In an asset and debt deflation, the process of reducing debt by saving and curtailing spending takes a long time, say the authors. Current imbalances and poor prospects for spending in the private sector affect the balance sheets of the commercial banks. The downward spiral between the banks and...

From this paper's Preface, by Dr. Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, President: Economic growth and a rising stock market in the 1990s gave the impression that everyone was accumulating wealth and asset poverty rates were declining. The impression was supported by the official, income-based poverty...

From this paper's Preface, by Dr. Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, President: Twenty to 25 years ago, a debate was under way in academe and in the popular press over the War on Poverty (WOP). One group of scholars argued that the war, initiated by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, had been lost, owing to...

The recent enactment of a capital gains tax cut resulted, according to Hudson and Feder, from the absence of a true appreciation or consideration of the real beneficiaries of such a cut, probable actual effects, the distinction between productive and nonproductive sources of capital gains...

The falling ratio of workers to retirees in the United has raised concerns about Social Security's ability to continue to provide a base level of support for all retired workers and to remain in balance with all of government's other fiscal obligations. Of alternative plans that have been...

Central banks, national governments, and international organizations have resisted policies that would promote full employment because high employment and high capacity utilization are associated with structural rigidities that result in sluggish growth, inflationary pressures, and other...

In 2002 more than $1 trillion worth of new bonds was sold across international boundaries. The total stock of cross-border bond holdings was more than $9 trillion. Such lending, together with sales of equities, is regarded as one of the chief benefits of globalization. But financial investment...

The concept of a labor market, responding to familiar underpinnings of supply and demand, completely colors thought on the relationship between employment, wages, and inflation, according to James K. Galbraith. However, he asserts, wages are determined not by such market forces, but by what he...

The targets for monetary policy adopted by the Fed in recent years have not proven to be closely correlated with inflation, leading some theorists and policymakers to advocate the use of a price index, such as the consumer price index (CPI), as both the target and the goal of monetary policy....

Despite the crisis in the Japanese financial sector, prolonged recession, and competitive challenges, Japan's formidable productive system remains strong. Nevertheless, the system of corporate governance, which has pursued a strategy of retaining corporate revenues and reallocating labor...