Monetary System

About a year ago I wrote a post called "Out of control US deficit spending". The purpose of the post was to begin a series of posts presenting the modern monetary theory (MMT) framework from a deficit hawk's perspective, what I…

As promoters of MMT, we are all very keen on Abba Lerner, who was one of the first to articulate the foundations of the approach. Lerner believed that the government should maintain the level of aggregate spending in the economy (either by…

Here's a morning note from UBS' Andy Lees in London on core inflation that made me think. Andy writes: Opinion – By focussing on core inflation rather than headline inflation, central banks are making a major policy mistake. Because…

By William K. Black I write to contrast four recent stories about Countrywide. Here are their headlines and brief synopses provided in the initial paragraphs of the stories. U.S. drops criminal probe of former Countrywide chief Angelo…

By Rick Bookstaber In a recent post I laid the blame for the inadequacies of neoclassical economics and behavioral economics on the failure to take into account human context. By context I mean that humans make decisions that are colored…

This year's winner for Best Documentary is "Inside Job' by Charles Ferguson. In accepting his Oscar, Ferguson said: "Forgive me, I must start by pointing out that three years after our horrific financial crisis caused by…

As part of the US policy response to the global crisis, the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act calls for regulators to identify systemically risky financial firms – the sort that took the US financial crisis global. But how to identify these…

 Speech by Janet L. Yellen, Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve, at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business U.S. Monetary Policy Forum, New York, New York - February 25, 2011.  Cross post from Global Economic Intersection. The…

When multiplier relationships are recognized, the conclusion is that the U.S. did not have enough population to produce what it has been consuming.

This is the excellent video of Edward Hugh at the London School of Economics this past Monday speaking about the intersection of finance, macroeconomics, housing and sovereign debt in the Credit Crisis. (hat tip afoe). The topic is on how…