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Policy Notes No. 2
What Role for Central Banks in View of the Current Crisis?
Central banks have an aversion to bailing out speculators when asset bubbles burst, but ultimately, as custodians of the financial system, they have to do exactly that. Their actions are justified by the goal of protecting the economy from the bursting of bubbles; while their intention may be different, the result is the same: speculators, […]
Press Release
Leading Economists and Policymakers to Discuss Financial Crisis at The Levy Economics Institute’s 18th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, in New York City, April 16–17
Working Paper No. 557
Background Considerations to a Regulation of the US Financial System
United States financial regulation has traditionally made functional and institutional regulation roughly equivalent. However, the gradual shift away from Glass-Steagall and the introduction of the Financial Modernization Act (FMA) generated a disorderly mix of functions and products across institutions, creating regulatory gaps that contributed to the recent crisis. An analysis of this history suggests that […]
Public Policy Brief No. 99
The Return of Big Government: Policy Advice for President Obama
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 […]
Public Policy Brief Highlight No. 98
The Case Against Intergenerational Accounting
The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) has proposed subjecting the entire federal budget to “intergenerational accounting”—which purports to calculate the debt burden our generation will leave for future generations—and is soliciting comments on the recommendations of its two “exposure drafts.” The authors of this brief find that intergenerational accounting is a deeply flawed and […]
Press Release
Proposed Federal Accounting Guidelines Pose Unnecessary Threat to Social Security and Medicare, New Levy Study Says
Public Policy Brief No. 98
The Case Against Intergenerational Accounting: The Accounting Campaign Against Social Security and Medicare
The Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board (FASAB) has proposed subjecting the entire federal budget to “intergenerational accounting”—which purports to calculate the debt burden our generation will leave for future generations—and is soliciting comments on the recommendations of its two “exposure drafts.” The authors of this brief find that intergenerational accounting is a deeply flawed and […]
Research Project Report
What Are the Long-Term Trends in Intergroup Economic Disparities?
Over the last half century, government policy has had an important hand in alleviating disparities among population subgroups in the United States; for example, special tax treatment for families with children has meant an improvement in the well-being of single mothers, and Medicare and Social Security have been the driving force in improving well-being among […]
Research Project Report
Postwar Trends in Economic Well-Being in the United States,1959–2004
The Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being (LIMEW) is a more comprehensive measure than either gross money income or extended income because it includes estimates of public consumption and household production, as well as the long-run benefits from the ownership of wealth. As a result, it provides a picture of economic well-being in the United […]
Press Release
Large Fiscal Stimulus Plans Not Enough to Prevent Rising Unemployment Over Next Two Years, New Levy Study Says
Working Paper No. 556
Long-Term Trends in the Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being (LIMEW), United States, 1959–2004
The motivation to construct the LIMEW in lieu of relying on the official measures of well-being is to provide a more comprehensive measure of economic inequality that will also show the disparities among key demographic groups. The authors of this new working paper show that the LIMEW provides a perspective on disparities among population subgroups […]
Public Policy Brief No. 97
After the Bust
“Change” was the buzzword of the Obama campaign, in response to a political agenda precipitated by financial turmoil and a global economic crisis. According to Research Associate Thomas Palley, the neoliberal economic policy paradigm underlying that agenda must itself change if there is to be a successful policy response to the crisis. Mainstream economic theory […]