Archived Publication Types

In this new policy brief, President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and Research Scholar Greg Hannsgen evaluate the current path of fiscal deficits in the United States in the context of government debt and further spending, economic recovery, and unemployment. They are adamant that there is no justification for the belief that cutting spending or raising taxes […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 114A, 2010 PDF (220.81 KB)

Στο νέο αυτό κείμενο δημόσιας πολιτικής, ο Πρόεδρος Δημήτρης Β. Παπαδημητρίου και ο Ερευνητικός Μελετητής Greg Hannsgen αξιολογούν τη σημερινή πορεία των δημοσίων ελλειμμάτων στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες στο πλαίσιο του κυβερνητικού χρέους και των δαπανών, της οικονομικής ανάκαμψης και της ανεργίας. Είναι ανένδοτοι ότι δεν υπάρχει τεκμηρίωση για την πεποίθηση ότι η μείωση δαπανών ή […]

Download Κείμενο (Brief) Δημόσιας Πολιτικής (Highlights) Νο. 114Α, 2010 PDF (1.10 MB)

Critics argue that the current crisis has exposed the profligacy of the Greek government and its citizens, who are stubbornly fighting proposed social spending cuts and refusing to live within their means. Yet Greece has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the European Union (EU), and its social safety net is modest compared […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 113A, 2010 PDF (423.97 KB)

The global abatement of the inflationary climate of the past three decades, combined with continuing financial instability, helped to promote the worldwide holding of US dollar reserves as a cushion against financial instability outside the United States, with the result that, for the United States itself, this was a period of remarkable price stability and […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlight No. 112A, 2010 PDF (148.34 KB)

This brief by Yeva Nersisyan and Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray argues that deficits do not burden future generations with debt, nor do they crowd out private spending. The authors base their conclusions on the premise that a sovereign nation with its own currency cannot become insolvent, and that government financing is unlike that of […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlight No. 111A, 2010 PDF (407.61 KB)

A conference organized by the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College with support from the . On April 14–16, more than 200 policymakers, economists, and analysts from government, industry, and academia gathered at the NYC headquarters of the Ford Foundation for the Levy Institute’s annual Minsky conference on the state of the US and world economies. […]

Download Conference Proceedings, April 14–16, 2010 PDF (1.45 MB)

The United States has the most expensive health care system in the world, yet its system produces inferior outcomes relative to those in other countries. This brief examines the health care reform debate and argues that the basic structure of the health care system is unlikely to change, because “reform” measures actually promote the status […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlight No. 110A, 2010 PDF (414.74 KB)

A conference organized by the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College with support from the Ford foundation From his extensive research, Hyman Minsky was convinced that economic systems are prone to financial instability and crisis, and urged that lessons be learned from the crisis of 1929–1933 so that “it”—the Great Depression—could not happen again. This […]

Pension funds have taken a big hit during the current financial crisis, with losses in the trillions of dollars. In addition, both private and public pensions are experiencing significant funding shortfalls, as is the government-run Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which insures the defined-benefit pension plans of private American companies. Yeva Nersisyan and Senior Scholar L. […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlight No. 109A, 2010 PDF (180.10 KB)

In his State of the Union address President Obama acknowledged that “our most urgent task is job creation”—that a move toward full employment will lay the foundation for long-term economic growth and ensure that the federal government creates the necessary conditions for businesses to expand and hire more workers. According to a new study by […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlight No. 108A, 2010 PDF (373.42 KB)

The purpose of the 1933 Banking Act—aka Glass-Steagall—was to prevent the exposure of commercial banks to the risks of investment banking and to ensure stability of the financial system. A proposed solution to the current financial crisis is to return to the basic tenets of this New Deal legislation. Senior Scholar Jan Kregel provides an […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlight No. 107A, 2010 PDF (162.34 KB)

The April Report highlights a brief by Institute scholars that finds that social sector investment generates more jobs than infrastructure spending or investing in green energy. The issue also includes a summary of our latest Strategic Analysis, which concerns the various policy actions required to emerge from the current recession. NEW PUBLIC POLICY BRIEF Why […]

Download Volume 20, No. 2 PDF (598.84 KB)

This issue leads off with an updated Strategic Analysis that confirms the necessity of strong policy action to achieve full employment in the medium term, including a persistently high government deficit in the short term. This implies a growing public debt, which is sustainable as long as interest rates are kept at the current low […]

Download Volume 19, No. 2 PDF (456.35 KB)

After unprecedented efforts by the Federal Reserve and Congress, and the adoption of “big government” policies, the financial system is more stable but the official unemployment level is 10.2 percent—and rising. According to the Institute’s latest Strategic Analysis, the nascent recovery is still very fragile, so a good policymaking strategy will require a clear assessment […]

Download Volume 20, No. 1 PDF (604.35 KB)

In a new Strategic Analysis, the Institute’s Macro-Modeling Team determines that real GDP growth will remain well below the rate required to push unemployment back to a more acceptable level, but that a modest dollar devaluation could be very effective in promoting employment while addressing the threat posed by large imbalances. A related public policy […]

Download Volume 19, No. 1 PDF (1.14 MB)

Social unrest across Europe is growing as Euroland’s economy collapses faster than the United States’, the result of falling exports and a weaker fiscal response. The controversial title of this brief is based on a belief that the nature of the euro itself limits Euroland’s fiscal policy space. The nations that have adopted the euro […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 106A, 2009 PDF (184.71 KB)

The Obama administration estimates that the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will create or save approximately three and a half million jobs by the end of 2010. A Special Report featured in this issue points toward the necessity for a comprehensive employment strategy that goes well beyond ARRA–and concludes that the government could […]

Download Volume 19, No. 4 PDF (324.47 KB)

<p>The Obama administration has implemented several policies to &ldquo;jump-start&rdquo; the American economy&mdash;efforts that have largely focused on preserving the financial interests of major banks. The authors of this new policy brief believe that maintaining the status quo is not the solution, since it overlooks the debt problems of households and nonfinancial businesses&mdash;and re-creating the financial […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 105A, 2009 PDF (775.51 KB)

The Fall Summary leads off with an overview of the Institute’s annual Minsky conference, which this year focused on the extraordinary challenges posed by the global financial crisis. Also in this issue: a new Strategic Analysis outlines how increased deficits and their impact on private sector balance sheets will help stabilize the domestic economy. INSTITUTE […]

Download Volume 18, No. 3 PDF (400.05 KB)

A wave of revisionist work claims that “anticompetitive” New Deal legislation such as the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) greatly slowed the recovery from the Depression; in this new public policy brief, President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and Research Scholar Greg Hannsgen review these claims in light of current […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 104A, 2009 PDF (124.51 KB)

A group of experts associated with Economists for Peace and Security and the Initiative for Rethinking the Economy met recently in Paris to discuss financial and monetary issues; their viewpoints, summarized here by Senior Scholar James K. Galbraith, are largely at odds with the global political and economic establishment. Despite noting some success in averting […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 103A, 2009 PDF (128.24 KB)

The term BRIC was first coined by Goldman Sachs and refers to the fast-growing developing economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China–a class of middle-income emerging market economies of relatively large size that are capable of self-sustained expansion. Their combined economies could exceed the combined economies of today’s richest countries by 2050. However, there are […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 102A, 2009 PDF (644.30 KB)

Beyond loss of income, joblessness is associated with greater poverty, marginalization, and social exclusion; the current global crisis is clearly not helping. In this new Public Policy Brief, Research Scholar Rania Antonopoulos explores the impact of both joblessness and employment expansion on poverty, paying particular attention to the gender aspects of poverty and poverty-reducing public […]

Download Public Policy Brief Highlights No. 101A, 2009 PDF (73.04 KB)

The July Report highlights the Institute’s annual Minsky conference, held April 16–17, 2009, at the Ford Foundation in New York City. Over 150 top policymakers, economists, and analysts gathered to offer their insights into the extraordinary challenges posed by the current global crisis, with topics ranging from financial market reregulation to the rehabilitation of mortgage […]

Download Volume 19, No. 3 PDF (776.50 KB)