Corbynomics 101: A Guide to People’s QE (PQE)
Why the three big charges commonly made against Corbyn’s “People’s Quantitative Easing” or PQE, are all wet.
Read more...Category Archives: Macroeconomic policy
Credit Rating Agencies and Brazil: S&P as Neoliberal Enforcer
Mind you, the rating agencies are far from the only neoliberal enforcers as far as emerging economies are concerned. But it is nevertheless instructive to compare an official rationale with data.
Read more...David Kotz: Understanding Contemporary Capitalism, Part I
“Neoliberalism,” or more accurately neoliberal capitalism, is a form of capitalism in which market relations and market forces operate relatively freely and play the predominant role in the economy. That is, neoliberalism is not just a set of ideas, or an ideology, as it is typically interpreted by those analysts who doubt the relevance or importance of this concept for explaining contemporary capitalism. Under neoliberalism, non-market institutions – such as the state, trade unions, and corporate bureaucracies – play a limited role. By contrast, in “regulated capitalism” such as prevailed in the post-World War II decades – in the United States and other industrial capitalist economies – states, trade unions, and corporate bureaucracies played a major role in regulating economic activity, confining market forces to a lesser role.
Read more...Doug Smith: Labor Day? Let’s Tell The Truth And Call It “Assets Day”
It’s not for nothing that Ambrose Bierce wrote in The Devil’s Dictionary: “Labor: One of the processes by which A acquires property for B.”
Read more...Soft Power Raises Exports
A nation’s hard power is based on its ability to coerce, while its soft power depends on the attractiveness of its culture, political ideals, and policies. This column shows that a country’s soft power has measureable effects on its exports. Countries that are admired for their positive global influence export more, holding other things constant.
Read more...Louis Proyect: A Brief Response to Joe Firestone on IT/Grexit
Why believing that there must be an easy way for Greece to pull of a Grexit does not make it so.
Read more...Greek Debt Sustainability: The Devil is in the Tails
The debate over Greek debt sustainability is muddied by the fact that different analysts use different definitions. But once you use realistic assumptions, as in “tails risks” are actually pretty likely, Greek debt is obviously not “sustainable”.
Read more...Will the Germans Derail the Tentative Greek Third Bailout?
Human dynamics, which over time played right into the Germans’ and other hardliners’ hands in the earlier chapters of the Greek bailout talks, may now be working against them.
Read more...No, Inflation Doesn’t Erode the Burden of Debts
Inflation doesn’t reduce the burden of debt, rather it may (or may not) accompany a rise in nominal worker income.
Read more...Greece’s Debt Burden Can and Must be Lightened Within the Euro
A proposal for breaking Greece’s vicious debt cycle.
Read more...Debt Miracle: Why the Country that Borrowed the Most Industrialised First
Is debt really that bad? This column looks at the towering debts, rapid tax hikes, and constant state of war that led to Britain’s Industrial Revolution, showing that the devil is in the detail when assessing sovereign debt. When we consider the dangers of debt in today’s world, we should keep an eye on its potential benefits as well.
Read more...Why Debt Sustains Corruption in Greece and Vice Versa
This post makes important observations about how the elite levels of Greece engage in rent-seeking, aka corruption, and can continue those strategies even in the face of economic collapse, to the detriment to the rest of Greek society.
Read more...What’s Wrong with Inflation Targeting?
Macroeconomic policy focused on inflation targeting is likely to deliver neither macroeconomic stability nor economic development, aka sustainable growth.
Read more...IMF Throws a Spanner in Proposed Greece Deal, Says Debt Reduction May Not Be Enough
The IMF has dropped a big shoe before the Greek government has passed any of the legislation required as part of its pending bailout. But if this development leads to more wrangling, that means an even longer delay before Greek banks get any liquidity, which means continued strangulation of the Greek economy.
Read more...Grexit: Your Humble Guest Writer Talks to YSI INET
Nathan Tankus talks to YSI INET about a Grexit and Greece
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