Category Archive: Uncategorized
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What Bothers me About NSA Data Collection: A Reply to Thomas Friedman
Warning: This post has little to do with economics, unless you happen to think that an open society with free and private communication is essential to our continued prosperity. A series of Congressional hearings this week is drawing renewed attention to the issue of the National Security Agency’s program to collect data on telephone and [...]
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Patriot Games: New President, but United Front on Iranian Nuclear Program?
This weekend, the world welcomed the surprise victory of Hassan Rouhani, the most “moderate” of approved candidates in Iran’s presidential election. Commentators voiced optimism over potential changes in policies, amid ongoing economic sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program, but coming changes to Iran’s foreign relations are likely overstated. Iranian elections are notoriously hard to predict, and [...]
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The Rise and Fall of Money Manager Capitalism
Sorry for some self-promotion. Here’s a new book co-authored with Eric Tymoigne: The Rise and Fall of Money Manager Capitalism: Minsky’s half century from world war two to the great recession Description: The book studies the trends that led to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, as well as the unfolding of the [...]
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How Much Investment is Optimal?
In the May 10 issue of my blog I referred to a very interesting IMF paper written by Il Houng Lee, Murtaza Syed, and Liu Xueyan. The study, “China’s Path to Consumer-Based Growth: Reorienting Investment and Enhancing Efficiency”, attempts among other things to evaluate the efficiency of investment in various provinces within China. I argued in the newsletter that the paper supported my contention [...]
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Warren Mosler, Car Guy
A lot of you know Warren Mosler as the MMT guy. He was the first one to understand the “monetary operations”–the coordination between the Fed and Treasury–and thus to recognize that sovereign treasuries really do not “borrow” back their own currency in order to spend. Bond sales by Treasury or by Fed are “a reserve [...]
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Breakup of the Ruble Area (1991-1993): A Cautionary Tale for the Euro
Good news: The euro crisis is over. At least that is how French President Francois Hollande sees it, according to remarks he made during his recent trip to Japan. Latvia’s pending entry is another piece of news for the battered currency area. Never mind minor problems like a deepening recession in many countries, unsustainable government [...]
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Turkish Reforms and Their Social Implications
It has almost been two weeks since Turkish policy attacked the peaceful protesters at Gezi Park in Taksim Square, who were protesting against turning the park into a mall. There has been quite an emphasis on the economic impact of the demonstrations, which I took on at an Hurriyet Daily News (HDN) column and over [...]
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Unhealthy developments across the euro area labour market
There are many ways to define rebalancing within the euro area: relative prices, trade, productivity, unit labor costs, etc. I’d argue that one could see it in the employment data as well, although it will take a long time to work its way through. Basically, Spaniards should move to Germany and vice versa to enjoy [...]
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Turkey: The Chapull-Jew (çapulcu) interest rate lobby
I thought the government had forgotten about them, but Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan brought up the mysterious interest rate lobby during his speech outside the airport upon his arrival from his North African Rainbow Tour. Here’s the intro. to my latest Hurriyet Daily News (HDN) column, where I discuss why Erdogan’s “interest rate lobby” [...]
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Minsky and the Job Guarantee
I’ve already mentioned Hyman Minsky’s new book on what he called the “employer of last resort” proposal. Philip Pilkington has a very nice post up at the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/07/labour-jobs-guarantee Philip rightly connects Minsky’s better-known concerns about instability to his jobs program. Reaching full employment through the employer of last resort program would also enhance financial [...]
