The financial crisis 2008-2009 and the European sovereign debt crisis have shown that stress on financial markets is important for analyzing and forecasting economic activity. Since financial stress is not directly observable but is presumably reflected in many financial market variables, it is...

In this paper, we develop a financial stress index for France that can be used as a real-time composite indicator for the state of financial stability in France. We take 17 financial variables from different market segments and extract a common stress component using a dynamic approximate factor...

This paper provides an overview of the evolution of macroeconomic thought from 1936, the year John Maynard Keynes published his general theory of employment, interest and money to the year 2010. It explores the reasons for the extension of the business cycle during the postwar period. The paper...

This paper analyzes the causes and implications of recent financial crises. Financial crises in general lead to changes in both theory and practice of economics. The paper takes an historical overview. The global consensus of economic theory during the 20th century is discussed. The paper...

Never before has finance been regarded with the suspicion of these past three years. Yet money and credit are part of what enabled human beings to overcome the barbarism of immanence, the savagery of a life ruled by consumption for survival. The critical rethinking of finance involves the very...

__Abstract__ Address delivered in shortened form at the occasion of accepting the appointment as Extraordinary Professor of Financial markets on behalf of Vereniging Trustfonds EUR at the Rotterdam School of Management, on Friday March 7, 2014. "In this address, I consider “The Social Value of...

The historical frequency of banking crises is similar in advanced and developing countries, with quantitative parallels in both the run-ups and the aftermath. We establish these regularities using a dataset spanning from the early 1800s to the present. Banking crises weaken fiscal positions,...

In spite of significant institutional and macroeconomic reforms over the last decade or two, capital flows to developing economies remain highly volatile. In 1996, net private capital flows to emerging markets reached US$230 billions; by 1997 these flows had been cut in half; by 1998 halved...

About 80 years ago Fredderick Soddy was probably the first scientist pointing out the importance of the second law of thermodynamics in the economy. Up today the majority of economists don't pay any attention to this fact, proved in the mean time quantitatively. The present world financial...

Globalization and strengthening of integration processes have, among other things, also influenced some solutions relating to monetary sovereignty of particular countries. A great number of transition countries as well as some other underdeveloped countries are facing both inefficiency in their...