Filter by
3512 results found
-
Blog“What Manner of Union Is This?”
March 08, 2012 The title of C. J. Polychroniou’s latest policy note, “Neo-Hooverian Policies Threaten to Turn Europe into an Economic Wasteland,” gives you a pretty good idea of where he’s coming from: There can be no denying that, despite the experiences provided by the Great Depression and the numerous financial crises that have taken place since 1973, [...] Blog -
Blog
Wray on the Burden of Social Security
March 07, 2012 Randall Wray has been engaged in a back-and-forth with John Carney of CNBC. Their latest exchange touched on the question of the “real” economic burdens of Social Security (distinct from issues of affordability). Wray responds: “John Carney agrees with me that supporting our elderly is not an ‘affordability’ problem, but he claims that I fail [...] Blog -
Blog
“I Happen to Have Mr. McLuhan Right Here,” Wonk Edition
March 07, 2012 It won’t be quite as satisfying as having Marshall McLuhan stashed in a corner to back up your argument, but for the next time you find yourself in a real-time wonkfight, FRED (the go-to database of the St. Louis Fed) is now available as a mobile app. Blog -
Blog
Minsky Explains Bank Management Motivation
March 02, 2012 Your Minsky quotation of the day: The rise in bank share prices that follows a growth in profitability is particularly important in a world of professionally managed institutionalized banks. The typical professional bank president is not a rich man when he starts his career. As a bank president he is a hired hand trying to [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 710Η Ευρωπαϊκή Κεντρική Τράπεζα και γιατί έχουν έτσι τα πράγματα
March 02, 2012 Με δεδομένη τη κλίμακα και το εύρος της κρίσης στην ευρωζώνη, η πολιτική και τα μέτρα που λαμβάνονται (ή δεν λαμβάνονται) από την Ευρωπαϊκή Κεντρική Τράπεζα (ΕΚΤ) έχουν ουσιαστικό αντίκτυπο...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 710
The European Central Bank and Why Things Are the Way They Are
March 02, 2012 Not since the Great Depression have monetary policy matters and institutions weighed so heavily in commercial, financial, and political arenas. Apart from the eurozone crisis and global monetary policy issues,...more Publication -
Blog
EU Anorexia
March 01, 2012 C. J. Polychroniou surveys the distressing results, in terms of unemployment (and particularly youth unemployment), of the “neo-Hooverism” and obsession with price stability that permeate European Union policymaking and explains that a fundamental change in approach is needed: Europe is in dire need of an economic and political revolution. It needs an immediate return to [...] Blog -
Blog
Greece and Misleading Fables
February 29, 2012 Yanis Varoufakis, former adviser to the Greek Prime Miniser and co-author of “A Modest Proposal,” delivers this special report for Channel 4 News on the situation in Greece: (credit to Naked Keynesianism) A quick comparison of working hours for supposed Greek “grasshoppers” and German “ants,” or of the generousness of their governments’ respective social welfare [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 709
«Πάρα πολύ μεγάλες για να καταρρεύσουν»
February 28, 2012 Οι κρατικές πολιτικές χαλαρής αντιμετώπισης, στήριξης και διάσωσης των τραπεζών και άλλων χρηματοπιστωτικών οργανισμών που θεωρούνται «πολύ μεγάλοι για να καταρρεύσουν» αναγνωρίζονται ευρέως ως πολιτικές που ενθαρρύνουν τις μεγάλες επιχειρήσεις...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 709
Too Big to Fail
February 28, 2012 Government forbearance, support, and bailouts of banks and other financial institutions deemed “too big to fail” (TBTF) are widely recognized as encouraging large companies to take excessive risk, placing smaller...more Publication -
Blog
A Cycle to Watch Out For
February 27, 2012 Perhaps we’re back to our old ways. For many moons, the household savings rate has again been falling, though it is still above the levels reached in the years leading up to the home loan crisis of 2007–2009. There are even some signs of a resurgence of the mortgage-backed securities industry. Could the economy be [...] Blog -
Blog
Will the Central Bank Bailouts Ever End?
February 24, 2012 (cross posted at EconoMonitor) Guess which US bank holds assets equal to a fifth of US GDP. Now guess what percent of its assets have extremely long maturities, greater than ten years: a) 10%; b) 20%; c) 30%; d) 40%; e) 50%. Answer: The Fed, and e) 50% of its assets have ten years or [...] Blog -
Blog
Papadimitriou on Cross Talk
February 23, 2012 Everyone from Amity Shlaes to Mitt Romney and the European Commission has been telling us lately that slashing government spending under current economic conditions will depress growth. On “Cross Talk” Dimitri Papadimitriou debates the merits (or lack thereof) of austerity and explains why the United States of Europe needs to become more like the United [...] Blog -
Blog
Reader’s Guide to the Limitations of Orthodoxy
February 22, 2012 Matías Vernengo does a quick review of “Getting Up to Speed on the Financial Crisis,” which is a survey of work on the global financial crisis that will be published in the Journal of Economic Literature. “Getting Up to Speed” is intended as a “one-weekend-reader’s guide” to the crisis. It offers, says Vernengo, a fine [...] Blog -
Blog
Fiddling in Euroland
February 21, 2012 The Financial Times got its hands on a confidential “debt sustainability analysis” that was circulated among eurozone finance ministers. The gist of the analysis is that the austerity measures being imposed on the Greek population will depress growth so brutally that the government will almost certainly not meet its debt reduction targets: …even under the [...] Blog -
Blog
The Washington Post Goes “Unconventional”
February 20, 2012 Dylan Matthews had a piece on Modern Monetary Theory in the Washington Post yesterday that featured Levy Institute scholars James Galbraith and Randall Wray. WaPo also put together a “family tree” that displays some Post Keynesian and New Keynesian lineages. The piece has been bouncing around the internet, first with some supportive comments by Jared [...] Blog -
Blog
Let’s Make a Deal
February 17, 2012 It has been recognized for well over a century that the central bank must intervene as “lender of last resort” in a crisis. In the 1870s Walter Bagehot explained this as a policy of stopping a run on banks by lending without limit, against good collateral, at a penalty interest rate. This would allow the [...] Blog -
Blog
Definitely Not a Keynesian Suggestion
February 16, 2012 The people at Bloomberg appear to have made a curious error on their website yesterday. They have attributed an op-ed to Amity Shlaes that was almost certainly not written by her. You see, Amity Shlaes is a well-known skeptic of Keynes and all things Keynesian, having written the bible for those who like to claim [...] Blog -
Blog
The New European Economic Dogma
February 16, 2012 If it controlled its own currency, the usual thing for a country like Greece to do in these circumstances would be to devalue. Since it doesn’t control its own currency, Greece is being “asked” to pull off an internal devaluation, or as C. J. Polychroniou puts it: Essentially, what they agreed to are additional measures [...] Blog -
Working Paper No. 708
The Road to Debt Deflation, Debt Peonage, and Neofeudalism
February 15, 2012 What is called “capitalism” is best understood as a series of stages. Industrial capitalism has given way to finance capitalism, which has passed through pension fund capitalism since the 1950s...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 708
Ο δρόμος προς τον αποπληθωρισμό του χρέους, την πεονία και τον νεοφεουδαλισμό
February 15, 2012 O «καπιταλισμός» είναι καλύτερα κατανοητός σαν ένα σύστημα από μια σειρά από στάδια. Ο βιομηχανικός καπιταλισμός έχει παραχωρήσει τη θέση του στον χρηματοοικονομικό καπιταλισμό, ο οποίος εξελίχθηκε από τον καπιταλισμό...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 707
The Euro Crisis and the Job Guarantee
February 15, 2012 Euroland is in a crisis that is slowly but surely spreading from one periphery country to another; it will eventually reach the center. The blame is mostly heaped upon supposedly...more Publication -
Working Paper No. 707
H ευρω-κρίση και η εγγυημένη απασχόληση
February 15, 2012 H Ευρωχώρα βρίσκεται σε κρίση, που αργά αλλά σταθερά εξαπλώνεται από τη μία χώρα της περιφέρειας στην άλλη. Στο τέλος, θα φτάσει και στο κέντρο. Για την κατάσταση αυτή κατηγορούνται...more Publication -
Blog
21st Annual Minsky Conference: Debt, Deficits, and Financial Instability
February 15, 2012 April 11–12, 2012 Ford Foundation, New York City A conference organized by the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College with support from the Ford Foundation This Spring, leading policymakers, economists, and analysts will gather at the New York headquarters of the Ford Foundation to take part in the Levy Institute’s 21st Annual Hyman P. Minsky [...] Blog