The SGP has been the focus of growing controversy within the eurozone. The ECB continues to argue that reforming the SGP by relaxing its rules would damage the credibility of the euro. The opposite, however, may be closer to reality. Relaxing the rules according to the measures already taken by...

The President's commission claims that the Social Security program is "unsustainable" and requires a complete "overhaul." It also claims that the program is a bad deal for women and minorities. However, any honest accounting of all Social Security benefits finds that the program is a good deal...

Hyman P. Minsky's insights into the relationship between profits, economic growth, and the public and private financial balances are particularly relevant to today's conditions. How can a Minskian view be applied to explain the processes that brought the economy to its current state and to...

This policy note examines the case for large tax cuts, focusing on the issues surrounding the purpose and overall size of the needed cut. Although Congress has passed a significant package of tax relief, many have worried that the budget surplus on which it was based will never appear. Thus,...

Conventional theory makes the curious assumption that, in international trade, movements in the real exchange rate negate cost differences so as to make all countries equally competitive. But quite the contrary, it is absolute cost advantages that determine competition between countries, just as...

The time has more than come to begin planning seriously for the aging of the baby boom generation. The need for planning goes beyond concerns about the solvency of Social Security and Medicare. Another crisis looms in the form of a huge bill for the care of baby boomers who in their old age will...

There is a strategic need, if a "growth recession" is to be avoided, for a new motor to drive the economy, particularly if there is a further decline in private expenditure relative to income that could generate a further hole in aggregate demand.

Modest sales expectations and limited access to bank credit may be curtailing small businesses' plans for hiring and capital investment.

Growing government surpluses, a ballooning trade deficit, and the resulting growth in private sector debt have placed the U.S. economy in a precarious position. Papadimitriou and Wray agree with President George W. Bush that fiscal stimulus is necessary to reinvigorate the economy; in the...

Would privatization yield sufficient benefits to support low-income retirees and satisfy all others? Does a focus on private management of assets take attention away from the real issues in the future of Social Security?