Author

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

The S&P Downgrade and Sovereign Government Bankruptcy

Randall Wray Apr 23, 2011

The claims about “unsustainable deficits” gained new urgency this week as S&P warned that it was downgrading US federal government debt from stable to negative (see here for recent debate). This appeared to be a blatantly political…

Political Economy

A Modest Proposal for Ending Debt Limit Gridlock

Randall Wray Mar 27, 2011

By L. Randall Wray Washington's deficit hysteria has morphed into gridlock over expansion of federal government debt limits. It is as if that stupid “debt clock” on Times Square had run out of electrons to keep the numbers racing ever…

Political Economy

The Moral Imperative for Deficit Cutting

Randall Wray Feb 22, 2011

Let us start with honesty about budget deficits and government debt. There is no honest economic argument against running budget deficits when the economy is below full employment. While we can debate about which programs government ought…

Monetary System

Government Deficits Translate into Surpluses for the Non-Government Sector

Randall Wray Feb 4, 2011

by L. Randall Wray In recent months, the nation's pundits have been whipping up deficit hysteria in a mass public mis-education campaign funded by billionaire Pete Peterson. In this blog I will explain why we should not be misled. First,…

Monetary System

The Fall of the New Monetary Consensus

Randall Wray Jan 11, 2011

By L. Randall Wray The following is a paper given at the ASSA conference in Denver this past week for a panel organized by James Galbraith, titled Pressures on the Paradigm, sponsored by Economists for Peace & Security. The Queen…

Political Economy

Let’s Make The Payroll Tax Cut Permanent

Randall Wray Dec 17, 2010

by L. Randall Wray One of the things I really like about the President's compromise on the tax bill is a temporary payroll tax “holiday”—something I have long advocated along with others such as Jamie Galbraith and Warren Mosler. The…

Political Economy

The Fed: Time For Transparency and Accountability

Randall Wray Dec 12, 2010

by L. Randall Wray The Federal Reserve Bank was founded in an act of Congress in 1913, with its primary directive to “furnish an elastic currency.” Its mission was expanded in the aftermath of the Great Depression to include responsibility…

Economy

End QE2 And Stop Issuing Bonds

Randall Wray Dec 11, 2010

by L. Randall Wray We are in the third act of the theater of the absurd. In the first act, Chairman Bernanke created QE1, through which the Fed bought $1.75 trillion of assets from banks—mostly trashy mortgage backed securities, but also a…

Markets

Time To Shut Down MERS

Randall Wray Nov 22, 2010

Randall Wray advises us to support Representative Kaptur's bill and restore the rule of law Every link of the home finance food chain promoted fraud—from mortgage brokers and appraisers who conspired to overvalue property to stick buyers…

Monetary System

QE2 Is Equivalent to Issuing Treasury Bills

Randall Wray Nov 18, 2010

Randall Wray shows that quantitative easing will be ineffective except to the degree it can induce a shift in private portfolio preferences. He uses a recent post by hedge fund manager Warren Mosler to demonstrate that QE is the equivalent…