The anemic U.S. economic recovery and the threat of a double-dip recession stem from the weakness of investment, due to excess capacity created in the euphoric years of the "new economy" bubble. The current imbalances in the corporate sector (i.e., the all-time-high indebtedness in the face of...

The consumer has been on a tightrope since the bursting of the "new economy" bubble, as losses in equity markets have been partly offset by gains in real estate and fiscal support and mortgage refinancing have partly offset increased consumer cautiousness. The consumer will remain on a tightrope...

A continuation of the current policy of bond purchases known as quantitative easing is highly probable under Janet Yellen, who is likely to be confirmed as the successor to Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke. The authors assess the probable outcomes for interest rates, which they think will not...

This contribution discusses the origins of the Great Recession and also offers suggestions for possible cures. The focus in explaining the origins of the crisis is on two features: the experience in the us with financial liberalisation is most telling in terms of the cause of the current crisis....

Beginning with an assessment of new thinking in macroeconomics and monetary theory, this book suggests that many countries have adopted the New Consensus Monetary Policy since the early 1990s in an attempt to reduce inflation to low levels. It goes on to illustrate that the explicit control of...

This paper investigates the asymmetries between the United States and Europe in terms of differences in structural characteristics as these are captured by the elasticities of the underlying LM and AS curves. The AS elasticity is further decomposed into those factors that underlie Okun's Law and...

Central banks have an aversion to bailing out speculators when asset bubbles burst, but ultimately, as custodians of the financial system, they have to do exactly that. Their actions are justified by the goal of protecting the economy from the bursting of bubbles; while their intention may be...

All of the various schemes that have been put forward to resolve the current credit crisis follow either the "business as usual" or the "good bank" model. The "business as usual" model takes different forms--insurance or guarantee of the assets or liabilities of the financial institutions,...

This paper attempts to quantify the U.S. housing market slump and its likely impact on consumption. In doing so, it bypasses the traditional approach that suggests that there is no nationwide housing market but a compendium of segmented markets. The paper is not an exercise in forecasting but an...