My research is the areas of monetary theory and the philosophy of money and finance. I use methods derived from social philosophy, economic sociology, monetary macroeconomics, and political economy, to investigate the roles of money, banking, and credit creation in the generation of profit incentives and economic activity under capitalism.

    By this expert

    Monetary Macroeconomics

    Course

    Some years ago, in the aftermath of the “great financial crisis” (GFC) of the first decade of the twentieth century, Paul Krugman famously remarked that “most macroeconomics of the last thirty years was spectacularly useless at best and positively harmful at worst”. It is the premise of this set of lectures that it is possible to do better, much better.

    Methodological Problems in Macroeconomics: Curriculum and Computers

    Paper Conference paper | | Apr 2014

    The financial crisis of 2008, and the subsequent worldwide economic depression and continuing dislocation, have made little to no impression on the way macroeconomics is taught at the university level, from Economics 101 through graduate school. It has been “business as usual’, which (it seems to me) means an almost studious avoidance of any attempt to acquire knowledge of how monetary economies actually work.

    Featuring this expert

    Forging Fresh Tools from the Past

    Video | Feb 1, 2015

    John Smithin argues that we need to rethink the “consensus” with tools old and new.