Naked Keynesianism

There are many myths about the Phillips Curve and the so-called Monetarist Counter-Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. Forder's book is a good read on some of these issues. Jeremy Rudd's recent paper is also a must read, and has now been accepted for publication in the Review of Keynesian Economics (ROKE).It debunks the myth about the importance of inflationary expectations for explaining the Great Inflation of the 1970s, and casts doubts about the Monetarist Counter Revolution, the Rational...

Angela Merkel is stepping down, and as often happens in these circumstances (or when someone of historical importance passes; see here for my review of Thatcher and Volcker obits) there is a flood of analysis of their contributions. Merkel is no exception, and most 'serious' outlets have suggested that she was a great stateswoman, and that she managed to save the euro (an honor she often shares with Mario Draghi), the European Union and provided leadership in the midst of the vacuum caused...

[embedded content]Interview with an Argentinean radio (yes, in Spanish) on the Evergrande collapse and its possible consequences. It is clear to me that the dangers come more from having debt in foreign currency than the typical critique about crony capitalism, and the lack of credibility that The Economist, for example, has put forward. In The Economist view:Evergrande shows the importance of deeper financial reforms. But what might they look like? Liberal reformers have longed for a...

Short post by Tom on the Sinophobia that has become more common in the US with the rise of the trade wars and the pandemic. He says: "Much of the United States (especially Washington, DC) is in the grip of a contagious lethal anti-China fever which is spreading fast. Even people I usually admire and respect have become infected. Reason and facts have lost all capacity to inoculate."Read rest here.

 [embedded content] End of Bretton Woods with Barry Eichengreen, myself and Lilia Costabile, organized by L-P. Rochon and the Review of Political Economy.

50 years ago this Sunday. A debate with Barry Eichengreen on that today at 1pm NY time, and you can register here. [embedded content]My paper can be read here.

New working paper at the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI). From the abstract:The paper analyzes the relation between premature deindustrialization in Latin America with what is termed premature financialization. Premature financialization is defined as a turn to finance, organized as an industrial concern, which is a vehicle for accumulation before the process of industrialization has reached maturity. This contrasts with developed countries where financialization occurs after an...

Collapse, ma non troppo!New IDEAS Working Paper on the alternative views of the collapse of Bretton Woods. From the abstract:Contrary to conventional views which suggest that the collapse of Bretton Woods represented the beginning of the end of the global hegemonic position of the dollar, the collapse of the system liberated American policy from convertibility to gold, and imposed a global fiat system still dominated by the floating dollar. The end of Bretton Woods and the set of regulations...

New versus Classical DevelopmentalismNew paper by Tom Palley, titled “The Economics of New Developmentalism: A Critical Assessment” which has been published in Investigacion Economica. Palley argues that "the issues raised will be a key element in the 2022 Brazilian presidential election that will likely pit Ciro Gomes versus Lula in the first round. Gomes aligns with New Developmentalism. Lula inclines to Classical Developmentalism. Of course, economic analysis is just part of the...

Each era gets its own version of Keynes. The post-war era got the sanitized biography by his disciple and friend Roy Harrod. It emphasized the somewhat late Victorian values of what he called the presuppositions of Harvey Road, Keynes’ birth place at Cambridge, representing the ethical principles that he received from his parents. Not only it avoided any discussion of Keynes' sexuality, that was verboten at that time, and not just because Keynes’ mother was still alive, but also it was well...