Archive

Book review: Michel De Vroey and the problems of macroeconomics

The company’s focus on stock buybacks to increase shareholder value is a reminder of why so much of the value created daily by millions of workers ends up in the hands of the billionaires

Anxiety over human labor being replaced by cyborgs may be in vogue, but it’s overblown — machines may help us achieve healthier and more meaningful lives

The Institute is proud to welcome the revival of an indispensable resource for those seeking to understand the evolution of economics in context

Neither the Rational Expectations Hypothesis nor behavioral finance approaches alone provides an adequate predictor of investor behavior, argues Roman Frydman

New economic thinking has the potential to make political debates far more productive

Why most economists did not see the 2008 crash coming

What we’re reading: A weekly scan of published items relevant to the Institute’s work

Is Neoliberalism a fixed set of ideas, or even an identifiable political movement?

A meditation on Vercelli, Vernengo and Levitt & Seccareccia

Eight years after the 2008 crisis the global economy is still stuck with low growth, too low inflation, and rising debt burdens. Massive monetary stimulus has failed to generate adequate demand, and some commentators suggest that we are “out of ammunition” with which to counter deflationary pressures.

Mass protests challenging the government to focus on job-creation rather than on market liberalization and trade deals may carry a cautionary message to Western policy makers, too.

From 1958 onward, the back cover of Paul Samuelson’s bestselling textbook, Economics, showed a family-tree of economists. The diagram’s evolution, in particular its use of the term “mainstream economics,” reflected, and, I speculate, influenced how economists came to perceive the structure of their discipline.

I am pleased to announce that the History of Economic Thought Website is back. I am thankful for the assistance of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), which has supported its revival and made it possible.

What we’re reading: A weekly scan of published items relevant to the Institute’s work