Category Archives: The dismal science

Italy’s New Fiscal Plans: The Options of the European Commission

What could the European Commission do if it decided to discipline Italy for defying budget rules?

Inequality Represents a Wasted Opportunity for Poverty Reduction

If poverty is falling, why you should still care about what happens to inequality.

Randy Wray: Modern Monetary Theory – How I Came to MMT and What I Include in MMT

A short history of MMT and and overview of core principles.

Steve Keen: How Economics Became a Cult

Steve Keen, author of Debunking Economics and one of the few economists to foresee the crisis, explains what is wrong with the discipline.

The Bank of International Settlement’s Claudio Borio, Who Warned About the Crisis, Says the World Economy Is About to Get Very Sick

BIS chief economist Claudio Borio warns that central bankers have overdone the liquidity party, and investors are not being paid enough to take ris

Why the Public Debt Should Be Treated as an Asset

Debunking the misconceptions about the role of debt of a currency issuer like the US or UK.

Why the “Green New Deal” Is a Headfake

How “Green New Deal” proponents repeat the intellectual errors made by the critics of the 1970s Limits to Growth studies.

J.D. Alt: Paying for Hurricanes

A reminder that the budgetary “paying for things” framing is a way to deny resources to citizens.

Double Whammy: Implicit Subsidies and the Great Financial Crisis

Follow the subsidies, and you will understand why we had the crisis and why not enough has been done to prevent a recurrence.

Jumping the Abyss: Marriner S. Eccles and the New Deal, 1933-1940

An in-depth look at Marriner Eccles’ ideas and policies, and how well they have withstood the test of time.

Victorian Central Banks and the Myth of Independence

Central banks have not always been independent, inflation targeting bodies, and to treat them as such is to obscure their complex histories and alternative institutional constellations.