Circuit Theory and the Employment Issue.

The circuit is a time-honoured concept in economics. It can be traced back to the Physiocrats of eighteenth-century France, who viewed production as a circular process initiated by advances, that is, capital expenditures which are recouped when goods are produced and then sold. Ever since then, however, this conception, without being explicitly discarded, has been left on the sidelines. For instance, Schumpeter, Keynes, Kalecki and J. Robinson, to mention twentieth-century economists only, undoubtedly made allowance for the circuit but did not give it prominence.1 In fact, the idea of making use of this conception as a research tool remained largely dormant until the late 1960s in France an…

The Unemployment Issue

This timely book uses cutting-edge research to analyse the fundamental causes of economic and financial crises, and illustrates the macroeconomic foundations required for future economic policymaking in order to avoid these crises.

Circuit et circulation, une fausse analogie

International audience

What is next for the Washington consensus? The fifteenth anniversary, 1989-2004.

Winter2004/2005, Vol. 27 Issue 2, p, 7p; (AN 15818079); International audience; The article reports on the fifteenth anniversary of the Washington consensus with special focus on the past fifteen years accomplishments. Washington consensus was promulgated in 1989. In the past fifteen years, the United States saw some impressive growth with strong employment, low inflation, and high productivity gains, while emerging countries were hit by a string of financial crises. It states that the economic performance of developing countries in the past 15 years is disappointing at best, alarming at worst. It talks about the contributions of globalization in redefining the international currency stage.…

The impact of multinational banking on domestic banking

Post-Keynesians have made endogenous money a central argument in their theory of output. Indeed, production cannot be undertaken if access to finance, usually meaning bank credit, does not exist. Such access is needed if wages are to be paid, and inputs of production purchased. In a monetary economy, therefore, money is created at the demand of borrowers, supplied by banks.

Joan Robinson and Keynes: finance, relative prices and the monetary circuit.

Joan Robinson's views on credit and money are discussed only rarely. Of late, however, some Post-Keynesians have sought to revive these views, claiming that Robinson was one of the original contributors to the theory of endogenous money, post Keynes. This paper has two objectives. First, it seeks to develop Robinson's views on credit, money and finance and to show that not only did she have a clear understanding of the theory of endogenous money, but that she also held views akin to the theory of the monetary circuit. Second, the paper addresses Robinson's dismissal of the problem of relative prices and the conventional theory of value. Once again, it shows that Robinson's position is conne…

The Keynesian Multiplier

Introduction, Section One: Some Views of the Multiplier, 1. Three Views on the Multiplier, 2. John Maurice Clark's Contribution to the Genesis of the Multiplier Analysis: A note with some related unpublished correspondence, 3. The Material and Methodological Significance of the Supermultiplier, Section Two: Critical Insights on the Multiplier, 4. The Investment Multiplier and Income Savings, 5. The Multiplier and the Principle of Reflux, 6. The Demise of the Keynesian Multiplier Revisited, 7. Consumption, Investment and Investment Multiplier, Section Three: Towards a Re-interpretation of the Muliplier, 8. Kalecki and the Multiplier, 9. The Keynesian Multiplier: The Monetary Pre-Conditions a…

The New Consensus and Post-Keynesian Interest Rate Policy.

Abstract This paper outlines the fundamental arguments of the New Consensus, critiques it from a Post-Keynesian perspective, and offers a Post-Keynesian alternative to the Taylor Rule. While Post-Keynesian economics provides a theory of endogenous money with exogenous interest rates, it has no clear description of a central bank reaction function. We attempt to remedy this oversight by identifying some of the difficulties attached to developing a Post-Keynesian reaction function, and suggesting an approach to the setting of interest rates that is more consistent than the Taylor Rule with Keynes's General Theory.

Méthodes d'évaluation des coûts unitaires

référence interne : 74007

The Multiplier, the Principle of Effective Demand and the Finance Motive: a coherent framework..

Regional currencies and regional monetary zones in Latin America : whats prospects ?

International audience; Reducing transaction costs and the need for international reserves is a primary objective to the establishment of regional payment agreements. Another objective, especially in the case of Latin America where the Ecuadorian promoters of the Bank of the South (Banco del Sur) and the New Regional Financial Architecture are planning the implementation of a regional clearing system, is to reduce member countries' dependence on the U.S. dollar as an international standard and reserve currency. To help improve the design of such agreements, this paper refers to the plan Keynes designed for the Bretton Woods conference. First, it observes that cases were made against this pl…

Accounting identities : more that just bookkeeping conventions

Quantum macroeconomics: A tribute to Bernard Schmitt

Bernard Schmitt, the founder of quantum macroeconomics, died on 26 March 2014. His legacy concerns the discovery of the logical laws of monetary macroeconomics and extends to the explanation of the origin and nature of economic and financial crises. Starting from a novel conception of bank money, he was able to show that economics is founded on true macroeconomic laws, which take the form of logical identities. This paper is a brief and necessarily incomplete introduction to the main themes of Schmitt's macroeconomic analysis. It ranges from the distinction between money and income that lies at the hearth of his theory of the circuit, to the investigation of inflation and unemployment as pa…

Monetary Policy from a Circuitist Perspective

As Arestis says, circuit theory is ‘a strong component of the endogenous money thesis’ (1996: 113). This notably means that circuitists endorse the original Post Keynesian dismissal of the orthodox Monetarist approach to monetary policy by which the quantity of money in the economy should be regulated so as to stifle inflationary pressures. From the endogenous view, money creation is, in Moore’s words (1988), ‘credit-driven’, meaning that money is demanded by the general public and firms to finance spending which is dependent upon prices and money wages. Hence it is prices and money wages that are factors determining the amount of money created and not the contrary. This led Post Keynesian …

Is ex‐ante ex‐post analysis irrelevant to Keynes's theory of employment?

Ex‐ante ex‐post analysis has become a standard tool in macroeconomics. Yet Keynes dismissed it. We argue that Keynes's dismissal of ex‐ante ex‐post analysis is not an oddity but an indication of the originality of his theory of employment compared to standard macroeconomics. First, the principle of effective demand does not amount to a process that determines employment and income at the point of intersection of the traditionally defined ex ante supply and demand functions. Second, the finance motive allowed Keynes to confirm the identity of aggregate supply and demand already asserted in The General Theory. This latter conclusion is puzzling, however, since the principle of effective deman…

Aim and scope of European monetary policy : a critical assessment

february 23-25, 2007

Modern Monetary Macroeconomics. A New Paradigm for Economic Policy

This timely book uses cutting-edge research to analyse the fundamental causes of economic and financial crises, and illustrates the macroeconomic foundations required for future economic policymaking in order to avoid these crises.

Regional currencies and regional monetary zones in Latin America: what prospects?

Reducing transaction costs and the need for international reserves is a primary objective to the establishment of regional payment agreements. Another objective, especially in the case of Latin America where the Ecuadorian promoters of the Bank of the South (Banco del Sur) and the New Regional Financial Architecture are planning the implementation of a regional clearing system, is to reduce member countries' dependence on the U. S. dollar as an international standard and reserve currency. To help improve the design of such agreements, this paper refers to the plan Keynes designed for the Bretton Woods conference. First, it observes that cases were made against this plan from which useful le…

The Washington consensus and multinational banking in Latin America

International audience; The dramatic increase in multinational banks in the late 1990s is a direct result of Washington Consensus-type policies that emphasize the removal of barriers to the free flow of financial capital. In Latin America, foreign banks now control almost half of the total banking activity. Inevitably, the direct implication of such circumstances is a fall in the profits of domestic banks. In response to this, domestic banks react by curtailing their overall lending in the short run, thereby preventing small borrowers from accession to credit, and eventually increasing their lending to riskier projects and borrowers in the medium run. Either way, the multinationalization of…

Rethinking Monetary Policy with Reference to Monetary Circuit Theory

Standard monetary policy is grounded in the quantity theory of money, which links changes in the general price level to excess money that would induce excess demand on the goods market. This article shows that this theoretical foundation is misleading and harmful to growth. This is so because price determination is multifaceted. Central banks, especially the European Central Bank, currently tighten credit conditions whereas money is not an issue. In this way, they act not only on demand but also on the supply of goods. The additional reference made to rational expectations is an aggravating factor. Is there another way to conduct monetary policy? In this article it is argued that circuit th…