It is by now widely accepted that the structural characteristics of the countries to become the euro area did not adhere to the conditions of an optimum currency area (OCA) when the euro was introduced in 1999. However, the satisfaction of OCA criteria may not be required for a workable currency...

The current global recession, along with the credit crisis, requires that the prevailing economic model be seriously debated and, these economists contend, reformed. The authors criticize the mainstream New Consensus approach in macroeconomics for its reliance on stabilization by means of...

This paper traces the euro zone’s inadequate macroeconomic performance in recent years back to the predominance of a restrictive macroeconomic policy mix based on a ‘new monetarist’ approach to economic policy. An approach based on a (post-)Keynesian analysis is presented as a growth and...

The authors fundamentally question the claims that institutional sclerosis explains the present economic stagnation in Germany. Instead, they argue that the combined effects of restrictive monetary policies, restrictive and sometimes pro-cyclical fiscal policies, and overly moderate wage...

Money, Distribution and Economic Policy takes issue with the inappropriate treatment of money, effective demand and distribution issues in modern mainstream macroeconomics. It presents contributions which are critical of modern orthodoxy and which explore alternative approaches to macroeconomics...

The world economy is in crisis. Since the initial turbulences in the U.S. subprime mortgage market in the summer of 2007, we have experienced a global recession in 2008-9 and a wave of financial speculation threatening the existence of the European Monetary Union in 2009-10. At the same time,...

During the recent decades the financial sectors of developed and developing countries have changed remarkably. There has been a major increase in the degree of financial intermediation, and new financial instruments, triggered by national and international legal liberalisation and by the...

Despite the current growth speed up and increasing employment within the EU, one can still say that European integration is in crisis: Economic performance of the EU and, in particular, the Euro area has been lagging behind the USA, not to mention other regions of the world. At the same time...

Money, Distribution and Economic Policy takes issue with the inappropriate treatment of money, effective demand and distribution issues in modern mainstream macroeconomics. It presents contributions which are critical of modern orthodoxy and which explore alternative approaches to macroeconomics...