We analyse the long-run imbalances of finance-dominated capitalism underlying the present crisis – which began in 2007 – with a focus on developments in the US and Germany. We argue that beyond inefficient regulation of the financial sector, the severeness of the present crisis has been...

En los últimos 40 años se ha podido ver una tendencia casi constante y uniforme en todos los países sobre la caída en el peso de las rentas salariales sobre el total. En este trabajo intento dar un repaso básico a las teorías económicas que intentan explicar la distribución funcional de...

In this paper the euro crisis is viewed as the most recent episode of the crisis of finance-dominated capitalism. Therefore, two major features of finance-dominated capitalism, the increasing inequality of income distribution and the rising imbalances of current accounts, are analysed for a set...

This paper offers a comprehensive review of macroeconomic policy in democratic South Africa. It does so with two distinctive features. First, macroeconomic policy is analysed on four interlocking, and sometimes conflicting, levels: [1] policy as provided “on paper” in government plans and...

In this paper, we have studies the effects of macroeconomic policies on foreign asset accumulation in a wealth effect model used by Bardhan (1967), Kurz (1968), Calvo (1980) and Blanchard (1983). Our results differ dramatically from the ones in Obstfeld (1981). In particular, we have shown that...

This paper combines dynamic input-output price models with Thirlwall’s extended model of balance of payments constrained growth to estimate the effect of a switch to drachma on domestic income. The findings suggest that a return to national currency would not necessarily deepen the recession,...

Traditional macroeconomics and agent-based simulation (ABS) seem to be two disjunctive worlds, two different sprachspiele in the sense of Wittgenstein. It is not just the fact that macroeconomics has a long and distinguished history that on top of more than 200 years of discourse has recently...

In the introductory chapter a novel economic policy is proposed which consists of a) 'virtualizing' debt (putting it on the Central Bank balance sheet) and b) reduce the money-multiplier by an implementation of a strong minimum reserving policy. The main part shows exposes a flaw in the concept...

The Employer of Last Resort (ELR) program is a New Deal type of program to provide a government position for anyone seeking work. Unlike private industries who compete over prices and wages, the ELR “industry” is not meant to compete with the private sector; rather it provides public...

The question of the long-run prospects of profitability and its association with the stage of capital accumulation have occupied central importance in the history of economic thought. This paper focuses on Marx and Keynes and argues that Marx’s analysis, despite its incomplete nature, is...