and development as investment rather than as an expense would have increased gross domestic product by 2.7 percent between 1998 and 2007 (they refer to new numbers from the BEA). If this were standard national accounting practice, then measured GDP would [...] -
Blog
How did Greece get into this mess?
People often say that the problem in Greece is profligacy. Greece, the story goes, is a nation living beyond its means. Reading the press, in fact, one gets the impression that Greeks must enjoy one of the highest standards of living in Europe while making the frugal Germans pick up the tab. In reality, Greece [...] -
Working Paper No. 605Detecting Ponzi Finance
Different frameworks of analysis lead to different conceptions of financial instability and financial fragility. On one side, the static approach conceptualizes financial instability as an unfortunate byproduct of capitalism that results from unpredictable random forces that no one can do anything about except prepare for through adequate loss reserves, capital, and liquidation buffers. On the […] -
Public Policy Brief No. 112The Great Crisis and the American Response
Senior Scholar James K. Galbraith argues the fundamental illusion of viewing the US economy through the free-market prism of deregulation, privatization, and a benevolent government operating mainly through monetary stabilization—the prevailing view among economists over the past three decades. The real sources of American economic power, he says, lie with those who manage and control […] -
Working Paper No. 604
Three Futures for Postcrisis Banking in the Americas
This would seem an opportune moment to reshape banking systems in the Americas. But any effort to rethink and improve banking must acknowledge three major barriers. The first is a crisis of vision: there has been too little consideration of what kind of banking system would work best for national economies in the Americas. The […] -
Public Policy Brief No. 112
Η μεγάλη κρίση και η αμερικανική αντίδραση
Ο Ανώτατος Μελετητής James K. Galbraith εξετάζει κριτικά την ψευδαίσθηση του να βλέ̟πει κανείς την οικονομία των ΗΠΑ μέσα από το πρίσμα της ελεύθερης αγοράς, της α̟πορρύθμισης, των ιδιωτικο̟ποιήσεων και μιας καλοπροαίρετης κυβέρνησης η οποία λειτουργεί κυρίως μέσω της νομισματικής σταθερο̟ποίησης—η ε̟πικρατούσα άποψη ανάμεσα στους οικονομολόγους τις τελευταίες τρείς δεκαετίες. Οι πραγματικές π̟ηγές της αμερικανικής […] -
Blog
The solidarity economy
There is no alternative to free-market capitalism, Margaret Thatcher used to say, and about this, like so many things, she was wrong. In fact a variety of alternatives are functioning quite well, and a number of them are succeeding by operating according to the principles of the Solidarity Economy. What is the Solidarity Economy? It’s [...]