Deficit Fantasies in the Great Recession

What is the right way to achieve change?

It’s day two of INET’s Conference in Bretton Woods and a new energy has filled the halls and sessions with the arrival of nearly thirty student attendees.

There’s a good column at voxeu.org by INET Advisory Board Member Barry Eichengreen, where he introduces his new book, titled Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System.

In a recent piece in the Financial Times, George Soros makes the case that, to avoid a bleak future for the euro and the European Union in general, Europe should take steps to recapitalize banks before bailing out member states. In the piece, Soros discusses issues that INET is very interested in exploring further, such as the idea that flaws in macroeconomic theory helped lead to the financial crisis of 2008.

Can the Economy be Saved? The Los Angeles Times recently asked a number of economic experts about whether they thought the post-financial crisis economy can be saved, and if so, how.

Barry Eichengreen, UC Berkeley professor of economics and recent recipient of an INET grant to launch an economic history laboratory at Berkeley, has recently published an article over at Project Syndicate about the similarities between post-WWII Britain and the present day United States.

Will public deficit reduction encourage private sector growth, or undermine a needed stimulus to recovery & lead to Japan-style stagnation?

What does America need?

In a recent column in the Huffington Post, INET advisory board member Jeffrey Sachs made the case that the economic debate in Washington has become “stale” and politicized - and needs to be reframed. This is poignantly relevant to INET, as we begin to make headway on helping to create a new economic paradigm.

The New York Times has now pushed to the front page of today’s paper an issue of real relevance to INET: how new web tools are beginning to upend traditional peer review in academia.

Joseph Stiglitz, noted economist, Nobel Laureate and Institute advisor, had a letter published in the Financial Times yesterday. In it, he noted the need for new ways of thinking about economics, and how this can be achieved.

What is the relationship between debt and growth rates?

Is China growing too fast?

On July 22nd, Richard Koo, the chief economist from Nomura Research Institute, testified before Congress’ Committee on Financial Services. The subject: what the U.S. can do to avoid sinking into a depression.