Why the Neoclassical Story About German Wage “Moderation” Causing the Eurozone Crisis is Wrong
Focusing on German wage “moderation,” as in restriction, leads to a neat, plausible, and wrong tale of what caused the Eurozone crisis.
Read more...Category Archives: The dismal science
How Central Banks (and Even Keynes) Misled the Public About Banking and Money
How and why central bankers and conservative economists created the bogus “fractional reserve” and “debt intermediation” theories of banking.
Read more...Former BIS Chief Economist Warns of Massive Debt Defaults, Need for Debt Jubilee; Fingers Europe as First in Line
Even though the former chief economist of the BIS calls for a debt jubilee, it’s only part of the medicine needed to get the economy out of the ditch.
Read more...A Note on the Ethics of Nudges
Nudges are modifications of people’s choice architecture that impact their behaviour but don’t change their incentives or coerce them. As a policy instrument, nudges have been shown to be effective in changing certain kinds of behaviours. This column explores the ethical issues that arise in employing such potentially manipulative policies. An evaluation programme is outlined that explores a potential policy’s impact on people’s wellbeing, autonomy, and integrity, along with its practical implications.
Read more...Ann Pettifor: Why Radical Monetary Policy Failed in the UK
The failure to use fiscal policy in tandem with monetary policy means that the timid and short-sighted private sector has lacked confidence to ratchet up investment in productive, income-generating activity – as opposed to speculative activity.
Read more...Investment Manager GMO Debunks Mythology of “Sound Finance,” or Deficit Hawkery
Yves here. Sometimes it is best to let things speak for themselves. In that spirit, I am embedding a very important paper by the well-respected investment management firm GMO which debunks the tenets of “sound finance,” meaning the claim that governments need to balance their budgets. I expect to be referring to it regularly, particularly […]
Read more...How to Improve Your Standing in the Financial Economics Club
Who has stature versus informal influence in financial economics?
Read more...Edward Lambert: Forecasting the Stock Market thru Effective Demand
Dave here. The markets have taken a beating in 2016, and while the fallacy of thinking the market=the economy seems like an oversimplification, this post provides a competing viewpoint that, without taking a position in affirmation or dissent, I thought I would offer up for discussion. For some background, you can read Edward’s other posts […]
Read more...The Heavy Price of Economic Policy Failures
Why economic failures argue for the need for more democratic control over policy, or at least the ability to cut the power of institutions that get it wrong.
Read more...Capitalism Versus The Social Commons
How the struggle over who controls the commons, the monied classes or a broader group of citizens, reveals the fundamental contradictions of capitalism.
Read more...Eurozone Delays and Half Measures
Are the eurozone’s continuing woes the result of its incomplete construction or because of policy errors in responding to the crisis?
Read more...Neoliberal Capitalism, Its Crisis, and What Comes Next
The fundamental contradictions of neoliberal capitalism are pushing it to the breaking point.
Read more...2015: A Failing Fiscal Policy
Although the case study is the UK, this post is yet another example of how counterproductive austerity is, from both an economic and a social perspective.
Read more...How the Labor Cost Competitiveness Myth is Making the Eurozone Crisis Worse
A new article makes a devastating attack on a fundamental belief driving Eurozone policy, that the member economies need to be made more “competitive,” meaning labor needs to be squeezed, for the currency union to achieve more growth.
Read more...Labor Market Policy: Parts of the Picture are Missing
The standard empirical evaluations of labour market policy only consider the direct effects of single programmes on their participants. This column argues that this fails to capture important aspects of real-world labour market policy – policy regimes and strategies. Using Swiss data, it employs a novel empirical approach that concurrently examines the effects of supportive and punitive policies (‘carrots’ and ‘sticks’). Policy regimes are shown to exert economically relevant effects, and accounting for these effects is crucial when designing labour market policy.
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