"Profits: The Views of Jerome Levy and Michal Kalecki"

Profits are the incentive for production and therefore employment in almost all of the world's economies; they also may represent exploitation of workers and consumers. Jerome Levy, using a complex process, derived the profits identity during the years 1908-1914. Michal Kalecki, taking advantage of the development of national accounting, derived it in the 1930s. Levy viewed the equation as a tool for developing policies that would enable capitalist economies to achieve high rates of employment. Recent American experience gives weight to his views. Kalecki's insights from the identity strengthened his belief that unemployment was inescapable under capitalism. He would find empirical support in Europe's high unemployment rates during the past two decades.

"The Economics of Aging, Can We Afford Grandma and Grandpa?"

Levy presents a preliminary study of the consumption patterns of retirees and nonretirees during the 1980s, paying particular attention to the distribution of the national consumer product. The consumer product increased in aggregate size during the period, but the retirees' portion of it grew four times faster than the working households' share. Indeed, the standard of living for much of the working population declined. Levy finds that the incremental portion of the "economic pie" absorbed by retirees is tantamount to a "tax" on nonretirees that falls most heavily on lower-income people. Although analysts anticipate a peak in the proportion of retirees to workers in the population around the year 2025, Levy asserts that problems created by this situation are, to a serous degree, already present. He recommends raising the retirement age and encouraging retirees to engage in public service activities. He believes, however, that the fundamental issue in enlarging the economic pie for everyone is unemployment. Levy cites as results of unemployment the increasingly common early retirement programs and the unwillingness of employers to undertake the costs of training older workers. He also contrasts the policies of the early postwar era that emphasized economic growth and enterprise with contemporary policies that are influenced by the interests of retirees in preserving their income and wealth.

Profits: The Views of Jerome Levy and Michal Kalecki

Profits are the incentive for production and therefore employment in almost all of the world's economies; they also may represent exploitation of workers and consumers. Jerome Levy, using a complex process, derived the profits identity during the years 1908–1914. Michal Kalecki, taking advantage of the development of national accounting, derived it in the 1930s. Levy viewed the equation as a tool for developing policies that would enable capitalist economies to achieve high rates of employment. Recent American experience gives weight to his views. Kalecki's insights from the identity strengthened his belief that unemployment was inescapable under capitalism. He would find empirical support in Europe's high unemployment rates during the past two decades.

"Overcoming America's Infrastructure Deficit, A Fiscally Responsible Plan for Public Capital Investment"

Condemned bridges, dilapidated school buildings, contaminated water supplies, and other infrastructure shortcomings threaten American growth, productivity, and prosperity. S Jay Levy and Walter M. Cadette propose a plan for financing infrastructure projects that is designed to have minimal effect on the federal budget and to promote sound fiscal operation. Federal zero-interest mortgage loans to state and local governments for capital projects specified by Congress can cut the cost of such projects, achieve needed improvements in the nation's infrastructure, and thereby contribute to the American economy's future.

How to Restore Long-term Prosperity in the United States and Overcome the Contained Depression of the 1990s

Special Report of the Institute

Letter from Jay Levy

Letter from Jay Levy to the Members of the Inequality, Wealth, and Income Distribution Research and Policy Tea

Who is Jerome Levy?

Address given by S. Jay Levy

Can We Afford Grandma and Grandpa?

According to S Jay Levy, explanations put forth thusfar insufficiently resolve the question of why consumption declined during the 1980s for so many working households. Levy notes that the nation's standard of living is measured by the total of available consumer goods and services. Any cohort's standard of living is measured by its share of these goods and services—its slice of the "economic pie." After looking at the available consumer goods and services and at how they are apportioned among households, he finds that the retiree cohort has been consuming an increasingly large share at the expense of the working cohort. His results indicate that "the declining purchasing power of the wages and salaries of the lower-income half of the population was, at least to a large degree, the result of the rising consumption of the retired cohort of the population."