The theory of comparative advantage says that there are gains from trade for the global economy as a whole. In this second brief of a three-part study of the international economy (see also Public Policy Brief No. 85), Research Associate Thomas I. Palley observes that comparative advantage is...

The stability of the international financial system is in doubt. Analysis of the system has focused mainly on the sustainability of financing the U.S. trade deficit and has failed to understand the microeconomics of transactions within the system. According to this brief by Thomas I. Palley, the...

Financialization is a process whereby financial markets, financial institutions, and financial elites gain greater influence over economic policy and economic outcomes. Financialization transforms the functioning of economic systems at both the macro and micro levels. Its principal impacts are...

The international community is divided over labour standards. Opponents claim that standards are protectionist. Proponents say they benefit developing economies by improving governance and income distribution. This paper presents evidence supporting the case for labour standards. Using...

This paper presents a theory of the backward--bending Phillips curve. There is aminimum unemployment rate of inflation which offers a policy alternative to the non--accelerating inflation rate of unemployment. Nominal wages are downwardly rigid because workers oppose cuts initiated from within...

This paper traces the roots of the current financial crisis to a faulty U.S. macroeconomic paradigm. One flaw in this paradigm was the neo-liberal growth model adopted after 1980 that relied on debt and asset price inflation to drive demand in place of wage growth. A second flaw was the model of...

This paper examines the implications of a currency union for monetary policy. The formation of a currency union worsens the inflation-unemployment tradeoff, so that leaving the inflation target unchanged at its pre-currency union level generates increased unemployment. Geographically based...

Central banks have generally opposed targeting asset and credit market excess. This paper argues against that position. Bubbles can impose significant harm through the debt footprint effects they leave behind, and through distortions resulting from using interest rates to mitigate their...

This paper provides a simple model of deleveraging that surfaces the contradictions inherent in neoliberal financialization and explains the pattern of US business cycles over the past thirty years. Deleveraging involves a two step correction. The first step is when a borrowing boom ends. The...

This paper explores the macroeconomics of fiscal austerity. A binding budget deficit cap makes the economy more volatile by turning the government budget into an automatic destabilizer. Public debt helps maintain aggregate demand (AD) in the presence of a lower price level because a lower price...