Speculative Bubbles and Monetary Policy works at the intersection of economic theory history. While the consistent and penetrating perspective of theory is necessary for interpreting economic history, existing macroeconomic theories are fragile an ineffective at narrating an economic history that covers a relatively long period. Such fragility comes from arbitrariness in deployed economic theory as well as structural changes within an economy. This book presents a Keynesian theory with a rigorous dynamic microeconomic foundation that entirely differs from new Keynesian theory and applies it to the Japanese economic history from the 1980s to 2010s. It considers two primary incidents in the country's economic history: the bubble boom from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, and the country's immersion in neoliberalism at the turn of the century.

The deflationary Japanese economy is a spurious observation and a precarious political propaganda, which tacitly connects with the fanatic diagnosis urging an inflation-prompting macroeconomic policy. This book provides an overview of the prolonged stagnation of the current Japanese economy. It also examines the politico-economic implications concerning the precarious conversion of Japanese monetary policy and focuses on the vulnerability of the price-sustaining policy concerning the public debt. The book also analyzes and suggests against the acceleration of inflation under the current Japanese foreign exchange system and also suggests that the surge of foreign direct investment towards East Asia is the acute cause of Japanese economy stagnation. The book concludes that to rebuild the economic potential of the Japanese economy, education and fostering the youths are the keys. This book will definitely interest those who are keen to learn more about the relationship between Bank of Japan and the Japanese political parties.

The deflationary Japanese economy is a spurious observation and a precarious political propaganda, which tacitly connects with the fanatic diagnosis urging an inflation-prompting macroeconomic policy. This book provides an overview of the prolonged stagnation of the current Japanese economy. It also examines the politico-economic implications concerning the precarious conversion of Japanese monetary policy and focuses on the vulnerability of the price-sustaining policy concerning the public debt. The book also analyzes and suggests against the acceleration of inflation under the current Japanese foreign exchange system and also suggests that the surge of foreign direct investment towards East Asia is the acute cause of Japanese economy stagnation. The book concludes that to rebuild the economic potential of the Japanese economy, education and fostering the youths are the keys. This book will definitely interest those who are keen to learn more about the relationship between Bank of Japan and the Japanese political parties.

This book reconstructs Keynesian macroeconomics so that it is compatible with the neoclassical dynamic microeconomic theory. This theory adopts three postulates: rational expectations, perfect price flexibility, and exclusion of the money in utility function (MIU). Based on the new theoretical finding that the Lucas model (1972) contains multiple equilibria, the author unifies Keynesian and monetarist theories within the same framework. The book applies the above basic theory to international macroeconomics and economic growth theory. New Keynesian theory contains logical inconsistencies: menu costs that have no close relationship with microeconomics and MIU, which implies that the money accumulated as wealth is never spent. These two assumptions do not proximate the real world. In this volume, the author discusses how various segregated theoretical approaches in macroeconomics relate to one another and proposes how to integrate them.

This book reconstructs Keynesian macroeconomics so that it is compatible with the neoclassical dynamic microeconomic theory. This theory adopts three postulates: rational expectations, perfect price flexibility, and exclusion of the money in utility function (MIU). Based on the new theoretical finding that the Lucas model (1972) contains multiple equilibria, the author unifies Keynesian and monetarist theories within the same framework. The book applies the above basic theory to international macroeconomics and economic growth theory. New Keynesian theory contains logical inconsistencies: menu costs that have no close relationship with microeconomics and MIU, which implies that the money accumulated as wealth is never spent. These two assumptions do not proximate the real world. In this volume, the author discusses how various segregated theoretical approaches in macroeconomics relate to one another and proposes how to integrate them.

This book elucidates the economic conditions and policies during the post War Japanese economy from the view point of an influential policy maker. Dr. Osamu Shimomura is one of the most eminent economists in Japan. He entered the Ministry of Finance and played a crucial role in actualizing the High-Growth era from the late 1950s to the early 70s. "The Doubling Income Plan", which is issued by the Ikeda cabinet, originates from him. It should be noted that while most economists held pessimistic view on the future, Shimomura is brave and foresighted. Shimomura's theory is not merely one of the pioneer works in macroeconomics, but also suits the economic conditions of Japan. Shimomura extends the principle of effective demand, which means that his theory includes effects of capital accumulation to production capacity. While one may argue that Harrod (1939) and Domar (1946) have already achieved that, Shimomura's theory centers policy recommendations for sustaining the high economic growth against the productivity growth that would cause excess supply in the market. Succinctly, Shimomura is a Keynesian who believes the vigor in its private sector but recognizes that Japanese economy urgently needs the government's auxiliary macroeconomic policies. This book emphasizes that the rapid Japanese growth owes mainly to affluent entrepreneurship filled in the economy not to the sheer government's planning. Dr. Shimomura's theory endorses our assertion.

This book reconsiders Keynes's The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money and establishes a new interpretation. In contrast to the existing models, this book finds that the stickiness in the nominal wage is not crucial for his theory. Moreover, the author has also succeeds in capturing the concept of liquidity in a rigorous mathematical model. In conjunction with the development of the concept of liquidity, the separation of the decision between savings and capital investment, which plays a key role in the principle of effective demand and denies Say's law, is exactly and originally formulated. The theory thus developed is applicable to elucidating some serious political economic causes that entrap the long-stagnated Japanese economy. For example, an analytical explanation is provided about why disinflation/deflation incessantly progresses despite the exorbitant expansionary monetary policy (ijigen kin-yuu seisaku) by the Bank of Japan. This phenomenon is an unsolvable question from the quantity-theoretic approaches (e.g., monetarism and new Keynesianism) which, although they differ in assumptions concerning the length of adjustment periods, commonly assume that the price level sooner or later rises in proportion to the quantity of money. Owing much to Keynes, the author's approach considers that the price level is mainly governed by its marginal prime cost which is equal to the nominal wage as a first approximation. As such, the drastically sagging wages during the past 10 years provoke serious disinflation/deflation. It should be noted that this discussion never depends on the quantity of money.