Archive

A response to Jason Furman and Lawrence Summers

No one person or perspective holds the key to solving economic problems, says Jay Pocklington of the Institute for New Economic Thinking

Individual EU member states ought to issue perpetual bonds

The perverted dreams of western modernity and capitalism may be exhausting themselves, says author Eugene McCarraher. And that’s something to be thankful for.

Carbon pricing still has the potential to be a powerful tool contributing to emissions reductions, but it is clearly no panacea.

Targeted Measures and Subsidies for Cost Effective COVID-19 Abatement

By fully utilizing the power of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), President Biden could take meaningful steps to keep workers safe during the pandemic, even without Congress’s help

When segregationists fought against school integration, libertarian economist James Buchanan saw an opportunity for his private education plan

New INET research shows once again that it’s large firms and the 1%—not the “median voter”—who drive U.S. policy

In this interview, Dr. Vera Songwe, economist and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa reflects on the ways that African governments have handled COVID-19, the role of the Continental Free Trade Agreement in turbo-charging future growth, the vital role of infrastructural investment and mobilising domestic resources for building forward better and greener.

Unregistered lobbyists, including former members of Congress, are a key resource for lobbying firms

David Mussington, a leading expert on cybersecurity, reveals what’s worrying him, from Facebook to foreign interference.

Dr. Ming Lin spoke out about Covid safety at his hospital and was fired. He’s fighting back against a system that put profits over human life.

A summary of INET’s latest Future of Work episode

Dans le cadre de cet entretien, Mr. Mossadeck Bally, C.E.O, Azalai Hotels Group et membre du GRAIN (Groupe de Réflexion, d’Actions et d’Initiatives Novatrices) revient sur les impacts économiques de la pandémie du COVID-19 sur son groupe hôtelier, le rôle du secteur privé malien dans le plan de relance économique, l’emploi des jeunes et les solutions qui doivent être apportées à la crise politique au Mali.

In this interview, Mr. Mossadeck Bally, a Malian businessman and CEO of Azalai Hotels Group and member of GRAIN (Group of Reflection, Actions and Innovative Initiatives) discusses the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on his hotel group, the role of the Malian private sector in the economic recovery plan, youth employment and the solutions that must be provided to the political crisis in Mali.

Lance Taylor responds to William Janeway’s essay on John Maynard Keynes and Frank Ramsey. Janeway then offers his response.

Lance Taylor and Özlem Ömer respond to Andrew Smithers’s final comment on their working paper

The third and final round of response from Andrew Smithers on Lance Taylor’s INET working paper on the alleged “global savings glut.”

In this interview, Folashadé Soulé and Camilla Toulmin discuss with Edward K. Brown, Senior Director, Research and Advisory services at the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) based in Accra, Ghana, on the effects of COVID-19 on regional integration and economic transformation in Africa, and the role of ACET and African think tanks in advising African governments respond to the crisis.

Technology has coevolved with human societies and played critical roles in past social and economic transformations. From the invention of steam engines to the use of electricity, technological changes were responsible for boosting productivity gains and increasing standards of living. But what really is technology? Is it an external force outside our control, or do we have a say in its direction, development, and deployment? These questions were undoubtedly made more urgent with the rapid advancement in digital technologies of late.

New book by Sarah Chayes reveals the country’s descent into a level of corruption usually associated with places like Nigeria and Afghanistan

INET explores how technological and economic changes are affecting employment

Persistent changes in unemployment have lasting consequences for income distribution

Like master illusionists, bank accountants conceal losses from federal regulators, putting the whole economy at risk

INET’s co-founder reviews new books about John Maynard Keynes and Frank Ramsey

For thirty years after the Civil Rights Act, a sizable share of white Southerners still voted Democrat. That changed when the party embraced trade deals that hurt American workers.

Why freeing American households and businesses from crippling private debt would be a boon to the economy. Article reposted from DemocracyJournal.org.

This first book in the new INET and Cambridge University Press book series, Studies in New Economic Thinking, shows that wage repression—far more than monopoly power, offshoring, or technological change—has driven rising inequality.

In a new book from Cambridge University Press, Lance Taylor reveals that wage repression — far more than monopoly power, offshoring or technological change — is driving rising inequality.

Claudia Sahm dares to call out systemic bullying and harassment that drives out talent and compromises science. Perpetrators are not happy.

Wage Repression, Asset Price Inflation, and Structural Change Caused Rising Macroeconomic Inequality for Fifty Years from before Reagan through Trump.This is a summary of a new book that is being published as part of a new book series with Cambridge University Press.

Amid debates over costs—and profits—from a coronavirus vaccine, a new study shows that taxpayers have been footing the bill for every new drug approved between 2010 and 2019

During this interview, Professor Kako Nubukpo, Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Lomé, Togo and former Minister of Prospective and Evaluation of Public Policy of Togo considers the economic and social impact of the COVID-19 crisis and its repercussions on monetary policy and fiscal reforms underway in West and Central Africa today.

Dans le cadre de cet entretien, Pr Kako Nubukpo, Doyen de la Faculté des Sciences Economiques et de Gestion (FASEG) de l’Université de Lomé au Togo, et ancien Ministre de la Prospective et de l’Evaluation des politiques publiques du Togo, revient sur l’impact économique et social de la crise du COVID-19 au Togo et sur ses répercussions sur les politiques économiques dont les réformes monétaires et fiscales en cours en Afrique de l’Ouest et Centrale.

Lance Taylor provides a second and final response to Andrew Smithers’ criticism of his working paper on the role of the “Global Savings Glut”

Andrew Smithers responds to Lance Taylor’s rebuttal.

Financial commentator Andrew Smithers responds to Lance Taylor’s INET working paper. You may also read Taylor’s response to Smithers’s comment here.

Lance Taylor responds to Andrew Smithers’s comment on his INET working paper, “Germany and China Have Savings Gluts, the USA Is a Sump: So What?”

Consolidation in the dairy industry has created separate, inflexible supply chains for consumers and commercial markets. When COVID killed commercial demand, perfectly good milk and cheese was wasted.

A “global saving glut” was invented by Ben Bernanke in 2005 as a label for positive net lending (imports exceeding exports) to the American economy by the rest of the world. However, there is a more plausible explanation for the persistent trade imbalance between the US and its major trading partners.

Despite post-2008 regulations, the boom-bust credit cycle continues to run wild

Chioma Agwuegbo of TechHer Nigeria, talks to Folashadé Soulé and Herbert Mba Aki about how the pandemic is impacting young people in Nigeria, especially young women, and how African youth are tackling the crisis.

Mainstream economics ignores historical and structural factors by design

Margaret Heffernan’s new book “Uncharted” warns against giving up the power to shape our destiny to gurus and gadgets promising false certainty.

When people recognize just how dangerous covid is, they worry more about the economy

In this conversation with Folashadé Soulé and Camilla Toulmin, Pr Njuguna Ndung’u, a Kenyan economist, Director of the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), a pan-African organization devoted to the advancement of economic policy research and training in sub-Saharan Africa, and former Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya (2007-2015) analyses how the pandemic creates more fragility in African economies, but also how reforms could be implemented during this crisis; and the urgent need for investment in strong health institutional capacities

That’s the amount of buybacks U.S. corporations funneled to shareholders during the past decade—rather than invest in technologies for the common good. This article is being published jointly by INET and The American Prospect

Colleges and universities need to be saved, not only from financial ruin, but also, all too often, from themselves.

How and Why Bankers Still Enjoy a Global Rescue Network

To fulfill MLK’s vision of jobs and freedom for Black Americans, Washington must rein in corporate greed

Coming out of the Great Depression, America built a middle class, but systematic discrimination kept most African-American families from being part of it

To fight COVID-19, the EU must recognize that spending restraints have to go

Researchers reveal the enemies to stability and prosperity that threaten us all.

Gilead’s shareholders want exorbitant profits from Remdesivir, even though it was the public that enabled its development.

The Fed is taking an aggressive approach to put out the economic fires of the pandemic. But it needs to allow for flexibility as some business models irreparably change.

The speed and duration of COVID-19 economic recovery will depend on how the government will finance emergency programs.

In this conversation with Folashadé Soulé and Camilla Toulmin, Pr Takyiwaa Manuh analyses how the pandemic has disproportionately affected women at different levels especially in Ghana, and describes why governments need to focus more strongly on the gendered impacts of COVID-19 in both their sanitary and economic response.

The Occupational Safety Health Administration was created 50 years ago. Today, it’s in dire straits, say OSHA’s leaders during the Obama administration

The activist and author shares a free-ranging conversation with INET president Rob Johnson.

Do the benefits of new technologies accrue primarily to inventors, early investors, and highly skilled users, or to society more widely as their adoption generates employment growth?

COVID has meant unemployment for the many and a corporate profit-fueled windfall for the few.

Entretien avec Pr Felwine Sarr, Professeur Titulaire des Universités et agrégé en économie à l’Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis au Sénégal, pour la série d’INET sur COVID-19 et l’Afrique

An interview with Professor Felwine Sarr, Professor of Economics at the Université Gaston Berger of Saint-Louis in Senegal, for INET’s series on COVID-19 and Africa

Since the 1980s, the enemy of equal employment opportunity through upward socioeconomic mobility has been the pervasive and entrenched corporate-governance ideology and practice of maximizing shareholder value.

An interview with Dr Fatima Denton, Director of the United Nations University – Institute for Natural Resources in Africa, for INET’s series on COVID-19 and Africa

Economist Darrick Hamilton explains why confronting the racial wealth gap is the only way to address 400 years of discrimination.

Regardless of what Trump says, the economic pain of the pandemic isn’t going anywhere

Economist Darrick Hamilton explains that pursuit of profit, not hatred of black people, is the real root of discrimination.

An interview with Pr Benno Ndulu, the former Governor of the Bank of Tanzania, for INET’s series on COVID-19 and Africa

An introduction to a series of interviews conducted by Dr. Dr. Folashadé Soulé and Dr. Camilla Toulmin in support of INET’s Commission on Global Economic Transformation (CGET)

Abstract, “basic science” research is essential to drug discovery. It is also largely funded by the public sector.

A special note from INET board member john a. powell

The Great Migration brought many freedmen to the North, and the reaction to that brought the Southern Mind to northern police officers as well.

The world is on edge at the prospect of a resurgent wave of infections. Models and speculation are rife, but facts remain scarce, which is why the events in Wisconsin on April 7, and their eventual impact, are so important.

The Calamity of Germany’s Distorted Perception of Italy

Over five phased announcements last week, the Indian government set in motion an unprecedented fiscal stimulus. Gaurav Dalmia looks at India’s near-term economic challenges and offers a prescription on how privatisation can help India achieve its objectives.

John Ruskin helps shed light on what it means to have an economy that demands we die for it

To able to deal with these consequences, our crisis response now should not lock us in into a permanent state of austerity, greater inequality and heightened vulnerability to future health calamities. New-old social democratic solutions are needed more than ever before.

Once again, income earned by the many is used to save the wealth of the few.

We find empirical evidence that changes in market sentiment drive unforeseeable change in how stock returns unfold over time, thereby engendering Knightian uncertainty.

A look at the American household debt boom

How the fear-of-the-new transformed a “miracle” into an aborted attempt at catching-up

Evidence shows pharmaceutical companies won’t stop price-gouging and risking American lives for financial gain in this time of crises – unless we force them.

A Report From the Front Line

States can be sorted into two groups with statistically significantly different productivity regimes. In this sense, the US economy shows signs of dualism—which is the idea that the economy consists of heterogeneous units that exhibit different behaviors and levels of performance.

A Template to Prevent a Global Debt Crisis?

With the COVID-19 death toll rising, we should question the wisdom and morality of an IP system that silently condemns millions of human beings to suffering and death every year.

Just before the crisis, European countries were designing austerity reforms that would increase inequality and reduce internal demand. Could they return?

Researchers have shown that the financial and economic impacts of denying women abortion care can last years

Contrary to pharmaceutical company claims, revenue from high insulin prices are going to shareholders, not R&D

A call to action for a world economy in crisis

Financial industry donations to members of Congress lead to the adoption of pro-bank policies

Austerity policies will slow recovery and should be rejected

Much historical commentary emphasizes how pandemics restructure long-standing social and political arrangements. The observation applies to macroeconomics as well.

Economist Gordon Lafer describes a race against the education technology industry to do what’s right for America’s kids

The scale of firm exposure to the coronavirus is unprecedented by earlier outbreaks, spans all major economies and is pervasive across all industries

What ails the EU Green Deal is exactly what troubles the Union in general — an absence of social democracy at work

During WWII FDR mobilized private manufacturers to support the war effort. To keep Americans healthy, we need to do the same now for medical equipment

Effective and quick federal policy response is critical to create conditions for a quick recovery.