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...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...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...Are the eurozone’s continuing woes the result of its incomplete construction or because of policy errors in responding to the crisis?
Read more...Germany is very upset that Poland has voted in a populist, Euroskeptic, anti-austerity government. And Germany is particularly unhappy that the new regime is increasing its control over public media….which Germany already has in place.
Read more...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.
Read more...Model railroading as work and play.
Read more...History does hold lessons for economic development, and one of them is that public-order institutions are crucial – for good or ill.
Read more...How a budget approach cloaked in the aura of science and technical jargon became a tool for promoting austerity.
Read more...More discussion of the problems with the “debt-free money” construct, to the extent that it can even be called a construct.
Read more...The Great Recession highlighted the prominent role that economic uncertainty plays in hindering investment and growth. This column provides new evidence that economic uncertainty can actually play a positive role by promoting the implementation of structural reforms with long-run benefits. The effect appears to be strongest for countries with poorly informed voters. These findings suggest that times of uncertainty may present an opportunity to implement reforms that would otherwise not be passed.
Read more...Why England would be better served by leaving the European Union.
Read more...Thanks to EU and Eurozone misrule, Le Pen is right when she says: “Nothing can stop us”.
Read more...An excerpt from CEPR co-director Mark Weisbrot’s important new book, Failed.
Read more...Labour20 set forth important goals not just for labor but for the economy and broader society. But does organized labor have the credibility to promote these aims?
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