Category Archives: Macroeconomic policy

Yanis Varoufakis: Why Reinhart and Rogoff are Wrong About the Eurozone’s Debt Structure and the Costs of Debt Mutualisation

Yves here. I don’t know whether to be relieved or annoyed to see Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff retreat from their pro-austerity stance and endorse debt restructuring, since their prior view (that budget-cutting was necessary and productive) served to justify considerable and unnecessary pain being inflicted on periphery Eurozone countries to preserve the illusion of health of French and German banks.

But as Yanis Varoufakis points out, although Reinhart and Rogoff are retreating from much of their erroneous thinking, they haven’t renounced all of it.

The Fed’s Taper and Market Fealty

The Fed’s announcing the taper was supposed to be an earth-shaking event. But that actually sorta happened last summer when Bernanke first used the “t” word and interest and mortgage rates made an impressive upward march in a short period of time.

From my considerable remove, what was noteworthy about the Fed’s announcement yesterday is how terrified it seems to be of creating an upset.

Steve Keen: Oh My, Paul Krugman Edition

Yves here. In some ways, I hate to be having such a run of Paul Krugman posts, but his stand on the TransPacific Partnership and his continued defense of dubious economic ideas that were long ago disproven, like loanable funds, in combination with his prominence, means the attention is well warranted.

How the Budget Deal Perpetuates Austerity Policies

Yves here. This Real News Network segment provides an overview of the budget deal, cutting through the hype to lay bare its impact on ordinary Americans. It’s not a pretty picture.

The Eurozone: If Only It Were the 1930s

Yves here. This post looks at the strictures of the Eurozone (debt to GDP and deficit limits) and not surprisingly concludes that the supposedly independent ECB is making matters worse that a more “political,” as in growth oriented one, would. But depicting central bank independence as detrimental is a novel and important argument.

Philip Pilkington: Hjalmar Schacht, Mefo Bills and the Restoration of the German Economy 1933-1939

Yves here. I’m a big fan of economic history (and mystified that contemporary economists so rarely take interest in it). Pilkington describes an illuminating and oft-neglected chapter.

Rob Parenteau: How to Exit Austerity, Without Exiting the Euro

Yves here. This is an important post by Rob Parenteau which outlines a viable plan for subject nations austerity-afflicted Eurozone countries with reasonably-well-functioning tax bureaucracies to escape their downspiral.

Yanis Varoufakis: What Europeans Should Know About the Current Situation in Greece

Yves here. In an interview with Edward Geelhoed, Varoufakis gives an urgent, sobering picture of the conditions in Greece, which contrasts dramatically with the claims made by Eurozone politicians.

The European Balanced Budget Disaster

In the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis, most European governments allowed the automatic stabilisers to kick in and implemented some mild discretionary measures, despite the strictures of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). But it was not long before the siren calls for “fiscal consolidation” arose…

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Category Archives: Macroeconomic policy

Yanis Varoufakis: Why Reinhart and Rogoff are Wrong About the Eurozone’s Debt Structure and the Costs of Debt Mutualisation

The Fed’s Taper and Market Fealty

Steve Keen: Oh My, Paul Krugman Edition

How the Budget Deal Perpetuates Austerity Policies

The Eurozone: If Only It Were the 1930s

Philip Pilkington: Hjalmar Schacht, Mefo Bills and the Restoration of the German Economy 1933-1939

Rob Parenteau: How to Exit Austerity, Without Exiting the Euro

Yanis Varoufakis: What Europeans Should Know About the Current Situation in Greece

The European Balanced Budget Disaster

Olivier Blanchard: Monetary Policy Will Never Be the Same

Mario Seccareccia: Larry Summers, Secular Stagnation, and the Crisis of the New Consensus Model

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