Search

4188 results found

• 

  Public Policy Brief Highlight No. 96

  The Commodities Market Bubble

  In a new public policy brief, Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray shows how money manager capitalism—characterized by highly leveraged funds seeking maximum returns in an environment that systematically underprices risk—has destabilized one asset class after another, with commodities being simply the latest. Policymakers must fundamentally change the structure of our economic system and reduce the […]
• 

  Policy Notes No. 4

  A Simple Proposal to Resolve the Disruption of Counterparty Risk in Short-Term Credit Markets

  The impaired risk assessment caused by the collapse of mortgage-backed securities is the major problem threatening the stability of the American financial system, yet it is not clear that removing these assets from institutional balance sheets, as the government has proposed, will make it easier to assess counterparty risk in short-term credit markets. Resolving the […]
• 

  Report No. 4

  Report October 2008

  Recent experience has bolstered the view that asset prices must come under the central bank’s purview in order for the economy to retain some semblance of stability. However, in a new Public Policy Brief, Pedro Nicolaci da Costa argues that attitude changes among regulators will be even more important than shifts in mandate in ensuring […]
• 

  Public Policy Brief No. 96

  The Commodities Market Bubble

  Money manager capitalism—characterized by highly leveraged funds seeking maximum returns in an environment that systematically underprices risk—has resulted in a series of boom-and-bust cycles in equities, real estate, and commodities. Because subsequent cycles have been increasingly damaging to the broader economy, we are now at the point where we are experiencing the most severe financial […]
• 

  Working Paper No. 545

  Promoting Equality Through an Employment of Last Resort Policy

  Unemployment has far-reaching effects, all leading to an inequitable distribution of well-being. To put an economy on an equitable growth path, economic development must be based on social efficiency, equity—and job creation. Many economists, however, assume that unemployment tends toward a natural rate below which it cannot go without creating inflation. This paper considers a […]
• 

  Working Paper No. 544

  Inflation Targeting in Brazil

  The monetary policy regime of inflation targeting (IT) has been adopted by a significant number of emerging economies. While the focus of this paper is on Brazil, which began inflation targeting in 1999, the authors also examine the experience of other countries, both for comparative purposes and for evidence of the extent of this “new” […]
• 

  Press Release

  Federal Government in Better Position Than Federal Reserve to Support Faltering Economy, Levy Scholar Says

   
• 

  Working Paper No. 543

  Macroeconomics Meets Hyman P. Minsky

  Expanding on an approach developed by financial economist Hyman Minsky, the authors present an alternative to the standard “efficient markets hypothesis”—the relevance of which Minsky vehemently denied. Minsky recognized that, in a modern capitalist economy with complex, expensive, and long-lived assets, the method used to finance asset positions is of critical importance, both for theory […]
• 

  Public Policy Brief No. 95

  Shaky Foundations: Policy Lessons from America’s Historic Housing Crash

  A bursting asset bubble inevitably requires central bank action, usually when it is already too late and with adverse spillover effects. In this sense, the Federal Reserve and other central banks already target asset prices; yet, by taking aim at them only on the way down—as in the current housing and credit crisis—the "Big Banks" […]
• 

  Summary No. 3

  Summary Fall 2008

  This latest issue of the Summary includes an overview of the Institute’s annual Minsky conference, which focused on the current economic crisis in the United States, its effects on the world economy, and possible solutions. Also featured is a new Strategic Analysis that challenges the notion that a stimulus package larger than the one approved […]
• 

  Policy Notes

  What’s a Central Bank to Do?

  As homeowner equity continues to disappear, there is a growing consensus that losses on all mortgages will exceed $1 trillion, with financial losses spreading far beyond real estate. Mortgage rates are spiking, and, more generally, interest rate spreads remain wide, as financial players shun private debt in the rush to safe Treasury securities. Labor markets […]
• 

  Policy Notes No. 3

  What’s a Central Bank to Do?

  As homeowner equity continues to disappear, there is a growing consensus that losses on all mortgages will exceed $1 trillion, with financial losses spreading far beyond real estate. Mortgage rates are spiking and, more generally, interest rate spreads remain wide, as financial players shun private debt in the rush to safe Treasury securities. Labor markets […]