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Randall Wray 74 posts 0 comments

L. Randall Wray is a professor of economics and research director of the Center for Full Employment and Price Stability at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. His current research focuses on providing a critique of orthodox monetary policy, and the development of an alternative approach. He also publishes extensively in the areas of full employment policy and the monetary theory of production. Wray received a B.A. from the University of the Pacific and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Washington University, where he was a student of Hyman Minsky.

Monetary System

Hyman Minsky’s Early Work on Banking and Endogenous Money

Randall Wray Feb 20, 2014

From Minsky’s earliest work, he adopted what became known as the “endogenous money” approach that was revived by Post Keynesians in the 1980s. It is useful to return to Krugman’s critique of Minsky to compare Minsky’s early view of banking…

Monetary System

Brad DeLong believes deficits matter in Modern Monetary Theory

Randall Wray Mar 19, 2013

Finally, a prominent “mainstreamer” Keynesian gets MMT. Over the past couple of years, Paul Krugman has got close, but he keeps claiming that MMT believes “deficits don’t matter”. He refuses to cite any MMTer who has ever said such a silly…

Economy

The theory of social costs: Why markets cannot discipline financial institutions

Randall Wray Jan 31, 2013

The continuing attempts to rescue the financial sector (especially in the United States) have laid bare the tremendous social costs created by the way finance dominates the economy. If anything, the various bailouts have actually…

Political Economy

The Trillion Dollar Coin is a duration trade

Randall Wray Jan 8, 2013

The Platinum coin has been all over the blogosphere as well as the media. Some have been arguing it will cause hyperinflation. How can issuing a coin to be held at the Fed to allow the Treasury to spend up to budgeted amount lead to…

Economy

Corporatism and Fraud are Why We’re Screwed:

Randall Wray Jul 23, 2012

After 1990 we removed what was left of financial regulations following the flurry of deregulation of the early 1980s that had freed the thrifts so that they could self-destruct. And we are shocked, SHOCKED!, that thieves took over the…

Economy

More on the euro disaster and current account imbalances

Randall Wray Jul 17, 2012

Many orthodox economists ironically adopt something close to a “loan pusher” argument: the excess global saving pushed interest rates down, leading to excessive borrowing by debtor nations that consumed beyond their means. Although the…

Monetary System

The euro disaster is about more than just current account imbalances

Randall Wray Jul 12, 2012

The problem cannot simply be a problem of current account imbalances—we’ve got them all across the US states. And the US, itself, runs a chronic current account deficit. But the US federal government is sovereign, it issues its own…

Monetary System

What is this “Financial Instability Hypothesis” by Hyman Minsky really about?

Randall Wray Apr 16, 2012

In his publications in the 1950s through the mid 1960s, Minsky gradually developed his analysis of the cycles. First, he argued that institutions, and in particular financial institutions, matter. This was a reaction against the growing…

Economy

More on why Minsky matters

Randall Wray Apr 2, 2012

In Paul Krugman’s view, banks are not very important since all they do is to intermediate between savers and investors, taking in deposits and packaging them into loans. Now, I know that Krugman’s own specialty is not money and banking, so…

Monetary System

Why Minsky Matters

Randall Wray Mar 27, 2012

My friend Steve Keen recently presented a “primer” on Hyman Minsky. In his piece, Steve criticized the methodology used by Paul Krugman and argued that Krugman could learn a lot from Minsky. In particular Krugman’s equilibrium approach and…