Lars P. Syll

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Use ECB’s money-creation capacity to support environmental projects There is no limit to the amount of financial assets the ECB can buy. In principle, it could purchase all existing financial assets (all bonds and shares, for example) … There is also no restriction on what types of assets the ECB can buy … It could replace the old bonds with new ‘environmental bonds’, issued to finance environmental projects. The bottom line is that it is perfectly possible...

Nein — der Gender-Pay-Gap ist kein Mythos Der Bruttostundenlohn von Frauen liegt in Deutschland 21 Prozent unter dem der Männer. Damit ist der deutsche sogenannte Gender-Pay-Gap einer der höchsten unter den Industrieländern. Zahlreiche wissenschaftliche Studien zeigen, dass ein großer Teil der Lohnlücke durch Faktoren erklärt werden kann, die auf den ersten Blick nichts mit dem Geschlecht zu tun haben. Das sind etwa Unterschiede in der Berufserfahrung, die...

The rational expectations putsch The tiny little problem that there is no hard empirical evidence that verifies rational expectations models doesn’t usually bother its protagonists too much. Rational expectations überpriest Thomas Sargent has defended the epistemological status of the rational expectations hypothesis arguing that since it “focuses on outcomes and does not pretend to have behavioral content,” it has proved to be “a powerful tool for making...

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Public debt — questions and answers Can a government go bankrupt? No. You cannot be indebted to yourself. Can a central bank go bankrupt? No. A central bank can in principle always ‘print’ more money. Do taxpayers have to repay government debts? No, at least not as long the debt is incurred in a country’s own currency. Do increased public debts burden future generations? No, not necessarily. It depends on what the debt is used for. Does maintaining full...

John Hassler och Klas Eklund — etablissemangsekonomer med dimljuset på Det är svårt att hitta en mer missbrukad ekonomisk klyscha än just ”strukturreformer”. För att citera en diskussion i Financial Times; ”Strukturreformer är en tom amatörekonomisk fras, ofta med vaga referenser till avregleringar och skatte- och budgetnedskärningar”. Ordet dyker ständigt upp när något lands ekonomi anses ha kört fast på en för låg tillväxtkurva … Så också när man i början...

The real public debt problem The claim that our public debt is excessive has been used as a major justification for austerity – cuts in spending. That massive debt, we are told, 1) must be repaid, 2) threatens our country with bankruptcy, and 3) is a burden on future generations. All these are wrong. Let me explain why … Britain’s national currency is managed by our central bank, the Bank of England, owned by the citizens of the United Kingdom (that is, our...

Speaking truth to power [embedded content] A “millionaire​ funded by billionaires” is not “part of the solution” but rather “part of the problem, actually”. No beating around the bush there. Great! ZEIT: Hat Carlson nach dem Interview noch einmal den Kontakt zu Ihnen gesucht? Bregman: Ja. Wollen Sie seine Antwort sehen? (er zieht sein Telefon hervor und liest aus seiner E-mail vor) “Mir hat gefallen, was Sie in Davos gesagt haben, und ich hatte grosse...