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...Category Archives: Macroeconomic policy
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
Read more...Old Economic Thinking is the Problem, Says BIS
The BIS shellacks Bernanke’s savings glut hypothesis and stresses that financial fragility is still a big risk.
Read more...The Washington Consensus and Long-Term Austerity in Latin America
Most Latin American countries—including those, like Chile and Brazil, where democratically elected leftist governments were overthrown in the 1960s and 1970s. reversed course to adopt “neoliberal” economic policies. How well did that work?
Read more...Deal With Greece Still Looks Wobbly
Negotiations with Greece remain fraught. Only a narrow path has been opened to getting a deal done, and it is far too easy for the parties, for reasons good and bad, to stray from it.
Read more...Greek Government Preparing Plans to Cross Red Lines to Avert Default
Greek government officials are preparing plans that would cross Syriza’s famed red lines in order to avert a default. Will Tsipras capitulate?
Read more...What If There is No Deal on Greece?
The alarming part of the deadlock between Greece and its lenders is the lack of a plan on the creditor side to develop a Plan B, a sort of mirror image of the Greek government’s claim that its has bet everything on securing a favorable agreement.
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