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 causal relation between saving and investment has momentous implications for fiscal policy. If saving causes investment, this lends support for policies of fiscal austerity. Neither the national income accounts nor economic theory can resolve issues of causality. This paper presents a VAR...

The conventional wisdom is that high European unemployment is the result of job markets that are rigid and inflexible. This paper presents new empirical evidence that challenges this received wisdom. A major contribution of the paper is that it fully accounts for both micro- and macroeconomic...

The 1970s witnessed a backlash against inflation. However, Japan's prolonged stagnation and the global economy's recent flirtation with deflation have revived the case for low inflation. Low inflation acts as grease in labor markets, helping the process of adjustment and lowering equilibrium...

George Soros' views on financial markets are complex and at odds with most of the economics profession, marking him as an intellectual iconoclast. This paper explores Soros' thinking about financial markets, with special emphasis on his views regarding the shortcomings of the current...

This paper uses the AS/AD framework to illustrate competing approaches to (i) the dynamics of short run price-output adjustment, and (ii) the employment effects of nominal wage reductions. Nominal wages affect equilibrium outcomes if AD is subject to Pigou or Fisher debt effects. The Kaleckian...

Many argue that the current recession is the product of a temporary stock market wobble. This paper argues that the U.S. economy confronts deeper-seated problems concerning the aggregate demand generation process. For two decades, these problems have been obscured by a range of demand...

There is widespread agreement that monetary policy matters, but there is disagreement about how policy should be conducted. Behind this disagreement lies differences in theoretical understandings. The paper contrasts the new classical, neo-Keynesian, and Post Keynesian frameworks, thereby...