This paper considers from a methodological point of view why disputes in macroeconomics over its fundamental assumptions regularly occur. It analyses the problem first using Kuhn's concept of the paradigm and then draws on McCloskey's use of rhetorical analysis. It finds the latter of limited...

Modern financial markets and institutions have grown massively in relation to the economy in the United States and elsewhere, and there is little evidence that in recent years their contributions to economic and social output justify the resources they capture and the risks they impose on...

In the last 2 decades, the Netherlands has experienced an increase in real-estate prices, accompanied by an increase in mortgages and a marked decline in household savings. As a consequence, banks are faced with a large retail funding gap: outstanding mortgage debt is insufficiently matched by...

In 2008, the three main banks in Iceland collapsed. There is strong evidence that the banks would have become insolvent even without the subprime crisis. Yet there was a marked difference in opinion at the time about the viability of the Icelandic banks. A clean bill of health was given by the...

Retained profits of firms exceed investment in the Netherlands. The resulting net savings are mainly invested in foreign assets, which is consistent with the surplus on the current account of the balance of payments. Both have increased to almost 10 per cent of GDP in recent years. We present a...

In spite of many claims that the European treaties cannot be reformed, European economic governance has evolved substantially over the last two decades. The process has erected an ever more complex system of rules, deadlines, and commitments conferring more power on the European Commission and...

In this paper, we develop a Keynesian–structuralist perspective on the origins and implications of the currency hierarchy in the international monetary and financial system. We show that international asymmetry in monetary affairs results in structural implications for peripheral economies....

Capital account regulation (CAR) has experienced profound reconsideration since the global financial crisis. This new debate focuses on the macroeconomic gains of regulating international capital flows in terms of reducing external and financial vulnerability, but it does not consider relevant...

The many contributions of post-Keynesian economists to understanding the causes of the global financial crisis that began in 2008 could be enhanced by integrating the research by feminist and stratification economists. These groups have produced a body of work analysing trends in inter-group and...

For the last 40 years, macroeconomics has been dominated by Milton Friedman's view that inflation occurs when the supply of money rises more quickly than economic output – 'too much money chasing too few goods', as the saying goes. If inflation is always due to an imbalance of money supply and...