"What Ended the Great Depression? Reevaluating the Role of Fiscal Policy"

Conventional wisdom contends that fiscal policy was of secondary importance to the economic recovery in the 1930s. The recovery is then connected to monetary policy that allowed non-sterilized gold inflows to increase the money supply. Often, this is shown by measuring the fiscal multipliers, and demonstrating that they were relatively small. This paper shows that problems with the conventional measures of fiscal multipliers in the 1930s may have created an incorrect consensus on the irrelevance of fiscal policy. The rehabilitation of fiscal policy is seen as a necessary step in the reinterpretation of the positive role of New Deal policies for the recovery.Fiscal Policy; Great Depression

Because I Said So: The Persistence of Mainstream Policy Advice

The current global crisis has shown the limitations of the mainstream approach. We trace the origins of the limitations of the dominant neoclassical views to the capital debates and to the rise to dominance of intertemporal general equilibrium. The limited use of the Arrow­Debreu model, which became dominant after the capital debates, in terms of policymaking, is central to understand the persistence of policy guided by the aggregative model. We use the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a case study of this perplexing continuity of policy advice. Given our survey, we conclude that even though the economy is in the midst of the worst capitalist crisis since the Great Depression, a significant paradigmatic shift in economics is extraordinarily unlikely

La cárcel ignorada: más allá de los números que explican el universo penitenciario catalán

El propósito de este trabajo consiste en visibilizar numerosas cuestiones que acontecen en las cárceles catalanas, que sistemáticamente son ignoradas y negadas. A través de un análisis de distintos informes elaborados por organismos especializados en la órbita española y europea, se intentará dar cuenta de la existencia de casos de graves violaciones a los derechos fundamentales de los internos y, sobre todo, de las falencias sistémicas que impiden un esclarecimiento serio y profundo de estos casos. Todo ello, con el objetivo de sacar a esta temática del ostracismo y el negacionismo en la que está sumergida, e intentar dotar a la ciudadanía de herramientas para debatir una cuestión clave en todo estado que quiera ser democrático y de derecho

What's Next for Brazil After Neoliberalism?

Is Lula going to change policies significantly in Brazil from the neoliberal policies of the past? This economist has his doubts. He argues that lower interest rates and a depreciated currency are required and that new restrictions on capital movements are needed.

From Restrained Golden Age to Creeping Platinum Age: A Periodization of Latin American Development in the Robinsonian Tradition = Da Idade do Ouro a Era Platinum Rastejante: Uma Periodização do Desenvolvimento Latino Americano na Tradição Robinsoniana

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes Joan Robinson\u27s growth model, and then adapted in order to provide an exploratory taxonomy of Growth Eras. The Growth Eras or Ages were for Robinson a way to provide logical connections among output growth, capital accumulation, the degree of thriftiness, the real wage and illustrate a catalogue of growth possibilities. This modified taxonomy follows the spirit of Robinson\u27s work, but it takes different theoretical approaches, which imply that some of her classifications do not fit perfectly the ones here suggested. Latin America has moved from a Golden Age in the 1950s and 1960s, to a Leaden Age in the 1980s, having two traverse periods, one in which the process of growth and industrialization accelerated in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which is here referred to as a Galloping Platinum Age, and one in which a process of deindustrialization, and reprimarization and maquilization of the productive structure took place, starting in the 1990s, which could be referred to as a Creeping Platinum Age. Abstract: RESUMOEste artigo analisa o modelo de crescimento de Joan Robinson, aqui adaptado a fim de fornecer uma taxonomia exploratória de Eras de Crescimento. Essas Eras ou Anos de Crescimento foram para Robinson uma maneira de fornecer conexões lógicas entre o crescimento da produção, a acumulação de capital, o grau de frugalidade, o salário real e ilustrar um catálogo de possibilidades de crescimento. Esta taxonomia modificada segue o espírito da obra de Robinson, mas é preciso diferentes abordagens teóricas, o que implica que algumas não se encaixam perfeitamente às aqui sugeridas. A América Latina passou de uma Idade de Ouro na década de 1950 e 1960, a uma Idade de Chumbo na década de 1980, com dois períodos de travessia, um em que o processo de crescimento e industrialização se acelerou na década de 1960 e início de 1970, que aqui se refere a uma Era Platinum Galopante, e aquela em que um processo de desindustrialização e reprimarização e maquilação da estrutura produtiva teve lugar, começando na década de 1990, que poderia ser referido como uma Era Platinum Rastejante