Category Archives: The dismal science

Devaluing Currencies May Not Be Such a Great Economic Cure After All

Reader Swedish Lex points out an important implication of a recent VoxEU post on the Nordic economic model and how it fared in the crisis: The Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – are champions of free trade and open markets… The Nordics have all had different monetary regimes since the euro. […]

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Wray: The Federal Budget is NOT like a Household Budget – Here’s Why

By L. Randall Wray, a Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City who also writes for New Deal 2.0 Whenever a demagogue wants to whip up hysteria about federal budget deficits, he or she invariably begins with an analogy to a household’s budget: “No household can continually spend more than its income, and […]

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Is the Need for Simple Stories Getting in the Way of Banking Reform?

Let’s acknowledge the obvious: there are a lot of not trivial impediments to reining in the banking industry: the deregulation policies that put a comparatively small number of firms in charge of infrastructure critical to commerce; the fact that said firms have done a very good job at disguising the rents they collect; that those […]

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Are Greek Sovereign Debt Tremors a Start of a New Phase of the Crisis?

After the months of buoyant markets, a return to crisis-type headlines seems troublingly familiar, even though the perturbations of the last day or so are a pale shadow of the worst months of the crisis. And some are making the bull case. For instance, a headline at Clusterstock trumpetss, “Yesterday’s Bloodshed Sent The VIX Soaring […]

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Meryvn King Calls for Structural Overhaul to Banking Industry

Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, gets it. Why does he have so little company on this side of the pond? King discussed what it would take to fix the financial services industry, and it’s more ambitious than anything you see under consideration in the US. Per the Independent: The Governor said […]

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Steve Keen: The Economic Case Against Bernanke

By Steve Keen, Associate Professor of Economics & Finance at the University of Western Sydney and author of Debunking Economics: The Naked Emperor of the Social Sciences The US Senate should not reappoint Ben Bernanke. As Obama’s reaction to the loss of Ted Kennedy’s old seat showed, real change in policy only occurs after political […]

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Satyajit Das: “EMH Funeral Oration”

By Satyajit Das, a risk consultant and author of Traders, Guns & Money: Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives John Cassidy (2009) How Markets Fail: The Logic of Economic Calamities Like Mark Anthony with Julius Caesar, many have now come to bury the Efficient Market Hypothesis (“EMH”) rather than praise it. Amusingly, […]

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“Why Bernanke’s Defense of Super Low Interest Rates Does Not Hold Up”

By Richard Alford, a former economist at the New York Fed. Since then, he has worked in the financial industry as a trading floor economist and strategist on both the sell side and the buy side. A week ago, in Atlanta, Bernanke responded to his critics, including John Taylor of Taylor Rule fame (the Taylor […]

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“Spain and the EU: Defict Terrorism in Action”

By Marshall Auerback, a fund manager and investment strategist who writes for New Deal 2.0. Speaking of President Obama, Karl Rove writes, “After a year of living in his fiscal fantasy world, Americans realize they have a record deficit-setting, budget-busting spender on their hands.” Well, given his history with former President Bush, it certainly takes […]

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Guest Post: Krugman Says American Economy Will Not Recover for a Long Time, Johnson Says “Crisis is Just Beginning”

Last week, Pimco’s CEO said that he doesn’t think we’ll have a v-shaped recovery, and that economists, advisors and managers who have been counting on a v-shaped recovery are ignoring the economic fundamentals in our economy. Now, Paul Krugman is agreeing: Plunging prices of houses and CDOs … don’t produce any corresponding macroeconomic silver lining. […]

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“WWKD – What Would Keynes Do”

By Satyajit Das, a risk consultant and author of Traders, Guns & Money: Knowns and Unknowns in the Dazzling World of Derivatives Keynes: The Return of the Master By Robert Skidelsky (2009) John Maynard Keynes is having an excellent crisis. Dead for over a half a century, the British economist is enjoying a comeback as […]

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Is kleptocracy a relevant term for discussion about the origins of the crisis?

By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns Yesterday, I indicated I would write a few thematic posts as a look back at some of the more important economic topics that this credit crisis has uncovered. Tying posts together in a theme definitely gives a better holistic view of a the themes than the posts do in […]

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A look back at the debate on the role of monetary and fiscal stimulus in depression

By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns. As Yves is in light posting mode, I wanted to run these thoughts by you here at Naked Capitalism regarding stimulus and the role of government in a debt-deflationary environment. As we approach the new year, I have decided to write a few thematic posts as a look back […]

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Hospital Cleaners Are Worth More Than Bankers (and Quelle Surprise, Bankers Destroy Value!)

A provocative report by the New Economics Foundation has made an effort to put a price tag on the broader costs and benefits of various types of work. As quoted in the Financial Times (hat tip Swedish Lex), the leader of this effort put it: Pay levels often don’t reflect the true value that is […]

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“Let’s Deport Poor People! A Modest Proposal for the Unemployment Problem (with apologies to Swift)”

By Marshall Auerback, a fund manager and investment strategist who writes for New Deal 2.0. In 1729, Jonathan Swift wrote an essay — “A Modest Proposal” — satirically suggesting that the impoverished Irish ease their economic troubles by selling children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies. In that spirit, we would like to assist […]

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