Tag Archives: Economics

Svenska ekonomiprofessorer — inga lysande makroekonomer Man blir riktigt trött när Calmfors börjar svänga med rökelsekaren runt den kanske mest helgade ikonostasen från 90-talet i den svenska ekonomiska ortodoxa kyrkan, ”det finanspolitiska ramverket”, med sitt ”överskottsmål” och sitt ”skuldankare” … Calmfors, liksom många andra ekonomiska kommentatorer och beslutsfattare, framför allt vår finansminister, rabblar den ”utantill läxa” som säger att...

Socialdemokraterna bör utfärda ett absolut välfärdslöfte. Inte någonstans i en enda kommun eller region, i en enda skola, på ett enda äldreboende eller sjukhus får coronakrisen leda till nedskärningar. Välfärdslöftet ska vara glasklart: Ingen enda anställd i välfärden ska förlora arbetet av resursbrist, istället ska välfärden stärkas. Socialdemokratin blir välfärdsgaranten på riktigt. Men då måste man ge dödshjälp åt överskottsmålet. Daniel Suhonen / Aftonbladet Vad många...

Uncertainty, learning, and rational expectations The rational expectations hypothesis presupposes — basically for reasons of consistency — that agents have complete knowledge of all of the relevant probability distribution functions. And when trying to incorporate learning in these models — trying to take the heat of some of the criticism launched against it up to date — it is always a very restricted kind of learning that is considered. A learning where...

A balloonist, lost, sees someone walking down a country lane. The balloonist lowers the balloon and shouts down to the the walker: “Where am I?” “About 20 feet above the ground,” comes the reply. After a moment’s pondering, the balloonist says: “You must be an economist.” “How did you know?” “Your information is perfectly correct and totally useless.” Grossman-Stiglitz-paradoxen visar att om marknaden vore effektiv – om priser fullt ut reflekterar tillgänglig information –...

Public debt is normally — as emphasized again and again by MMT economists — nothing to fear, especially if it is financed within the country itself (but even foreign loans can be beneficent for the economy if invested in the right way). Some members of society hold bonds and earn interest on them, while others pay taxes that ultimately pay the interest on the debt. The debt is not a net burden for society as a whole since the debt ‘cancels’ itself out between the two groups....

Guest post by Jeff Mosenkis of Innovations for Poverty Action. There’s a lot of basic social science documenting humanity’s flaws, biases, and injustices, but less on fixes. The cover of the new issue of Science today features Salma Mousa’s paper using an experiment in post-ISIS Iraq to promote reconciliation between persecuted Christians and their Muslim neighbors (plain language summary here). Using contact theory, she randomly assigned Muslim players to some teams in a Christian soccer...

A view yours truly often encounters when debating MMT is that there is an inflationary bias in MMT and that its framework ignores expectations. Hmm … It is extremely difficult to recognize that description. Given its roots in the writings of Keynes, Lerner, and Minsky, it is, to say the least, rather amazing to attribute those views to MMT. Let me just quote one source to show how ill-founded the critique is on this issue: MMT recommends a different approach to the federal...

Les problèmes clés de l’UE Ouf ! La réunion des dirigeants des Etats de l’Union européenne (UE) n’a finalement pas accouché d’une souris. Le plan de relance qui vient d’être décidé est une avancée politique et institutionnelle très importante … Un tabou est tombé, celui du refus de principe de toute solidarité financière entre les Etats membres face à la crise. Mais surtout, ce plan est inscrit dans la logique néolibérale de l’UE, et il l’est même...

Top economics influencers to follow Economics influencers such as academics, journalists, industry professionals and even central bankers frequently take to Twitter to share their daily thoughts on all things economics, finance, monetary policy and politics … We put together a list of top 79 economics influencers that you can follow on Twitter. Nominees came from our team of at Focus Economics and we have ranked this list by number of followers. 1) Paul...

MMT — debunking the deficit myth We have already shown that deficit spending increases our collective savings. But what happens if Uncle Sam borrows when he runs a deficit? Is that wht eats up savings and forces interest rates higher? The answer is no. The financial crowding-out story asks us to imagine that there’s a fixed supply of savings from which anyone can attempt to borrow … MMT rejects the loanable funds story, which is rooted in the idea that...