By Hasan Cömert & T. Sabri Öncü
This article first appeared in the Economic & Political Weekly on 18 March 2023.
This article is the second in a series of articles on monetary policy debates in the age when deglobalisation became a buzzword. Here, we begin our discussion of the ongoing economic experiment in Turkey as an example to elaborate on these debates. In the third article, we will turn our attention to the post-2018 Turkish currency crisis phase of the experiment by focusing on macroprudential measures, capital controls and central bank independence, as promised in the first article.
Introduction
In the first article of this series, Öncü and Öncü (2022) established a link between the imperialist–liberalist hegemonic mode cycles of Karatani (2012) and their

As loyal readers know, we are a network of macro- and political economists and environmentalists influenced by Keynes or concerned to restore his thinking. In our mission statement, drafted back in 2010, we considered
“that conventional or ‘mainstream’ economic theory has proved of almost no relevance to the ongoing and chronic failure of the global economy and to the gravest threat facing us all: climate change.”
We stand by that statement.  As the globalised and financialised economy lurches from one shock to another, disruptions and imbalances caused by the Global Financial Crisis are still not fully resolved. Far too many economists remain largely aloof from the varied crises pounding societies, or support the economic principles which exacerbate those crises.
Worse, governments

This year marks Prime’s 10th anniversary, a decade in which we have opposed the politics and economics of austerity, and argued for a new international financial system and transition to the post-carbon society. To mark our anniversary, we decided – before the current COVID 19 lockdown – to revamp our website, and (we hope) provide a better web experience and more quality content for our readers. We would be very grateful if you could take just a few minutes to answer our short survey, and so help to guide us. If you agree to do so, you can find the survey here.Thank you!

Whether the UK finally leaves or remains a Member of the EU, progressives are generally united in viewing the existing Treaty and legislative rules on economic policy as dangerously dysfunctional. In their second joint paper on the theme, emeritus Professor John Weeks and PRIME co-director Jeremy Smith set out proposals for “Economic Guidelines for a Better Union – facilitating policies that enhance not constrain EU economic policy”. The study was commissioned (2018) by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Brussels Office.The new pdf version of the paper can be downoaded here.We reproduce the Executive Summary below.The authors’ earlier joint paper,

On Wednesday (6th March) PRIME’s co-director Jeremy Smith was invited by TRT World TV channel to take part in their Roundtable discussion on the future of the euro and eurozone, hosted by David Foster.  His co-panellists were Valentina Romei, statistics journalist at the Financial Times, Vicky Pryce, Chief Economics Adviser to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), and via skype from France, Philippe Waechter, Chief economist of Ostrum Asset Management. General points – no, the euro’s not on the brink again, at this point. But it has severe structural flaws which will have to be addressed if it is to survive the next major crisis.

Today’s Observer newspaper (4th June), publishes a letter signed by 130 economists, under the heading "Labour’s manifesto proposals could be just what the economy needs".  We felt it important to reproduce the contents of the letter here, together with the full list of signatories (who include PRIME’s directors Ann Pettifor and Jeremy Smith, and Professor John Weeks, convenor of Economists for Rational Economic Policies, EREP.  The Observer letter contends that Labour Manifesto proposals are much more likely to strengthen and develop the economy, as against the Conservatives commitment to maintaining austerity, which (the economists argue) will