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  Strategic Analysis

  Recent Rise in Federal Government and Federal Reserve Liabilities: Antidote to a Speculative Hangover

  Federal government and Federal Reserve (Fed) liabilities rose sharply in 2008. Who holds these new liabilities, and what effects will they have on the economy? Some economists and politicians warn of impending inflation. In this new Strategic Analysis, the Levy Institute’s Macro-Modeling Team focuses on one positive effect—a badly needed improvement of private sector balance […]
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  Research Project Report

  New Estimates of Economic Inequality in America, 1959—2004

  In this latest LIMEW report, the authors present new evidence on the pattern of economic inequality in the United States that indicates higher inequality in 2004 than in 1959. According to the LIMEW, there was a surge in inequality between 1989 and 2000 that reflects the large increase in income from wealth for the top […]
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  Public Policy Brief No. 100

  It’s That “Vision” Thing: Why the Bailouts Aren’t Working, and Why a New Financial System Is Needed

  The Federal Reserve’s response to the current financial crisis has been praised because it introduced a zero interest rate policy more rapidly than the Bank of Japan (during the Japanese crisis of the 1990s) and embraced massive “quantitative easing.” However, despite vast capital injections, the banking system is not lending in support of the private […]
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  Policy Notes No. 4

  A Crisis in Coordination and Competence

  The ad hoc emergency approach to the current economic crisis has a great chance of wasting billions of dollars by mismatching skills and needs. According to Martin Shubik of Yale University, the current deepening recession needs a “quick fix” solution now, but a longer-fix solution must be put into place along with it. There is […]
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  Press Release

  Central Banks Should Widen Their Scope and Consider Wealth Targets to Stabilize the Economy During a Credit Crisis, New Study from the Levy Economics Institute Says

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  Working Paper No. 560

  The Social and Economic Importance of Full Employment

  Unemployment was singled out by John Maynard Keynes as one of the principle faults of capitalism; the other is excessive inequality. Obviously, there is some link between these two faults: since most people living in capitalist economies must work for wages as a major source of their incomes, the inability to obtain a job means […]
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  Strategic Analysis

  A “People First” Strategy: Credit Cannot Flow When There Are No Creditworthy Borrowers or Profitable Projects

  In 1930, John Maynard Keynes wrote: “The world has been slow to realise that we are living this year in the shadow of one of the greatest economic catastrophes of modern history.” The same holds true today: we are in the shadow of a global catastrophe, and we need to come to grips with the […]
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  Summary No. 2

  Summary Spring 2009

  This issue of the Summary begins with a Strategic Analysis by the Levy Institute’s Macro-Modeling Team, along with a review of the latest Federal Reserve flow-of-funds data. The authors foresee a steep rise in the private sector balance and an abrupt fall in GDP in the United States, with employment rising to 10 percent in […]
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  Working Paper No. 559

  Labor-market Performance in the OECD

  In this paper we assess the evolution of labor-market performance in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) over the last decade. We provide a survey of the literature dealing with labor-market performance in the OECD, finding that, while this literature tends to conclude that institutions are a key part of the story, the […]
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  Public Policy Brief Highlight No. 99

  The Return of Big Government

  In the current global financial crisis, economists and policymakers have reembraced Big Government as a means of preventing the reoccurrence of a debt-deflation depression. The danger, however, is that policy may not downsize finance and replace money manager capitalism. According to Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray, we need a permanently larger fiscal presence, with more […]
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  Working Paper No. 558

  Managing the Impact of Volatility in International Capital Markets in an Uncertain World

  International financial flows are the propagation mechanism for transmitting financial instability across borders; they are also the source of unsustainable external debt. Managing volatility thus requires institutions that promote domestic financial stability, ensure that domestic instability is contained, and guarantee that international institutions and rules of the game are not themselves a cause of volatility. […]
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  Policy Notes No. 3

  An Assessment of the Credit Crisis Solutions

  All of the various schemes that have been put forward to resolve the current credit crisis follow either the “business as usual” or the “good bank” model. The “business as usual” model takes different forms—insurance or guarantee of the assets or liabilities of the financial institutions, creation of a “bad bank” to buy toxic assets, […]