The paper argues that the functional approach of money does not provide a good method to study monetary history and monetary mechanisms. An alternative approach is developed and illustrated by analyzing the role of tobacco and cowry shells in past monetary systems. It is shown that any monetary...

This study analyzes the trends in the financial sector over the past 30 years, and argues that unsupervised financial innovations and lenient government regulation are at the root of the current financial crisis and recession. Combined with a long period of economic expansion during which...

Modern Money Theory (MMT) has explained why monetarily sovereign governments have a very flexible policy space that is unconstrained by hard financial limits. It has provided institutional and theoretical insights about the workings of economies with monetarily sovereign and non-sovereign...

From the 1960s, Minsky argued that implementing a decentralized job-guarantee policy funded by the federal government was a relevant way to promote full employment and price stability, and to alleviate poverty. This policy aims at providing a job to anybody willing to work and to pay a living...

One of the main contributions of modern money theory (MMT) has been to explain why monetarily sovereign governments have a very flexible policy space. Not only can they issue their own currency, but also any self-imposed constraint on budgetary operations can be easily bypassed. Through a...

Though the worst of the financial crisis of 2008 has, with hope, ebbed, it has forever changed the economy in the United States and throughout the rest of the world. Using the financial and economic crisis as a catalyst, this volume examines how to better regulate the financial system and what...

Unemployment brings economic, psychological, and social hardship to individuals and their community. Common policies to combat unemployment include the promotion of economic growth and training, but a less common policy focuses on the right to work. This policy proposal decouples the goals of...

The paper uses the analytical framework developed by Hyman P. Minsky to construct an index of financial fragility for residential housing in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. In the process, a clear difference is made between financial fragility, bubble, and fraud. The goal is...

This paper develops the framework of analysis of monetary systems put together by authors such as Macleod, Keynes, Innes, and Knapp. This framework does not focus on the functions performed by an object but rather on its financial characteristics. Anything issued by anybody can be a monetary...

One of the main contributions of Modern Money Theory (MMT) has been to explain why monetarily sovereign governments have a very flexible policy space that is unconstrained by hard financial limits. Not only can they issue their own currency to pay public debt denominated in their own currency,...