Naked Keynesianism

Donald Trump will be the first president since Grover Cleveland, also a New Yorker, to have two non consecutive terms in the presidency. The reasons for this are beyond my abilities to analyze, but it is clear that he did get the votes of people in the lower levels of income, that had voted for Biden in 2020 (but not for Hillary in 2016) and went decisively for Trump. One may say that the populist vote in favor of tariffs, often associated with working class interests, was part of the...

 "I have invited an economist that was active in the dollarization of Ecuador to illustrate the wonders of the process." A paper with Santiago Graña on dollarization in Argentina published in the PSL Quarterly Review. From the abstract:Currency substitution defined as the use of foreign currency in the domestic economy is a relatively common phenomenon in developing countries. While mainstream economics has analyzed it in some detail, the same is not the case in heterodox economics. This...

Paper on Paul with Tom Palley and Jamie Galbraith published by ROKE. From the abstract:"Paul Davidson was a critical figure in the preservation of John Maynard Keynes’s ideas, sticking with them when they were out of fashion. He was also key to the survival of the Post Keynesian school. Davidson endorsed Keynes’s liquidity preference theory of interest, and he emphasized fundamental uncertainty as a central feature of economic reality, essential to making sense of a monetary economy. His...

It takes something for me to say that The Economist is probably right. Sure enough the cover of The Economist, which has led to many critiques, sarcastic comments, and plain mockery by some friends on the left, was a bit hyperbolic. But the main argument of the piece -- basically that the American economy did pretty well in the recovery from the Pandemic, and that the United States has done well when compared to other advanced economies, and better than it did in the last few recoveries,...

A long demand by progressive economists demanding the end of the surcharges that the IMF imposed on developing countries has had a positive outcome, with the executive board reducing them. The statement by Kristalina Georgieva can be read here. A strong effort on this by Joe Stiglitz, Martín Gúzman, Kevin Gallagher, Mark Weisbrot, to cite a few should be noted. I had recently signed the letter below favoring this policy."Dear International Monetary Fund Board of Directors,This Friday October...

So both the (inverted) yield curve and the Sahm rule indicate a recession. This together with two months of slower employment creation, and the slightly higher unemployment rate, has many wondering whether the economy will crash soon. I discussed before -- a while ago, before the pandemic recession, that had nothing to do with the yield curve -- why an inverted yield curve doesn't necessarily mean a forthcoming recession. The Sahm rule, like the inverted yield curve has an impressive track...

 Spaghetti economics: Shootout at Harvard Square There were two letters about the poorly written (not the English, always impeccable, contrasting to my spaghetti English, which is always slightly off, like the Westerns) piece that The Economist had on Donald Harris. One by Robert Blecker, Steve Fazzari and Peter Ho, setting the record straight on the breadth and depth of Harris' contributions to economics. On this, they echo what the Post said about Harris' policy advice in his native...

I start teaching this week (tomorrow). One of the things we are encouraged to discuss with students is the issue of academic misconduct. One of those problems that always existed, and not just among students, and it is hard to say whether things are better or worse than before, even though everyone thinks it has worsened. Certainly AI has made things even more complicated. At least in my classes, AI has limited impact, since it is an average of what is out there, and that is conventional...

[embedded content] My colleague and friend Geoff Schneider on teaching and pluralism in economics.  He was the director of the Teaching & Learning Center at Bucknell, when I arrived here, and I learned quite a bit from him. At any rate, worth watching it.

[embedded content] Carlos Pinkusfeld interviews Ramaa Vausdevan (Colorado State University) and Franklin Serrano (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro) to discuss the complex challenges of monetary policy in the international arena. Exploring issues such as financial globalization, the influence of large economies on the global monetary system, and the implications for developing countries, the experts offer important perspectives on the role of central banks and the effectiveness of...