Economic History Archives - Philosophy of Money

If you don’t like trade deficits – tax the rich?

12th April 2018

Austerity, Economic History, Money in Europe, Theory & Other Problems

Has the word ‘deficit’ done more damage than any other in economics? Deficits are bad, surpluses are good. In economics, nothing could be further from the truth. How can there be virtue, if every virtuous act r...

r* and the range of irrelevance

Eric Lonergan

29th December 2017

Definitions of Money, Economic History, Finance & Asset Pricing, Monetary Policy

5

Despite the fact that interest rates determine all asset valuations, there is nothing close to a general theory of interest rate determination. The rule of thumb when I started working in financial markets was ...

Rethinking Brexit, via Kilkenny & Oxford

Eric Lonergan

12th November 2017

Economic History, Money in Europe, Sample Of One

3

Mark Blyth and I have been arguing that nationalism is a global virus, filling the vacuum created by the erosion of political identity under neo-liberalism. The Cold War era now appears, almost nostalgically, a...

MMT part III – conclusion, and a conversation with Ben Bernanke

Eric Lonergan

20th October 2017

Definitions of Money, Economic History, Monetary Policy, Theory & Other Problems

22

My last two blogs have revisited the issue of whether or not base money is a liability of the state. The issue played a central role in a discussion over the future of monetary policy at the Brussels think-tank...

MMT part II: a synthesis, an olive branch, and a defence of Twitter

Eric Lonergan

11th October 2017

Definitions of Money, Economic History, Monetary Policy, Theory & Other Problems

26

This is a short follow-up to my previous post, ‘MMT - sophistry or substance?’, and Simon Wren-Lewis’s ‘Why is MMT so popular?'. Summarising, I suggest the two defining characteristics of MMT are: (1) a theo...

MMT: school of thought or set of personalities?

Eric Lonergan

7th October 2017

Definitions of Money, Economic History, Monetary Policy, Theory & Other Problems

28

MMT revisited Simon Wren-Lewis’s recent post on why MMT is so popular makes a number of important points. The Twitter response to Simon’s post was fairly representative - to its credit, MMT has a committed c...

Secular stability

Eric Lonergan

22nd June 2017

Economic History, Theory & Other Problems

1

The defining characteristic of US economic data since the financial crisis is not stagnation, but stability. We all look back on the Great Moderation with incredulity at the hubris of economists. But has realit...

The case for a new economics

Eric Lonergan

26th February 2017

Economic History, Helicopter Money, Monetary Policy, Theory & Other Problems

3

What’s really wrong with NAIRU Earlier this year, Matthew Klein at FT’s Alphaville, made a typically punchy and well-argued case for abandoning a cornerstone of the current macro policy framework - the NAIRU...

Has the Bank of Japan solved the ‘Piketty problem’?

Eric Lonergan

19th February 2017

Definitions of Money, Economic History, Finance & Asset Pricing, Helicopter Money, Monetary Policy

Japan’s unlikely re-distribution Why is the Bank of Japan (BoJ) trying to raise the rate of inflation? Taking account of its demographic profile, Japan's economic performance has been impressive by developed w...

Renzi’s referendum, Europe’s future

Eric Lonergan

6th December 2016

Economic History, Money in Europe

1

It seems apposite that Matteo Renzi's term as Italian Prime minister should end in this way. This referendum was a surreal distraction. Italy does not need faster political decision-making. Good decisions alway...

If you don’t like trade deficits – tax the rich?

r* and the range of irrelevance

Rethinking Brexit, via Kilkenny & Oxford

MMT part III – conclusion, and a conversation with Ben Bernanke

MMT part II: a synthesis, an olive branch, and a defence of Twitter

MMT: school of thought or set of personalities?

Secular stability

The case for a new economics

Has the Bank of Japan solved the ‘Piketty problem’?

Renzi’s referendum, Europe’s future

Reviews of Eric’s book

CNBC: market sell-off is ‘noise’

Monetary policy & babysitting: why rates are so low, and ‘what’s next?’