The Great Recession and the financial crisis of 2007-09 prompted ca lls for fundamental reforms of economic theory. The role of theory in economics and in recent economic events is considered in light of two recen t books: the sociologist Richard Swedberg's The Art of Social Theory and the...

Economic, financial and social commentators from all directions and of various persuasions are obsessed with the prospect of recovery. The world remains mired in a deep, prolonged crisis, and the key question seems to be how to get out of it. The purpose of our paper is to ask a very different...

This paper honors Don Lavoie's work on the relationship between theory and history in Austrian economics by using the current recession as an example of many of the ideas found in his paper on the “Interpretive Dimension of Economics.” More specifically, I start from the premise that all...

The currently ongoing novel Coronavirus-crisis is an external shock coming down on society with direct impact on societal moods and subsequently connected economic changes. With growing digitalization and quickening of transfer speed, information exchange in the individual involvement to break...

Recommended readings (Machine generated): Alesina, A. and S. Ardagna (1998) 'Tales of Fiscal Adjustment', Economic Policy, October: 489-545 -- Alesina, A. and R. Perotti (1995) 'Fiscal Expansion and Adjustments in OECD Countries', Economic Policy, 10 (21): 205-48 -- Alesina, A. and R. Perotti...

Contents: Part I: The crisis and the mainstream theory -- 1. A brief description of the crisis -- 2. The mainstream economists and the crisis -- 3. The limits of the mainstream theory -- Part II: An alternative theoretical approach -- 4. Keynes and the monetary theory of production -- 5. Finance...