The financial crash of 2008 showed the fragility of the financial system. A key question which surfaced in the aftermath of the global crisis was why economists were unable to predict this crash. This new volume argues that this failure can be attributed, at least in part, to the poor and inconsistent treatment of money and monetary matters in economic theory. The book takes this problem as its starting point, and from there aims to develop a more consistent treatment of the topic. Here, Hasse Ekstedt affirms that the treatment of money in economic theory has been inconsistent and that the topic of money can in fact be seen as anomalous. He argues that this anomaly depends on deficiencies in the economic theory, which through an equilibrium approach mainly perceives money as an index of measurement. In contrast, this volume puts forward the case for money as a non-equilibrium concept, and that the stability of money and financial markets are to be sought in social and institutional structures. In particular, the volume discusses the relationship between the market and public bodies, as well as addressing economic and financial stability in general and in relation to the globalized economy, particularly focussing on the problem of structural stability. In doing so, the book offers a new approach both to money and to its role in economic theory.

This book represents the second of three volumes offering a complete reinterpretation and restructuring of Keynesian macroeconomics and a detailed investigation of the disequilibrium adjustment processes characterizing the financial, the goods and the labour markets and their interaction. In this second volume the authors present a detailed analysis and comparison of two competing types of approaches to Keynesian macroeconomics, one that integrates goods, labour and financial markets, and another from the perspective of a conventional type of LM-analysis or interest-rate policy of the central bank. The authors employ rigorous dynamic macro-models of a descriptive and applicable nature, which will be of interest to all macroeconomists who use formal model-building in their investigations. The research in this book with its focus on Keynesian propagation mechanisms provides a unique alternative to the black-box shock-absorber approaches that dominate modern macroeconomics. The main conclusion of the work is that policy makers need to reconsider Keynesian ideas, but in the modern form in which they are expressed in this volume. Reconstructing Keynesian Macroeconomics will be of interest to students and researchers who want to look at alternatives to the mainstream macrodynamics that emerged from the Monetarist critique of Keynesianism. This book will also engage central bankers and macroeconomic policy makers.

Eurozone Dystopia traces the origin of the Eurozone and shows how the historical Franco-German rivalry combined with the growing dominance of neo-liberal economic thinking to create a monetary system that was deeply flawed and destined to fail. William Mitchell argues that the political class in Europe is trapped in a destructive groupthink. Based on a flawed understanding of macroeconomic fundamentals, groupthink extols the virtues of the erroneous concept of the self-regulating free market and prevents Europe from seeing its own policy failures. As a result, millions are unemployed, with imperiled member states caught in a cycle of persistent stagnation and rising social instability.Providing a detailed historical analysis of the evolution of the Eurozone and its failings from the 1940s to the present day, the book argues that the Eurozone lacks the necessary monetary architecture, particularly the existence of a federal fiscal function which could have resolved the economic crisis quickly. The author examines the options available to Europe and concludes that an orderly abandonment of the euro and a return to national currencies is the superior option available. The justification for this conclusion is exhaustively argued within a Modern Monetary Theory framework. This thoughtful and accessible account of Europe's economic woes will appeal to all those who are seeking an explanation for the crisis and are receptive to sensible and credible alternatives to the current scenario.

The crisis of distribution is one of the longest standing and most complicated issues facing human society. Imbued with social, political, historic, and cultural elements, it varies significantly across different countries as a result of all these factors. As an emerging economy which transferred from a planned to a market economy, China has experienced large distribution gaps since it implemented the Reform and Opening-up Policy in the early 1980s, requiring stronger economic law to mitigate and regulate the crisis of distribution. In this two-volume set, the author analyzes distribution crises from a theoretical perspective and proposes law and policy solutions. In this first volume, he discusses the four main concepts and focus points of the crisis of distribution - distribution itself, the crises it faces, the rule of law, and development. Concentrating on the major distribution problems China faces in particular, the author proposes regulatory methods which can be used to overcome the distribution dilemma, such as tools from policy and economic law, and reiterates the significance of theory building in resolving the issues. The book should be of keen interest to researchers and students of law, economics, and political science.

This timely volume features essays from an international group of economists which address issues relating to the objective of securing full employment. The contributors adopt a politicP>As well as offering a detailed empirical investigation of the unemployment experience in advanced countries, the book makes a critical evaluation of New Right economic policy making in the UK and the US, and examines the main international and domestic obstacles to the achievement of full employment, the prospects for job creation in the UK, and the impact of technological change.

This collection of Malcolm Sawyer's essays develops the post Keynesian analyses of unemployment, imperfect competition and macroeconomics. This important volume focuses on the causes of unemployment, a central concern of contemporary post Keynesian economics whose origins can be dated from the response to the high levels of unemployment during the 1930s. After explaining why conventional economic analysis cannot properly comprehend the phenomenon of unemployment, Professor Sawyer's book explores the relationship between demand-side and supply-side causes and argues for the relevance of both for the analysis of unemployment. Other issues discussed include the relationship between macroeconomics and imperfect competition, the post Keynesian approach to pricing and post Keynesian perspectives on industrial economics. Unemployment, Imperfect Competition and Macroeconomics, critically but sympathetically, evaluates and extends the contribution of post Keynesian analysis, and discusses the problems which those analyses face. Bringing together contributions from a major scholar working in this field, the book will be welcomed by all those interested in the post Keynesian approach and the contributions it can make to economic analysis.

In Economic and Industrial Performance in Europe, a distinguished group of scholars compares the fortunes of different European nations in the period of economic restructuring, uncertainty, and generally slower economic growth that followed the oil crisis of the 1970s. Using meaningful quantitative data, the authors address the deterioration and divergence of economic performance across Europe since 1973. They look at attempts to improve domestic competitiveness, labour market deregulation, the impact of research and development on economic success, comparative analysis of state expenditure and debt, the military economy and the social consequences of industrialism and industrial restructuring. This volume seeks to show how the post-war boom has unravelled and how this process has impacted upon different European economies. Economic and Industrial Performance in Europe will be welcomed by students, researchers and policy makers seeking comprehensive, meaningful information on why some national economies have been better placed than others to shoulder the burden of the more intense, global competitive pressures that have become part of the post-1973 world economy.

Growth perspectives in emerging market economies are increasingly dependent on international capital flows in recent decades because of their influences on business cycles. In fact, volatile international capital flows has been one of the main concerns for the macroeconomic policy authorities. Focusing on emerging economies in the Pacific region, this book reveals how they are different from those in other regions in terms of international macro-financial linkages to the global capital market and domestic financial development,. The book also discusses how these characteristics have interacted with their macroeconomic policy regimes and their macroeconomic performance throughout the two major international financial crises in the past more than two decades. It suggests facts that have strengthened the resilience of these emerging economies in the Pacific region against the global financial crisis along with the intensified intra-regional economic integration through trade and investment. The book also examines their macroeconomic management focusing on monetary policy regimes and suggests that their factual unorthodox policies with exchange rate management and capital controls have contributed to their resilience against the intrinsic volatility of the international capital market and financial flows.

Various explanations have been put forward as to why the Keynesian Revolution in economics in the 1930s and 1940s took place. Some of these point to the temporal relevance of John Maynard Keynes's The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936), appearing, as it did, just a handful of years after the onset of the Great Depression, whilst others highlight the importance of more anecdotal evidence, such as Keynes's close relations with the Cambridge 'Circus', a group of able, young Cambridge economists who dissected and assisted Keynes in developing crucial ideas in the years leading up to the General Theory. However, no systematic effort has been made to bring together these and other factors to examine them from a sociology of science perspective. This book fills this gap by taking its cue from a well-established tradition of work from history of science studies devoted to identifying the intellectual, technical, institutional, psychological and financial factors which help to explain why certain research schools are successful and why others fail. This approach, it turns out, provides a coherent account of why the revolution in macroeconomics was 'Keynesian' and why, on a related note, Keynes was able to see off contemporary competitor theorists, notably Friedrich von Hayek and Michal Kalecki.

The substantial prosperity that characterizes market economies at the beginning of the twenty-first century is relatively recent in human history. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, economic progress was so slow that people would not have been able to recognize it in their lifetimes, whereas today, economic progress is so much a part of people's lives that they take it for granted. In this new volume, Randall G. Holcombe argues that economic analysis, as it developed through the twentieth century, relies heavily on concepts of economic equilibrium, and is not descriptive of the dynamic real-world economy that is characterized by economic progress. Even in dynamic settings, economic models focus on income growth, leaving out the entrepreneurial forces that generate economic progress, resulting in the introduction of new goods and services and new production processes. Economic analysis focuses on the forces that lead to an economic equilibrium, not the forces that produce prosperity. This characterization of economic analysis describes a substantial component of economics as it has developed over the past century. However, there are also economists who have analyzed the factors that lead to an entrepreneurial and innovative economy, generating progress rather than equilibrium. This volume does not question the value of past research, but argues that, looking ahead, economics should build on its past to focus on factors that create an entrepreneurial and innovative economy that is characterized by progress and prosperity. This would make economic analysis more consistent with the remarkable progress and prosperity that characterizes the modern economy. This volume lays out a framework for economic analysis that consistently incorporates the real-world factors that produce prosperity.

This volume provides a systematic and cross-regional analysis of radicalisation, militancy and violence in West Africa. Concern about terrorism in, or from, West Africa, has been recognised in academic research, and the adoption of militarised approaches to addressing it questioned. However, the basis for that questioning - the need to investigate factors such as the historical and socio-economic roots of militancy - is not developed, nor is it substantiated in existing studies. The significant impact of religiously motivated radicalisation and violence in West Africa upon international security makes it essential to understand the issues of militancy and violence in the region. In this volume, the authors draw upon empirical research in West Africa to develop understanding in these areas. Over the course of several chapters written by leading experts in the field, the book successfully blends historical and conceptual analysis with new empirical research gathered from focus group discussions and research interviews. Each of these core studies is structured around five interrelated issues: tracing the antecedents of radicalisation; monitoring trends; identifying actors; anticipating possibilities; and analysing the strength of existing preventive mechanisms. This book will be of much interest to students of African security, African politics, radicalisation, political Islam, war and conflict studies and security studies in general.

The book provides theoretical and empirical evidence on how world trade evolves, how trade affects resource allocation, how trade competition affects productivity, how China shock affects world trade and how trade affects large and small countries. It is a useful reference which focuses on new approaches to international trade by looking into country-specific as well as firm-product level-specific cases. "The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/10.4324/9781351061544, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license."

This title was first published in 2002: This monograph sets out to model a macroeconomy that is inherently unstable because of qualitative - or Keynesian - uncertainty. By modelling a macroeconomic theory, this approach to fixed or sticky prices also investigates the link between uncertainty, sticky prices, and macro-stability - by suggesting that such prices improve economic activity rather than impeding it.

Considering Britain's physical capital, this book examines the distribution of investment between industries and between industry on the one hand and social and administrative purposes on the other. The Sterling Area is also examined, from the point of view of the UK and the rest of the world. The gold value of the dollar and the relationship of the US to the world economy are also discussed. All of these economic questions are placed in their appropriate historical perspective.

This book represents the third of three volumes offering a complete reinterpretation and restructuring of Keynesian macroeconomics and a detailed investigation of the disequilibrium adjustment processes characterizing the financial, the goods and the labour markets and their interaction. This book offers a full treatment of the interlinkages between the real and the financial markets, including an analysis of banking, credit, and endogenous money and asset markets. It remains critical of quite frequently used conventional macro models that have dropped the tradition of studying the macroeconomic feedback channels, well-known in the history of macroeconomics. Those feedback mechanisms are known to have the potential for instabilities with respect to real markets, price dynamics and financial markets. In this volume a particular emphasis is given to the financial-real interaction. The research in this book with its focus on Keynesian propagation mechanisms provides a unique alternative to the black-box shock-absorber approaches that dominate modern macroeconomics. The main conclusion of the work is that policy makers need to reconsider Keynesian ideas, but in the modern form in which they are expressed in this volume. Reconstructing Keynesian Macroeconomics will be of interest to students and researchers who want to look at alternatives to the mainstream macrodynamics that emerged from the Monetarist critique of Keynesianism. This book will also engage central bankers and macroeconomic policy makers.

Economists have rightly been criticized for not having foreseen the crisis that exploded in 2007-2008. As Giancarlo Bertocco eloquently argues, responsibility does indeed rest heavily on their shoulders. By developing a theory which excluded the possibility that a catastrophic crisis could ever happen, the economics profession has justified decisions and behaviours that caused the Great Recession. This book presents an alternative theoretical approach built on the lessons of Marx, Keynes, Schumpeter, Kalecki, Kaldor and Minsky, which highlights the structural instability of a capitalist economy and the endogenous nature of the current crisis. This fascinating book has several distinctive features. It begins by highlighting the limits of traditional economic theory and reveals the contradictions found in mainstream explanations as to the origins of the crisis. The author goes on to argue that economists not only failed to foresee the crisis but actually ignored the warning signs of instability that emerged during the Great Moderation. Bertocco presents an original interpretation of Keynes's argument that underlines the importance of Schumpeter's theory of credit in order to explain the relationship between money and crisis which characterizes a Keynesian monetary theory of production. Finally, he demonstrates that the nature of the crisis has important policy consequences and proposes a specific set of measures that take into account its structural nature. The comprehensive analysis and enlightening theoretical approaches will make this book vital reading for economists, policymakers and students seeking a clear understanding of the nature of the current crisis and the structure of the neoliberal economic system in which we live.

In 1991 "Communism" collapsed. The cold war was over and the West had won. Whole cities, Moscow, St Petersburg, Warsaw, Beijing, Budapest and Bucharest, whole countries indeed, were privatised for nothing or next to nothing. This was probably the greatest expansion of the world market in history. And yet, according to national income measurements of the CIA, OECD, World Bank and IMF, this gigantic expansion of market production, led to a decline in market production in the very countries where it was introduced. How to explain this paradox? This book traces the origin of the West's national income measurements, from their origin in the 1923/4 Balance developed in the USSR, to the USA in the early 1930s via two Soviet exiles, Simon Kuznets and Wassily Leontief, and then back to the USSR again, after a vigorous debate, through a protege of Kuznets, Abram Bergson. The AFC imputed national incomes to a centrally planned economy, based on physical not income measurements. This book provides a detailed assessment of the failure of the AFC method to measure the real growth of actual market production during the transition period. This book provides a detailed account of the application of national income measurements to the centrally planned economies. It assesses all of the major contributors to this debate, including Colin Clark, Naum Jasny, Alexander Gerschenkron, G.Warren Nutter and Abram Bergson. It provides a new much higher, estimate of the expansion of market production during the transition period, based on an estimate of the actual growth of real market production. It discusses the very significant implications of this re-estimate for contemporary theories of globalisation.

This is an introduction to the costs of unemployment and inflation, which analyzes the ways in which these two issues profoundly influence the conduct of economic policy. The book covers economic events and policies in the UK and the USA.

In Finance, Investment and Macroeconomics, Myron J. Gordon advances a theory of finance and investment under uncertainty and risk aversion which resolves problems left unsolved by Keynes in a manner consistent with his work. Keynes established that both the short-run and long-run performance of a capitalist system depend upon investment, but he failed to arrive at an alternative to the neoclassical theory of investment. Professor Gordon demonstrates that the extension of neoclassical theory to deal with uncertainty and risk aversion is based upon a string of assumptions which are empirically false. The competitive stationary state, the foundation for the neoclassical theory of a capitalist system, is shown to be unfeasible because it results in a very high probability of bankruptcy at the micro level and the system's early collapse on the macro level. Capitalists seeking long term survival are shown to be subject to a growth imperative, to the pursuit of monopoly power, and to a concern for financial policy. Later sections of the book discuss the consequences of this behaviour for short-run fluctuations and the long-run development of capitalist systems. This innovative book advances an important new theory of finance and investment which recognizes the problem of bankruptcy when the future is uncertain. It will be welcomed by both post Keynesian and neoclassical economists as a significant contribution to current economic understanding.

In Macroeconomic Problems of Transformation a distinguished group of economists examines the cause of the dramatic output collapse in the transforming economies of Eastern Europe and formulates policies to promote economic recovery.Drawing on scholarship from East and West, this book features discussion of such important aspects of the transformation process as the role of monetary policy, fiscal crises, exchange rate policies and privatization. In particular, several authors stress the importance of dealing with the distortions still existing in financial sectors and argue that export-led growth may be a potential driving force of accumulation in the economies currently in transition. The causes and consequences of the current fiscal crises are analysed, as are the processes of wage formation and privatization, in each case combining theoretical insight with empirical findings from the transforming economies. Later papers make comparisons with the reconstruction after the Second World War, discuss the effects of different exchange rate policies and consider the role of Western economies in promoting growth in Central and Eastern Europe.

This book discusses the necessity for cooperation between China and Japan to provide international public goods to Asia. It provides insight into how China and Japan can redesign the process of economic integration and security architecture to ensure peace and prosperity in Asia, and how China and Japan can cooperate to correct the capital misallocation and channel savings more effectively to investments in Asia. It also suggests how China and Japan can promote free trade to help Asian economies upgrade their industries in the global supply chain. The book is an invaluable contribution to the existing discussion on China-Japan relations and how their cooperation is beneficial not only for them but also for Asia, and even the world.

The Belt and Road Initiative (hereafter BRI) of China has attracted worldwide attention and participation, causing a lot of debate over its implications for international society. Although it is still in a budding stage, the BRI seems to afford a framework for an increasing number of countries to explore jointly new international economic governance mechanisms and offer significant opportunities for them to cope jointly with global challenges. Taking a globalization perspective and tracking the ancient silk roads, this book tries to examine the general context in which the BRI is raised and implemented, arguing that this Chinese initiative, instead of replacing existing international cooperation mechanisms, is a call for the reform and development of neoliberal globalization and will open up a new era of inclusive globalization. Inclusive globalization is neither an overturning nor a simple continuation of neoliberal globalization but rather a proposal capable of addressing the problems of existing globalization. The difference between them lies in the fact that globalization cannot only serve the "spatial fix" of capital but also has to meet the needs of living people. The book also addresses a number of major issues on building the Belt and Road and contains Chinese media's interviews with the author on various BRI issues. Given the author has been intensively involved in the study of and planning for the BRI, the book offers a valuable academic insight into this Chinese initiative.

Financial capital continues to dominate Western economic organisations, despite major financial and economic crises. While these have not affected Latin American countries in the same way, other economic problems emerged after the reversion of loose monetary policies that debilitated the export-led growth model. This book discusses the issue of the financialised globalisation model in Latin America, looking at the region's relationship with the international market. This edited collection is divided into three main sections. The first section discusses regional trends highlighting issues of trade and payments in financialised economies, the impact on deindustrialisation, its effect on inequality, external capital movements and monetary policies. The second section analyses the failure of comparative advantages of the export-led model in Colombia, Argentina and Mexico. Finally, the last section deals with the growth of financial balance sheets in small and developing economies such as Chile; how growth, investment and big corporation evolution were affected in Brazil and Mexico; and the effects of foreign exchange activity in Mexico. Through these discussions, this book aims to deepen the understanding of the crisis of financialisation and the export-led model, raising the question of whether it is possible for this model to continue or if it requires major readjustments to unfold economic growth. This book provides a distinctive analysis of the financialisation mechanisms in developing countries in order to emphasise affinities and differences between the countries of the region in productive and financial terms. It will be of great interest to economic and social science scholars and students, to journalists specialising on economic and development issues, and, more importantly, to policy makers.

The financial crisis of 2007 required the economics discipline to thoroughly re-evaluate its prevailing theories about economic cycles and economic growth. With a focus on Europe, this volume identifies the latest strands of research on business cycles, monetary theory, the evolution of social policies and public spending, and the institutional context of the European Union. It also considers whether these new ideas could have helped us avoid the crisis, and how they might reshape the current economic paradigm. This book will be of interest to advanced students and researchers in European economics, macroeconomics and economic history.

The subnational dimension of infrastructure has emerged as one of the greatest challenges in contemporary public finance policy and management. Ensuring the efficient provision of infrastructure represents a challenge for all countries irrespective of their level of centralization or decentralization. This book proposes an innovative approach for the strengthening of decentralized public investment and infrastructure management. Decentralization and Infrastructure in the Global Economy: From Gaps to Solutions covers the most important aspects of infrastructure investment in a decentralized setting. It discusses infrastructure gaps and the quality of subnational spending; how functional responsibilities, financing and equalization can be designed; sector-specific arrangements in high expenditure areas, such as health, education and roads; key steps of the public investment cycle and management; and analyses the political economy and corruption challenges that typically accompany decentralized infrastructure projects. This book challenges some of the well-accepted principles of intergovernmental fiscal relations and will be useful to researchers and practitioners of public finance policy and management.