A New Stability and Growth Pact? Let’s Drop the Technocratic Veil!
On how economic growth models constrain policy debates and choices among Eurocrats, and why that is no accident.
Read more...Category Archives: Macroeconomic policy
What “Hope” (and Change) Look Like in the Labor Market, According to the New York Times
Why aren’t all segments of the labor market equally crapified?
Read more...The Consequences of Brexit for UK Trade and Living Standards
The economic consequences of leaving the EU are at the heart of the Brexit debate. This column studies how changes in trade and fiscal transfers to the EU following Brexit would affect living standards in the UK. Across a range of scenarios, Brexit leads to lower income per capita, but the magnitude of the loss depends on what trade policies the UK adopts post-Brexit. To minimise the economic costs of Brexit, the UK would have to remain closely integrated into the Single Market.
Read more...Leaked Memo Reveals IMF (Still) Wants Out of Greece Bailout and Plots to Pressure Germany to Act
A new leak shows the IMF as the least bad actor of the Troika, which given its record as a neoliberal fist in third world countries, speaks volumes about European politics.
Read more...Bill Black: Democrats Need to Give Up Being Deficit Hawks Even When it Feels Good Politically
Why do Democrats act like Republican wannabes with deficit scaremongering? Let us count the reasons: Wall Street, Pete Peterson, hatred of the poor…
Read more...Misunderstanding the Great Recession
How many of the textbook explanations of the Great Depression were proven wrong, yet despite that, were misapplied to the Great Recession.
Read more...Michael Hudson on Debt Deflation, the Rentier Economy, and the Coming Financial Cold War
Michael Hudson speaks with Justin Ritchie on his favorite topics, such as debt deflation, austerity, classical economists on rentiers, and the coming financial cold war.
Read more...Mirabile Dictu: Lead Story at Bloomberg Gives a Thumbs Up to MMT
Bloomberg gives a fairminded and reasonably detailed report on MMT.
Read more...Silvia Merler: ECB TLTRO 2.0 – Lending at Negative Rates
On Thursday, the ECB surprised observers by announcing a new series of four targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO II) to be started in June 2016. The incentive structure of the programme has changed: on one hand, this TLTRO II could be the first case of lending at negative rates; on the other hand, the link with lending to the real economy might have been weakened.
Read more...Gerald Friedman Responds to the Romers on the Sanders Plan: Different Models, Different Politics
Gerald Friedman explains that the difference between his results and that of the Romers on the Sanders plan is the result of using different models.
Read more...Galbraith: Attack on Sanders’ Economic Plan By Former Chairs of the Council of Economic Advisors Irresponsible
Jamie Galbraith discusses in some detail why Gerald Friedman, a Clinton supporter who gave a favorable review of Sanders’ economic plan, is owed an apology by his detractors.
Read more...China Continues to Focus on Growth, Not Reform
Growth remains a top priority in China, but how will the central government achieve it?
Read more...James Galbraith Describes Major Forecast Failure in Model Used by Romers to Attack Friedman on Sanders Plan
James Galbraith examines the used forecast by Christine Romer and David Romer to attack Gerald Friedman’s favorable review of Sanders’ plan. He’d already shellacked the methodology in a 2014 book.
Read more...Bill Black: Krugman Triples Down on His Smear of Friedman and Bernie
Krugman has really lost it.
Read more...Krugman and His Gang’s Libeling of Economist Gerald Friedman for Finding That Conventional Models Show That Sanders Plan Could Work
Krugman has made maliciously false statements about economics professor Gerald Friedman. Demand that the New York Times issue a correction and that Krugman apologize.
Read more...