Economic Controversies

For the past twenty-five years, the United States has undergone a retrogression in its socioeconomic policies–facilitated and supported by most economists–thanks to the steady drumbeat of arguments by entrepreneurs and politicians who celebrate the free market for anything and everything and who advocate, among other follies, balanced budgets and r

'John Smithin's erudite and eloquent Controversies in Monetary Economics (now in a revised second edition) reminds us that a cashless economy is by no means a moneyless economy. Drawing on Keynes's concept of monetary production and on the later work of Sir John Hicks, Smithin argues persuasively for the continuing central importance of money in understanding interest rate determination and economic fluctuations. This insightful book illuminates the role of monetary policy, notably within the European Monetary Union.' - Robert W. Dimand, Brock University, Canada 'This book provides an excellent overview of the controversies that have driven debate about monetary theory and policy over the last two centuries. I highly recommend the book for use in advanced undergraduate or graduate courses. This new edition revises and updates some of the arguments, with some additional treatment of orthodoxy so that it can serve as a stand-alone text in monetary theory courses.' - L. Randall Wray, University of Missouri, US 'John Smithin is one of the deepest thinkers writing today about monetary matters in modern economics. Not only has he a thorough and full knowledge of past contributions, he is also an original thinker in his own right. The processes he depicts at work in modern economies are immediately recognisable and make good sense. He allies his theoretical understanding with advocacy of wise and humane policies. In John Smithin's writings the spirits of Keynes and Hicks live on, with also, dare I say it, the insights of Marx about the relationship between the real and the monetary in capitalism. Any student brought up on Smithin's clear and lucid accounts of controversies in monetary economics will have a firm grounding on which to base their understanding of the world around them.' - G.C. Harcourt, Jesus College, Cambridge, UK This influential volume, which has been revised and updated for the twenty-first century, includes both new material and more detailed expositions of existing arguments. Although so-called 'real' theories of business cycles and growth are prevalent in contemporary mainstream economics, Controversies in Monetary Economics suggests that those economists who have instinctively focused on monetary factors in explaining macroeconomic behaviour are more genuinely 'realistic'. The author combines an explanation of past and present monetary controversy with practical proposals for the conduct of monetary policy in the contemporary global economy. Several alternative approaches are discussed, ranging from the traditional quantity theory to post Keynesian theories of endogenous money. This insightful book will be of interest to all those concerned with monetary economics and macroeconomics, including academic researchers, graduate and senior undergraduate students - particularly those looking for an alternative to current economic orthodoxy - and historians of economic thought. Practitioners in central banks, international financial institutions, the financial markets and finance ministries will also find this work invaluable.

Gross domestic product is arguably the best-known statistic in the contemporary world, and certainly amongst the most powerful. It drives government policy and sets priorities in a variety of vital social fields - from schooling to healthcare. Yet for perhaps the first time since it was invented in the 1930s, this popular icon of economic growth has come to be regarded by a wide range of people as a 'problem'. After all, does our quality of life really improve when our economy grows 2 or 3 per cent? Can we continue to sacrifice the environment to safeguard a vision of the world based on the illusion of infinite economic growth? Lorenzo Fioramonti takes apart the 'content' of GDP - what it measures, what it doesn't and why - and reveals the powerful political interests that have allowed it to dominate today's economies. In doing so, he demonstrates just how little relevance GDP has to moral principles such as equity, social justice and redistribution, and shows that an alternative is possible, as evinced by the 'de-growth' movement and initiatives such as transition towns. A startling insight into the politics of a number that has come to dominate our everyday lives.

In this wide-ranging collection of essays first published between 2007 and 2014, Charles Wolf Jr. shares his insights on the world's economies, including those of China, the United States, Japan, Korea, India, and others. First appearing in such periodicals as in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and the Weekly Standard, among others, these chapters take on a range of questions about the global economy. Wolf discusses the paradoxes and puzzles within China's political economy and in its interactions with the United States. He analyzes the shortcomings of Keynesian economics as a response to the 2008 recession, as well as the weaknesses of policies and actions inferred from the theory, and compares those weaknesses with those of austerity policies intended to limit government spending and indebtedness. He also offers his views on economic inequality and where its principal sources may truly lay, China's currency and the continuing controversy about whether and when it may become a major international reserve currency, and many more insights on key economic issues affecting the global economy. Bringing these essays together for the first time in a single volume, including two essays not yet published elsewhere, this book enables the reader to absorb the author's expert perspective during the years in a collection in which the whole is truly greater than the sum of its parts. Each chapter includes a brief "postaudit" in which the author attempts to grade how well or ill the essay seems in retrospect.

The papers that comprise this collection introduce key advances in modern value theory. Equilibrium and non-equilibrium approaches are discussed alongside the theory behind abstract labour and money.

In this fascinating book, Imad A. Moosa challenges existing preconceptions surrounding normative economics, arguing that what some economists see as undisputed facts of life may be myths caused by dogmatic thinking. Plausible explanations are suggested for puzzles in various areas of economics and finance, such as the home bias puzzle, the PPP puzzle and the presidential puzzle. Controversies in Economics and Finance is a thought-provoking and stimulating read that exposes common flaws in economic analysis. It will be of great benefit to academics, graduate students and policy-makers looking to understand the limits of economic analysis.

In Failure by Design, the Economic Policy Institute’s Josh Bivens takes a step back from the acclaimed State of Working America series, building on its wealth of data to relate a compelling narrative of the U.S. economy’s struggle to emerge from the Great Recession of 2008. Bivens explains the causes and impact on working Americans of the most catastrophic economic policy failure since the 1920s. As outlined clearly here, economic growth since the late 1970s has been slow and inequitably distributed, largely as a result of poor policy choices. These choices only got worse in the 2000s, leading to an anemic economic expansion. What growth we did see in the economy was fueled by staggering increases in private-sector debt and a housing bubble that artificially inflated wealth by trillions of dollars. As had been predicted, the bursting of the housing bubble had disastrous consequences for the broader economy, spurring a financial crisis and a rise in joblessness that dwarfed those resulting from any recession since the Great Depression. The fallout from the Great Recession makes it near certain that there will be yet another lost decade of income growth for typical families, whose incomes had not been boosted by the previous decade’s sluggish and localized economic expansion. In its broad narrative of how the economy has failed to deliver for most Americans over much of the past three decades, Failure by Design also offers compelling graphic evidence on jobs, incomes, wages, and other measures of economic well-being most relevant to low- and middle-income workers. Josh Bivens tracks these trends carefully, giving a lesson in economic history that is readable yet rigorous in its analysis. Intended as both a stand-alone volume and a companion to the new State of Working America website that presents all of the data underlying this cogent analysis, Failure by Design will become required reading as a road map to the economic problems that confront working Americans.

Is economic growth desirable? Possible? Necessary? The distinguished social scientists represented in this collection give conflicting answers, resulting in a lively debate on the costs and benefits of growth in the developed and developing countries. This volume, first published in 1973, contains proceedings of a Conference on the Limits to Growth, held at the Center for Social Research, Lehigh University, October 1972. This book will be of interest to students of economics.