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  Strategic Analysis

  Sustaining Recovery: Medium-term Prospects and Policies for the US Economy

  Though recent market activity and housing reports give some warrant for optimism, United States economic growth was only 2.8 percent in the third quarter, and the unemployment rate is still very high. In their new Strategic Analysis, the Levy Institute’s Macro-Modeling Team project that high unemployment will continue to be a problem if fiscal stimulus […]
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  Public Policy Brief No. 106

  Can Euroland Survive?

  Social unrest across Europe is growing as Euroland’s economy collapses faster than the United States’, the result of falling exports and a weaker fiscal response. The controversial title of this brief is based on a belief that the nature of the euro itself limits Euroland’s fiscal policy space. The nations that have adopted the euro […]
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  Research Project Report

  Has Progress Been Made in Alleviating Racial Economic Inequality?

  Reports of a postracial society may be premature. Studies continue to show wide racial gaps in income and, especially, wealth; although there is some evidence that income gaps have shrunk over the past half century, wealth inequality is large and persistent. In this report, the authors examine trends in economic well-being between 1959 and 2007 […]
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  Working Paper No. 583

  The Euro and Its Guardian of Stability

  This paper investigates why Europe fared particularly poorly in the global economic crisis that began in August 2007. It questions the self-portrait of Europe as the victim of external shocks, pushed off track by reckless policies pursued elsewhere. It argues instead that Europe had not only contributed handsomely to the buildup of global imbalances since […]
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  Working Paper No. 582

  Minsky Moments, Russell Chickens, and Gray Swans

  The recent revival of Hyman P. Minsky’s ideas among policymakers, economists, bankers, financial institutions, and the mass media, synchronized with the increasing gravity of the subprime financial crisis, demands a reappraisal of the meaning and scope of the “financial instability hypothesis” (FIH). We argue that we need a broader approach than that conventionally pursued, in […]
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  Public Policy Brief No. 105

  It Isn’t Working: Time for More Radical Policies

  The Obama administration has implemented several policies to “jump-start” the American economy—efforts that have largely focused on preserving the financial interests of major banks. The authors of this new policy brief believe that maintaining the status quo is not the solution, since it overlooks the debt problems of households and nonfinancial businesses—and re-creating the financial […]
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  Policy Notes No. 10

  Fiscal Stimulus, Job Creation, and the Economy

  As the nation watches the impact of the recent stimulus bill on job creation and economic growth, a group of academics continues to dispute the notion that the fiscal and job creation programs of the New Deal helped end the Depression. The work of these revisionist scholars has led to a public discourse that has […]
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  Working Paper No. 581

  Lessons from the New Deal

  Since the current recession began in December 2007, New Deal legislation and its effectiveness have been at the center of a lively debate in Washington. This paper emphasizes some key facts about two kinds of policy that were important during the Great Depression and have since become the focus of criticism by new New Deal […]
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  Working Paper No. 580

  An Alternative View of Finance, Saving, Deficits, and Liquidity

  This paper contrasts the orthodox approach with an alternative view on finance, saving, deficits, and liquidity. The conventional view on the cause of the current global financial crisis points first to excessive United States trade deficits that are supposed to have “soaked up” global savings. Worse, this policy was ultimately unsustainable because it was inevitable […]
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  Working Paper No. 579

  A Perspective on Minsky Moments

  This paper aims to help bridge the gap between theory and fact regarding the so-called “Minsky moments” by revisiting the “financial instability hypothesis” (FIH). We limit the analysis to the core of FIH—that is, to its strictly financial part. Our contribution builds on a reexamination of Minsky’s contributions in light of the subprime financial crisis. […]
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  Report No. 4

  Report October 2009

  The Obama administration estimates that the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will create or save approximately three and a half million jobs by the end of 2010. A Special Report featured in this issue points toward the necessity for a comprehensive employment strategy that goes well beyond ARRA–and concludes that the government could […]
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  Policy Notes No. 9

  Banks Running Wild: The Subversion of Insurance by “Life Settlements” and Credit Default Swaps

  Oblivious to any lessons that might have been learned from the global financial mess it has created, Wall Street is looking for the next asset bubble. Perhaps in the market for death it has found a replacement for the collapsed markets in subprime mortgage–backed securities and credit default swaps (CDSs). Instead of making bets on […]