:: Levy Economics Institute of Bard College ::

Report

Report | January 2010
Report January 2010 After unprecedented efforts by the Federal Reserve and Congress, and the adoption of “big government” policies, the financial system is more stable but the official unemployment level is 10.2 percent—and rising. [more]
Volume 20, No. 1

Report | October 2009
Report October 2009 The Obama administration estimates that the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will create or save approximately three and a half million jobs by the end of 2010. A Special Report featured in this issue points toward the necessity for a comprehensive employment strategy that goes well beyond ARRA–and concludes that the government could have achieved far more at the same cost. [more]
Volume 19, No. 4

Report | July 2009
Report July 2009 The July Report highlights the Institute’s annual Minsky conference, held April 16–17, 2009, at the Ford Foundation in New York City. Over 150 top policymakers, economists, and analysts gathered to offer their insights into the extraordinary challenges posed by the current global crisis, with topics ranging from financial market reregulation to the rehabilitation of mortgage financing to the institutional shape of the future financial system. [more]
Volume 19, No. 3

Report | April 2009
Report April 2009 There is broad consensus that the prospects for the domestic economy have become dire, requiring extensive government intervention. In a new Strategic Analysis highlighted in the current issue of the Report, Levy scholars take a more skeptical view of the effectiveness of the policy prescriptions currently on offer—and argue that the global economy must be run in an entirely new way. [more]
Volume 19, No. 2

Report | January 2009
Report January 2009 This issue of the Report opens with Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray’s new Public Policy Brief on money market capitalism (financialization), which has resulted in a series of boom-and-bust cycles in equities, real estate, and, most recently, commodities. [more]
Volume 19, No. 1

Report | October 2008
Report October 2008 Recent experience has bolstered the view that asset prices must come under the central bank’s purview in order for the economy to retain some semblance of stability. However, in a new Public Policy Brief, Pedro Nicolaci da Costa argues that attitude changes among regulators will be even more important than shifts in mandate in ensuring that regulators like the Federal Reserve do their jobs properly. [more]
Volume 18, No. 4

Report | July 2008
Report July 2008 This issue of the Report highlights the Institute’s annual Minsky conference, which this year focused on credit, markets, and the real economy, and the fiscal policies needed to counter recession. A new Strategic Analysis argues in favor of a fiscal stimulus much larger than the $150 million currently allocated, and that it should apply over a longer period—especially if the slowdown proves longer than expected. [more]
Volume 18, No. 3

Report | April 2008
Report April 2008 In a new Public Policy Brief, Senior Scholar Jan Kregel reviews Hyman P. Minsky’s concept of financial fragility, and concludes that the current financial crisis is the result of insufficient margins, or "cushions," of safety based on how creditworthiness is assessed in the new originate-and-distribute financial system. [more]
Volume 18, No. 2

Report | January 2008
Report January 2008 A new Strategic Analysis by the Levy Institute's Macro-Modeling Team reviews the domestic economy and where things might be headed. It argues that a significant drop in borrowing is likely to take place in the coming quarters unless the dollar is allowed to continue its fall and thus complete the recovery in the external imbalance, and fiscal policy shifts its course—as it did in the 2001 recession. [more]
Volume 18, No. 1

Report | October 2007
Report October 2007 The optimistic view of the subprime mortgage sector is that it makes the availability of credit for home purchases more egalitarian, extending it to those otherwise regarded as a high credit risk. The authors of a new Levy Institute Public Policiy Brief, however, are not as sanguine about such developments. [more]
Volume 17, No. 4

Report | July 2007
Report July 2007 In April, scholars, policymakers, and financial analysts gathered at the Levy Institute’s headquarters in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, to explore themes from the work of the late Levy Institute economist Hyman Minsky. A summary of their discussions appears in this issue of the Report. [more]
Volume 17, No. 3

Report | April 2007
Report April 2007 Who's really at the top of the economic ladder? A new Levy Institute Measure of Economic Well-Being report by Senior Scholars Edward N. Wolff and Ajit Zacharias examines how comparisons of economic well-being are affected by the inclusion of an accurate measure of well-being derived from wealth. [more]
Volume 17, No. 2

Report | January 2007
Report January 2007 Many believe that the value of the dollar will eventually collapse, succumbing to pressure from the deficit in the current account. A new Strategic Analysis by the Levy Institute Macro-modeling Team finds that further devaluation is inevitable, but they emphasize its beneficial effects. [more]
Volume 17, No. 1

Report | October 2006
Report October 2006 Most people are not accustomed to thinking of taxation as a gender issue. But research presented at the recent Levy Institute conference on gender equality, tax policies, and tax reform, summarized in this issue, show that taxes affect men and women quite differently. [more]
Volume 16, No. 4

Report | July 2006
Report July 2006 Can the growth in the current account deficit be sustained? A new Strategic Analysis by President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and Research Scholars Edward Chilcote and Gennaro Zezza focuses on net income as an important component of the deficit, particularly the interest paid by the United States on American debt held abroad. [more]
Volume 16, No. 3

Report | April 2006
Report April 2006 The latest Levy Institute Strategic Analysis depicts a household sector that is struggling under an unprecedented burden of debt and relying upon an unsustainable upward trend in real estate prices. The authors find that a reversal of this trend could severely dampen economic growth. [more]
Volume 16, No. 2

Report | January 2006
Report January 2006 When a woman works for General Motors, she is paid for her work, and her work is counted as part of GDP. But what of the work she might do in her own home? In a recent conference coorganized by the Levy Institute, the United Nations Development Programme, and the Bureau of Development Policy, scholars and policymakers challenged the traditional distinction between paid and unpaid work performed by women and men. [more]
Volume 16, No. 1

Report | October 2005
Report October 2005 A new Levy Institute Strategic Analysis examines the current states of the economy’s main balances and proposes an alternative to the piecemeal protectionist measures that some have advocated. The authors argue that some of the dire events in their baseline scenario—which shows that the balance of trade is likely to deteriorate by the end of the decade—could be avoided if direct action were taken to mitigate the current account deficit. [more]
Volume 15, No. 4

Report | July 2005
Report July 2005 The July Report leads off with a summary of the Levy Institute's Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, which this year examined the fiscal and monetary policies required for sustainable growth. [more]
Volume 15, No. 3

Report | April 2005
Report April 2005 A new Strategic Analysis by the Levy Institute's Macro-Modeling Team assesses the main sector balances, all of which are now deficits. The private sector, led by personal borrowing, is now running a deficit approaching 2 percent of GDP; although this trend has helped support the economy in the short term, it is unsustainable, given the private sector's existing pile of debt. [more]
Volume 15, No. 2

Report | January 2005
Report January 2005 The Levy Institute's October 2004 conference on the distributional effects of government spending and taxation addressed topics ranging from the social benefits of various types of economic development to the economic fortunes of future retirees, and included keynote speaker David Cay Johnston's stinging indictment of the distributional properties of the American tax system. A synopsis of the conference proceedings is included in this issue of the Report. [more]
Volume 15, No. 2

Report | October 2004
Report October 2004 The American economy has grown reasonably fast since the second half of 2003, and the general expectation seems to be that satisfactory growth will continue more or less indefinitely. In this issue of the Report, a new Strategic Analysis argues that the expansion may indeed continue through 2004, and for some time beyond. [more]
Volume 14, No. 3

Report | June 2004
Report June 2004 In this issue, Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray's comments on President Bush’s tax relief and spending stimulus, and all that red ink. [more]
Volume 14, No. 2

Report | February 2004
Report February 2004 Like a recurrent nightmare, the Bush administration, apparently emboldened by its success in getting Congress to start down the road to privatizing Medicare, seems ready to resurrect its proposals to privatize Social Security. Senior Scholar Thomas Hungerford comments in this issue of the Report. [more]
Volume 14, No. 1

Report | September 2003
Report September 2003 The slowdown in economic growth and rising unemployment in the euro area have revealed serious fault lines in the stability and growth pact governing the zone’s macroeconomic policies. In an editorial, Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer state that the pact threatens to become an “instability and no growth pact,” with the thrust of fiscal and monetary policies pushing the Eurozone economies in a deflationary direction. [more]
Volume 13, No. 3

Report | June 2003
Report June 2003 This issue provides an overview of the Institute's Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, the focus of which was the formulation of economic policy for sustainable growth; topices included the effects of low interest rates and the reemergence of budget deficits, the implications of ongoing current account deficits, and the potential for deflation in the American economy in the near future. [more]
Volume 13, No. 2

Report | February 2003
Report February 2003 Despite the collapse in stock prices, consumers have taken advantage of rising property values and low interest rates to continue borrowing and spending; debt in the personal sector now stands at nearly 130 percent of disposable income. What will happen to the economy when this buildup comes to an end? Our latest Strategic Analysis assesses the ways in which the economy will be affected in future years by its burden of debt. [more]
Volume 13, No. 1

Report | December 2002
Report December 2002 An overview of the Institute's recent conference "Economic Mobility in America and Other Advanced Countries" leads off this issue of the Report. The conference encompassed sessions on a range of issues, from the effect of education on intergenerational mobility to the persistence of hardship over the life cycle. [more]
Volume 12, No. 4

Report | September 2002
Report September 2002 Newly released Congressional Budget Office figures show that the government’s fiscal stance in 2000 was tighter than at any time in the previous 40 years, with imbalances financed in recent years by dramatic increases in the level of private debt—a trend that cannot be sustained indefinitely. Summarized in this issue of the Report, the Institute's latest Strategic Analysis assesses the likely implications of the coming adjustments in private borrowing for the economy as a whole. [more]
Volume 12, No. 3

Report | June 2002
Report June 2002 Included in this issue of the Report are summaries of the presentations made at the Institute's Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference; this year's topic: "Recession and Recovery: Economic Policy in Uncertain Times. [more]
Volume 12, No. 2

Report | March 2002
Report March 2002 The 1990s expansion was powered uniquely and exceptionally by a huge fall in net saving by the private sector. In a new Policy Note summarized in this issue, Distinguished Scholar Wynne Godley argues that the public sector must now step in and be the new motor that drives the economy. [more]
Volume 12, No. 1

Report | December 2001
Report December 2001 The United States is in the early stages of a recession that could be as deep and intractable as any since the Second World War, with serious consequences for the rest of the world. In his editorial for this issue of the Report, Distinguished Scholar Wynne Godley argues that the situation can be remedied, but only if there are large changes in policy, in the United States and elsewhere. [more]
Volume 11, No. 4

Report | September 2001
Report September 2001 In remarks delivered at the Levy Institute's recent conference on educational policy, summarized in this issue, Bard College President Leon Botstein stated that schools will never function well if the general culture does not express an excitement and joy about learning. Botstein stressed the need for afterschool programs, which provide a more peer-supported environment that can instill a motivation to learn. [more]
Volume 11, No. 3

Report | June 2001
Report June 2001 At the Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference, summarized in this issue, participants discussed changes in the financial structure and their impact on the financial market and on policy, the current state of the American economy and the ability of monetary and/or fiscal policy to stem what appears to be a slowdown, and the causes of and cures for global financial crises. [more]
Volume 11, No. 2

Report | March 2001
Report March 2001 In this issue's editorial, Senior Scholar James K. Galbraith predicts that the recent rise in wage inequality will lead to an economic slowdown in the United States. [more]
Volume 11, No. 1

Report | December 2000
Report December 2000 The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates six times over the past 12 months in an effort to slow economic growth, arguing that the economy is overheated and that the low unemployment rate will lead to inflation as workers in scant supply begin to demand higher salaries. A new Levy Institute Policy Note, summarized in this issue, argues that there is little evidence that low unemployment leads to inflation, and that the Fed's actions will merely hasten a downturn that will impose huge costs on society's most disadvantaged. [more]
Volume 10, No. 4

Report | September 2000
Report September 2000 As part of its research program into the causes of, and solutions to, income inequality, the Levy Institute held a conference in June 2000 on the distribution of wealth. Participants' remarks are summarized in this issue of the Report. [more]
Volume 10, No. 3

Report | June 2000
Report June 2000 Proponents of globalization have expressed frustration with the reluctance of some members of Congress to support it. At the Levy Institute's annual Minsky conference in April, summarized in this issue, Representative Barney Frank explained that it is not globalization per se that he and other members oppose, but globalization absent safety nets for those who are harmed by it. [more]
Volume 10, No. 2

Report | March 2000
Report March 2000 Senior Scholar James K. Galbraith discusses what is perhaps the most important economic question facing the United States today: Are President Clinton's fiscal policies sustainable, or are changes needed to keep the current expansion going? A new Strategic Analysis by Distinguished Scholar Wynne Godley examines recent trends and prospects for the trade deficit, debt, and property income. [more]
Volume 10, No. 1

Report | November 1999
Report November 1999 In a Special Report, Distinguished Scholar Wynne Godley argues that the long expansion of the American economy has been propelled by forces that cannot be sustained into the medium term. These forces include a wholly exceptional rise in private expenditure relative to disposable income: at no time during the last 40 years has private expenditure exceeded income by such a large amount or for so long a time. [more]
Volume 9, No. 4

Report | August 1999
Report August 1999 A new Public Policy Brief argues that the prediction of a coming crisis in Social Security is based on overly pessimistic assumptions about revenues and costs. Even if the prediction were to come to pass, the resulting financial shortfall could be resolved by relatively minor adjustments in the tax system at that time; cutting benefits now, the authors say, simply lowers living standards prematurely without in any way reducing burdens on future workers. [more]
Volume 9, No. 3

Report | May 1999
Report May 1999 In The Levy Report Interview, James K. Galbraith discusses his views on the state of the American economy and the economics profession, including the Federal Reserve's focus on controlling inflation, monetary policy's role in lowering unemployment, and the connection between unemployment and inequality in the wage structure. [more]
Volume 9, No. 2

Report | February 1999
Report February 1999 Jeffrey G. Madrick talks with Levy Institute Vice Chairman Leon Levy about hedge funds' influence over financial markets, and what went wrong with Long-Term Capital. [more]
Volume 9, No. 1

Report | November 1998
Report November 1998 In this issue's editorial, James K. Galbraith and George Purcell trace the chain of worldwide events that followed from the Federal Reserve's failure to pursue interest rate cuts. [more]
Volume 8, No. 4

Report | August 1998
Report August 1998 In this issue, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan talks with Sanjay Mongia about Social Security, tax reform, income inequality, and trade. Moynihan argues that Social Security should return to a pay-as-you-go system that allows participants to invest part of their contribution in a savings plan. [more]
Volume 8, No. 3

Report | May 1998
Report May 1998 Alice M. Rivlin, vice chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and other participants at the Levy Institute's annual Minsky conference on financial structure discuss the causes and worldwide effects of the Asian crisis and policies to prevent similar crises in the future. [more]
Volume 8, No. 2

Report | February 1998
Report February 1998 The Asian financial crisis has indeed brought the globalization of financial markets home to policymakers, academics, and the American public. In his editorial, Visiting Senior Scholar Jan Kregel questions the appropriateness of IMF policies in managing recent crises and also calls for democratic accountability in an institution of global financial governance. [more]
Volume 8, No. 1

Report | November 1997
Report November 1997 Distinguished Scholar Wynne Godley warns of the "headless monster" that might be created if European nations plunge into monetary union before establishing new political processes and institutions to replace the powers the nations surrender. In the Levy Report Interview, Congressman Tom Campbell discusses the Federal Reserve, tax reform, immigration, and affirmative action. [more]
Volume 7, No. 4

Report | August 1997
Report August 1997 In an exploration of policy proposals to expand employment opportunities, participants at this year's Levy Institute employment conference discuss workforce development, welfare-to-work, institutional and structural labor market changes, and economic growth. In an interview with Sanjay Mongia, author and editor William Grieder calls for a global perspective to save the worldwide economic system from its own contradictions. [more]
Volume 7, No. 3

Report | May 1997
Report May 1997 Alicia H. Munnell, member of the Council of Economic Advisers, discusses Social Security, the Consumer Price Index, and income inequality in The Levy Report Interview. [more]
Volume 7, No. 2

Report | February 1997
Report February 1997 With the discussion of the balanced budget amendment intensifying as it comes up for a vote again, the February Report highlights analysis of how the amendment might affect the future of the economy, including an editorial by President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and an interview with Alan Blinder, former vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve. [more]
Volume 7, No. 1

Report | December 1996
Report December 1996 This issue features the Debates-Debates program on the advisability of implementing tax cuts, Katherine Newman's findings on the ability of the working poor to find work, Eugene R. Dattel's view of structural flaws in the Japanese financial sector, and Resident Scholar Neil Buchanan's critique of several tax proposals and analysis of the relation between taxes and saving. [more]
Volume 6, No. 6

Report | October 1996
Report October 1996 In this issue: a summary of a Debates-Debates program on the economics of aging, with Chairman S. Jay Levy; an examination of the "Wisconsin plan" for welfare reform; an analysis of the source of the collapse of wages for low-skill workers; and an interview with New York State Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey Ross. [more]
Volume 6, No. 5

Report | August 1996
Report August 1996 Is the marketplace a social enemy? Is there a role for government intervention? Is downsizing good or bad? These were among the questions considered in a recent Firing Line debate taped at the Levy Institute. Also in this issue: Senator Bill Bradley talks about economic policy, race, aging, and the public's disenchantment with government. [more]
Volume 6, No. 4

Report | June 1996
Report June 1996 Speaking at the Levy Institute's sixth annual conference on the financial structure, summarized in this issue, Federal Reserve Governor Janet L. Yellen expresses concern that financial innovation has complicated regulating traditional measures of financial soundness. [more]
Volume 6, No. 3

Report | April 1996
Report April 1996 Highlights of this issue are a synopsis of the Levy Institute symposium on the globalization of financial markets, a summary of Clair Brown's lecture on standard of living indexes for American families, and an interview with Edward V. Regan, chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation. [more]
Volume 6, No. 2