History

An except from Galbraith’s review of Paul Davidson’s Who’s Afraid of John Maynard Keynes? Challenging Economic Governance in an Age of Growing Inequality

The New York Times’ Binyamin Appelbaum explains the role Democratic presidents, from Kennedy to Obama, in moving economic policy to the right

Economics needs to better incorporate other social sciences

The state has long used law to back private money—with dire consequences, then and now

Ben Power, who adapted the play “The Lehman Trilogy,” talks about the eponymous family’s role in the creation and destruction of American wealth

Returns on wealth exceed growth for more countries, more years, and more dramatically than Piketty has found

One of America’s leading socialists discusses how a collectively owned economy would be structured, the limits of the welfare state, and what Keynes understood that Marx didn’t

For all the talk of Modern Monetary Theory representing a brave new frontier, it is easy to forget that the United States has gone down this road before, when the US Federal Reserve financed the war effort in the 1940s. Then, as now, the question is not about government debt, but about the debt’s purpose and justification.

The Chicago School’s weakening of antitrust law hurt the economy

Kristen Ghodsee discusses her research on how love and relationships function under socialism and capitalism, and what economists miss about the rise of right-wing populism in Eastern Europe

During her long career she illuminated many of the shortcomings of neoclassicism, and offered alternative paths

Paper proposals are invited for a conference to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of J. M. Keynes’s The Economic Consequences of the Peace.

The heterodox scholar was a fierce critic of neoclassical economics. But she also insisted that economics be driven by science, not ideology.

Decades before it caught on with other economists, Sadie Alexander was the first economist to recommend a government jobs guarantee in the US

John Kenneth Galbraith noted in 1973 that establishment economics had become the “invaluable ally of those whose exercise of power depends on an acquiescent public.” If anything, economists’ embrace of that role has grown stronger since then.

For years, governments in India and much of the developing world have followed the advice of a paper arguing that labor regulations actually hurt workers. The problem? The research was wrong.

Chaired by Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Michael Spence, INET has assembled a global team of leaders and scholars calling for new thinking & new rules for the world economy

LSE Director Minouche Shafik says that for democracy to work, we must keep the market out of certain domains

Adolph Reed, who researches race and politics, warns that “identitarian” politics can conceal the structural inequities of capitalism

António Guterres and CGET Commissioners discuss cooperating on inequality, climate change, multilateralism, and more

Neoclassical economics dismisses the role of money and the state in the economy. Keynes scholar Robert Skidlesky says it’s time for a re-evaluation.

To connect across difference is the only thing that will save us from rule by the privileged few.

Conventional wisdom asserts that American politics is becoming more and more tribal. But the chiefs of the tribes share a lot in common: dependence on big money.

Contrary to the dominant media narrative, social issues like racism and sexism on their own can’t explain Trump’s success.

Donald Trump, democracy, and how the wealthy crush the American Dream

Right-wing news sources have stopped playing by the rules of journalism

Reactions to the size of the proposed plan rely on discredited assumptions and betray a fundamental misunderstanding of economic growth—and austerity 

“We don’t look after each other at all,” says Jeffrey Sachs on America today

Investigating the history of economic thought fuels innovative thinking 

Ten years after the crisis, financial regulation leaves taxpayers holding the bag for banks’ safety net.

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. …This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not before.” This YSI Webinar and Reading Group aims to contribute to the historicization of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 and its repercussions.

Steve Keen: “What an education in economics does is make you into a zealot

After Sweden’s elections, a look at how immigration and economics explain a political puzzle

In 2008 a global financial meltdown was just barely contained. But Adam Tooze says that the crisis of confidence has had long aftershocks

Expanding, rather than cutting, Social Security is the solution

A new report examines the path to global social progress. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers

To understand the rise of the League and 5 Star Movement, look at economic indicators

How corporate raiders coopted “shareholder democracy” for their own ends

Alissa Quart’s new book chronicles the pain of a disgruntled class that could change the country’s political landscape.

Journal rankings are a rigged game. The blacklist of history of economic thought journals isn’t a fluke nor a conspiracy—it exposes how citation rankings really work

Clear rules and sound principles for debt restructuring would level the playing field between developing countries and creditors

Places hit hardest by austerity cuts were more likely to vote for UKIP and Leave

Journalist Steven Brill discusses how the U.S. lost sight of the common good

James Galbraith says academic economics is in need of radical reform

When politics is defined in terms of “populism” vs. “the mainstream,” the possibility for real economic reform is diminished.

Edoardo Nesi’s new book tracks the destructive march of globalization and neoliberal capitalism through his own life and the places, like Italy, that lie broken in its wake.

The election of Italy’s right-wing, populist government exposes the economic and democratic shortcomings of the European project and its nationalist rivals

70 years ago today, Edward A. Tenenbaum helped pull off an astounding feat—successfully reforming Germany’s currency after World War II

By evading regulation of credit default swaps, the major U.S. banks put taxpayers—and the entire economy—at risk

In a complex world, we’ll experience more “black swans”, and the things that standard economic models assumed away will matter much more.

The renowned linguist, cognitive scientist, and historian on where we stand as an economy, as a country, and as human beings

The renowned economist reflects on the rise of neoclassical economics, the post-2008 surge of interest in non-mainstream, heterodox thought, and how young economists can remain independent in the face of biased evaluation systems

What 200 Years of Government Interventions in Financial Markets Can Tell Us

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Reflections on the Radical Vision of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Last Major Speech

In the face of  laissez-faire capitalism at home and resurgent nationalism across the globe, INET offers an innovative look at the causes of—and solutions for—the problems that ail a fissuring world economy.

Economist Olugbenga Ajilore shows the high cost of the American government’s arming of local police with military weapons, which has exacerbated lethal use of force against black communities

France, like many Western European countries, has strong campaign finance laws and a vibrant multiparty system. Yet even there, money has had a corrosive effect on democracy, as private donations have an outsized impact on electoral outcomes.

Nina Banks assesses the legacy of the first African-American economist in the United States

The current crisis is the culmination of a process of integration that has profoundly changed the structure of each member state, their inter-relations and their power relations. One of its side effects was the rediscovery of the terms ‘centre’ and ‘periphery’ to analyse the economic situations of the European countries.

The euro area has been experiencing a prolonged period of weak economic activity and very low inflation.

The wind appears to be back in the sails of the Eurozone economy ….

Some fresh reflections on ECB policy

Can a monetary union without true banking and fiscal union be saved? What remains of the hopes that animated the Treaty of Rome?

Coping with the dysfunction of advanced economies, and developing strategies for economic development.

The concern that an economy could experience persistent, and in some sense unusual, weakness goes back to Keynes’s General Theory and led Alvin Hansen to coin the term “secular stagnation.”

A discussion of new economic thinking over the years at Cambridge, and its recent contributions via the Cambridge-INET Institute

Adam Smith and his contemporaries were key figures of the Scottish enlightenment. How much of his real thought survives in modern economics, and has something important been lost?

On 23 June 2016, the British electorate voted to leave the European Union (EU). We analyse vote and turnout shares across 380 local authority areas in the United Kingdom.

The Death of the Seventy-year American Empire  

Different accounts trace populism to cultural reactions, racial or gender animosity, and/or economics. What does the empirical evidence suggest?

As dual economies transform countries, how does world politics adjust?

Support for populism is often attributed to xenophobia, racism, sexism; to anger and resentment at immigrants, racial or ethnic minorities, or “uppity” non-traditional women. According to these accounts , people who feel socially resentful may reject established politicians as favoring those “others” over people like themselves, and turn to outsider populistic leaders.

Unpacking the Effect of Trade on Workers and Voters 

A better set of approaches for the 21st century.

The contemporary literature on neoliberalism has grown so large as to be unwieldy. For some on the left, this has presented an occasion to denounce it altogether.

How far are economists implicated in the rise of ‘fake experts’ and ‘fake news’?

Fake news, propaganda, and “expertise”: What has happened to information in the information age?

The Electoral Consequences of Rising Trade Exposure