The role of prices and inflation in neo-classical ("mainstream") economic theory is awkward for us non-mainstream inclined. The price level is simultaneously of critical important for explaining activity as well as being an outcome of other parts of the economy. This makes the subject of inflation extremely awkward for my planned book on business cycles -- as I am pushing the subject of inflation to a later book. Instead, I only aim to have a short chapter explaining the absence of...
Read More »Brian Romanchuk — Primer: Post-Keynesian Inflation Theory Basics
This article is an introduction to the post-Keynesian approach to inflation. It is largely based on Section 8.1.1 of Professor Marc Lavoie's Post-Keynesian Economics: New Foundations (link to my review). Similar to the work on stock-flow consistent models, we start out with what is essentially an accounting identity: a statement that is true by definition. We need to understand the implications of the accounting identity before we worry about the behavioural aspects (which are not pinned...
Read More »Brian Romanchuk — Inflation And Income Shares
This article is a small interlude in my my discussion of post-Keynesian inflation theories. The first article was unfortunately theoretically negative - it discussed the reasoning behind the post-Keynesian rejection of mainstream inflation theories. Bond Economics Inflation And Income Shares Brian Romanchuk
Read More »Distribution and Conflict Inflation in Brazil under Inflation Targeting
I can't watch this either For those interested in the Brazilian situation I highly recommend the recently published paper by Franklin Serrano and Ricardo Summa (Review of Radical Political Economics page here). From the abstract: In this paper, we analyze Brazilian inflation under the inflation-targeting system from a conflict inflation perspective and show how the inflation target system only worked well when there was a trend of exchange rate appreciation. Later, the strengthening of...
Read More »The Job Guarantee and the Economics of Fear: A Response to Robert Samuelson
The Job Guarantee is finally getting the public debate it deserves and criticism is expected. Building on several decades of research, the Levy Institute’s latest proposal analyzes the program’s economic impact and advances a blueprint for its implementation. Critics have taken note and are (thus far) restating the usual concerns, but with a notably alarmist tone. The latest, courtesy of the Washington Post’s Robert Samuelson, warns that the Job Guarantee would be 1) an expensive...
Read More »Bill Mitchell — US labour market tepid – there is plenty of scope fiscal expansion
On May 4, 2018, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their latest labour market data – Employment Situation Summary – April 2018 – which showed that total non-farm employment from the payroll survey rose by just 164,000 in April, which was an improvement on the very modest rise in March. The Labour Force Survey data, however, showed that employment only rose by 3 thousand) in April 2018 but was accompanied by a substantial fall in the labour force (236 thousand) which meant that...
Read More »Arithmetic for Austrians
This piece grew from a number of conversations with people of Austrian economic persuasion, mostly Bitcoiners and goldbugs (which these days seem mysteriously to have converged). I thought of calling this "Monetarism for goldbugs", but decided to preserve the mathematical slant of the previous pieces in this series. But it's monetary arithmetic, of course. And as Austrians tend to obsess about "sound money", it is specifically sound monetary arithmetic. (Note: Someone has pointed out on...
Read More »David Andolfatto and Andrew Spewak — Debt Monetization: Then and Now
Upping their game. However, I think that the explanatory narrative needs some work. Are these the controlling factors?FRBSL — On the EconomyDebt Monetization: Then and Now David Andolfatto, Vice President and Economist, and Andrew Spewak, Senior Research AssociateSee also Over-building as a factor?FRBNY — Liberty StrteetQuantities and Prices during the Housing Bust Sonia Gilbukh and Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham
Read More »Money and monetary stability in Europe, 1300-1914
By K. Kıvanç Karaman, Sevket Pamuk and Seçil Yıldırım-Karaman This article first appeared at Vox There is a notable lack of long-run analyses of monetary systems and their stability. This column addresses this gap by looking at the monetary systems of major European states between 1300 and 1914. The evidence collected suggests that, despite many switches between standards and systems, fiscal capacity and political regimes ultimately shaped patterns of monetary stability. Theories of monetary...
Read More »Money and monetary stability in Europe, 1300-1914
By K. Kıvanç Karaman, Sevket Pamuk and Seçil Yıldırım-Karaman This article first appeared at Vox There is a notable lack of long-run analyses of monetary systems and their stability. This column addresses this gap by looking at the monetary systems of major European states between 1300 and 1914. The evidence collected suggests that, despite many switches between standards and systems, fiscal capacity and political regimes ultimately shaped patterns of monetary stability. Theories of monetary...
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