The dominant role of the "new consensus models" in central banks' policy-making in the last two decades has triggered the reaction of post-Keynesian economists to examine alternatives to inflation-targeting monetary strategies and to Taylor-type interest rate rules. This paper develops a simple...

Historically high levels of private and public debt coupled with already very low short-term interest rates appear to limit the options for stimulative monetary policy in many advanced economies today. One option that has not yet been considered is monetary financing by central banks to boost...

This paper begins by defining, and distinguishing between, money and finance, and addresses alternative ways of financing spending. We next examine the role played by financial institutions (e.g., banks) in the provision of finance. The role of government as both regulator of private...

In this paper I first provide an overview of alternative approaches to money, contrasting the orthodox approach, in which money is neutral, at least in the long run; and the Marx-Veblen-Keynes approach, or the monetary theory of production. I then focus in more detail on two main categories: the...

This paper examines the causes and consequences of the current global financial crisis. It largely relies on the work of Hyman Minsky, although analyses by John Kenneth Galbraith and Thorstein Veblen of the causes of the 1930s collapse are used to show similarities between the two crises. K.W....

The Fisher relation played a very different role in debates surrounding the Great Depression and the more recent Great Recession. This paper explores some of these differences, and suggests an explanation for them derived from a sketch of the idea's evolution between the two events, thus...

A.W.H. Phillips is little known to the economics profession today, except at the creator of the Phillips curve. Bollard's engaging biography tells the story of a provincial New Zealander and practical engineer, who emerges as a hero in World War II, and plots a spectacular rise from 3rd class...

This paper examines how variable output and profit share jointly determine investment and saving, while the difference between investment and saving determines the changes in output and profit share. Analysis of the resulting pair of differential equations yields novel implications for the...

Peter Howitt is best known for his contributions to growth theory, but his work in short- run economics, which began with his Ph.D thesis and still continues, is important and deserves attention. It lies firmly in the Keynesian macro-disequilibrium tradition of Clower and Leijonhufvud, and for a...

This paper argues that the natural rate of unemployment hypothesis, in which equilibrium unemployment is determined by 'structural' variables alone, is wrong: it is both implausible and inconsistent with the evidence. Instead, equilibrium unemployment is haunted by hysteresis. The curious...