Tom Ferguson: Monetary Policy Can’t Levitate a Broken Economy
How central banks’ policy remedies have taken big steps backwards.
Read more...Category Archives: Macroeconomic policy
Yet Another Glaring Flaw With Trump Infrastructure Plan: Dependence on Vagaries of Tiny, Slow-Moving Tax Equity Market
The oh-so-clever Trump plan to use tax credits to fund infrastructure spending means it will be too small and slow to provide any real boost.
Read more...Doves, Hawks… and Pigeons: Why Central Bankers Favour Monetary Policy Inertia
The discussion of the delayed lift-off in US monetary policy is just the latest episode in a long-lasting debate over the causes of inertia in monetary policy. This column approaches the issue by assuming that psychological drivers can influence the decisions of central bankers. Loss aversion is one source of behavioural bias which can explain delays in changing the stance of monetary policy, including the fear of lift-off after a recession.
Read more...The Global War on Cash – India’s Demonetization Debacle
India’s demonetization debacle has destroyed growth in what was the world’s fastest growing economy while failing to ferret out black money.
Read more...A Battle Over American-Made Products Is Looming and Republicans Are in the Middle of It
Why “Buy American” is going to be a tough sale for Trump.
Read more...Progressives Need to Promote Deficit Spending Before Trump Makes It His Baby
The failure to do enough deficit spending is a big reason why the Democrats hemorrhaged losses. Progressives need to take up this issue.
Read more...CNN Host’s Attempt to Explain the U.S. Economy Was So Bad I Started Yelling at the TV
Offshoring is about the rush to cheap labor, not about automation and new technology.
Read more...Greece and Creditors in Showdown Again
Greece tried a surprise move to slip the creditors’ leash. Sadly, it’s not likely to succeed.
Read more...Origins of Happiness: Evidence and Policy Implications
The authors call for a new focus for public policy: not ‘wealth creation’ but ‘wellbeing creation’.
Read more...The Fatal Flaw in Macroprudential Policy: It Ignores Political Risk
Political risk is a major cause of systemic financial risk. This column argues that both the integrity and the legitimacy of macroprudential policy, or ‘macropru’, depends on political risk being included with other risk factors. Yet it is usually excluded from macropru, and that could be a fatal flaw.
Read more...Michael Hudson: Economists’ Deadly but Innocuous-Seeming Proclamations
A wide-ranging interview by Michael Hudson on the mind games that economists play.
Read more...Macroeconomics in the Crossfire (Again)
Economists are finally ‘fessing up to the fact that macroeconomics was never all that good and has regressed in recent decades.
Read more...Trump’s Win is a Warning: Europe Urgently Needs a New Deal
Europe is ignoring the lessons of New Deal era much to its peril.
Read more...Bill Black: Howard Dean Wants to Continue Austerity’s Assault on the Working Class
Why Democrats like Howard Dean believe in and sell austerity snake oil.
Read more...Bigger Cities Benefit the Rich, Harm the Poor
Australia’s major cities are benefiting the rich more than the poor and are becoming breeding grounds for inequality in the process.
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