This paper examines the implications of the experience with the financial crisis of August 2007 for fiscal policy and the use made of it. We briefly sketch the changing attitudes toward fiscal policy and the demise of arbitrary rules for the budget deficits and the reassertion of purposeful...

The Bank of England's report on its approach to macroeconomic modeling reveals the underlying structure of their macroeconomic model used for policy purposes. A simplified representation of the Bank of England model is presented, which is less disaggregated than the original model and focuses on...

Recent developments in macroeconomic policy, both in terms of theory and practice, have elevated monetary policy while fiscal policy has been downgraded. Monetary policy has focused on the setting of interest rates as the key policy instrument, along with the adoption of inflation targets and...

From the "new consensus in macroeconomics" (NCM) framework, this paper derives a different set of policy proposals. The NCM has become associated with the use of interest rate policy to target inflation and to reach a zero output gap, and to ignore fiscal policy. This paper argues that interest...

This paper examines and develops the firm-centered price theory of Post Keynesian economics. It takes issue with the traditional interpretation of that theory, arguing that although its prices are cost-based, they are not cost-determined. The distinctiveness and significance of the theory are...

A number of countries have adopted inflation targeting since the early 1990s in an attempt to reduce inflation to low levels. A number of its ingredients can be found in Keynes, especially that of central bank independence. Is it then the case that we are all Keynesians now? The main theoretical...

Relevant economic literature frequently focuses on the impact of credit shocks on housing prices. The macroeconomic doctrine of the new consensus macroeconomics completely ignores bank credit. However, the Great Recession has highlighted the importance of bank credit. The purpose of this article...

The causes of the "great inflation" of the sixteenth century have long been the subject of controversy. Since some major work in the 1930s, historians have argued over a "monetary" and a "real" interpretation. What we show in this paper is, first, that there was a dissenting opinion even then;...

Current economic policy upgrades monetary policy and downgrades fiscal policy. Monetary policy involves the manipulation of the central bank interest rate, with the specific objective of achieving the main goal of monetary policy, which is, in most cases, the inflation rate. Fiscal policy should...