Archive for February, 2020

Bernie Sanders: Nothing to Fear Except Fear Itself

Tuesday, February 18th, 2020

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Eighty-seven years ago those were the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his 1933 inaugural speech. Today, they resonate with Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, which confronts a barrage of attack aimed at frightening away voters.

Fear is the enemy of change and the friend of hate. That is why both sides of the political establishment are now running a full-blown campaign of fear-mongering against Sanders.

The Democratic Party establishment likes the economy the way it is and wants to prevent change. Donald Trump and the Republicans have made themselves the party of hate. Both therefore have an interest in promoting fear, which explains the strange overlap in their attacks on Sanders.

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Posted in Political Economy, U.S. Policy, Uncategorized | Comments Closed

Do current times vindicate Keynes and is New Keynesian macroeconomics Keynesian?

Saturday, February 8th, 2020

Thomas I. Palley, Esteban Pérez Caldentey, and Matias Vernengo, Review of Keynesian Economics, January 2020.

Professor Robert Rowthorn delivered the second annual Godley-Tobin lecture in New York City on March 1, 2019. The title of his lecture was “Keynesian economics: back from the dead?” and it is published in this issue of the Review of Keynesian Economics. The lecture was attended by a large audience and the Question & Answer session provoked a stimulating discussion. Prompted by that discussion, we thought it would be interesting to invite some leading (Keynesian-leaning) economists to independently address Professor Rowthorn’s lecture topic. This symposium is the outcome of that invitation.

We are living in a time which many believe has a distinctly Keynesian character. That is captured in the belief that many economies appear to suffer from aggregate demand shortage or, at least, a proclivity to demand shortage. It is also captured in the revival of the concept of “economic stagnation” which was an idea that had much traction in the 1930s and 1940s, but then fell away in the 1950s with the post-war boom and the non-reappearance of depression-like conditions.

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Posted in Economics, Political Economy, Uncategorized | Comments Closed