Political Economy

In a White House meeting intended to break the impasse, John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, instead pushed for deeper spending cuts as part of a deal that would keep the government running past a Friday…

In the wake of a sovereign debt ratings downgrade by the rating agency Moody's, Portuguese five-year bonds are trading with a yield of 10%. As a result, Portugal has leapt over Ireland into fourth place on the credit default swaps list of…

By Frederick Sheehan Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has once again received space on the editorial pages of the Financial Times. He does not deserve, so shall not receive, a rebuttal. But, it is probably still worth a…

This is really motivated by being incredibly frustrated with what happened a couple of years ago. Obviously there was a financial crisis; that's not what frustrated me. I am one of the naysayers who was not at all surprised there was a…

You normally don't see these two phrases in a single headline, but they are very much connecting. I thought of this this morning when I read a post called Retirement in the Liquidity Trap by Tim Duy. Commenting on a Wall Street Journal…

By Michael Hudson It all seems so long ago! On October 23, 2008, Alan Greenspan choked up a mea culpa for his deregulatory policy as Federal Reserve Chairman. “Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to…

World War II was the last war the United States fought with a formal declaration of war. The wars fought since have had congressional approval, both in the sense that resolutions were passed and that Congress appropriated funds, but the…

henever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form,…

In September 2008, the Federal Reserve let banks turn more than $118 billion in junk bonds, defaulted debt, and other securities into cash. The role of a central bank in a crisis is to act as a lender of last resort by helping market…

There are four ways to reduce real debt burdens: by paying down debts via accumulated savings. by inflating away the value of money. by reneging in part or full on the promise to repay by defaulting by…