Vested Interests and the Common Man as Seen Through Monetary and Fiscal Policy: Flooding Wall Street or Main Street?

There are many angles through which a critical observer can analyze the divergent class interests in most aspects of macroeconomic management. We examine the insistence of financial authorities of all major economies on reviving economic activity through monetary — and not fiscal — policy as a particularly clear example of favoring vested interests over the interests of the common man. Nearly a century after Thorstein Veblen wrote on the subject, one can find many parallel elements to the political landscape of the times. Today, the common man is often expressed by the “99%,” and many accept that the dominant vested interest is that of global banks. Unlike in Veblen’s times, economists today have many historical experiments in economic management that they can consult. By employing logic, historical experience, and an understanding of our current global finance-led capitalism, we offer a preliminary institutionalist analysis of the mechanisms of current monetary policy that “flood” Wall Street, while leaving employment, production, and investment — Main Street — all but forgotten. We then explain how vested interests have abandoned fiscal policy and left a deflationary macroeconomic environment.     

The role of uncertainty in the euro crisis – an application of liquidity preference theory

The world financial crisis triggered a rediscovery of the active role fiscal policy can play as a remedy in such situations. During the euro crisis, escalating funding costs in a number of southern eurozone member states and Ireland have called this strategy into question. One interpretation of the euro crisis concentrated on the public debt trends in those countries. Opposing this view, the main point of this contribution is to elaborate the link between rising interest rates on sovereign bonds in the euro crisis and a major feature of the financial crisis – a subdued degree of investor confidence after the Lehman collapse. Theoretically, this link is developed with reference to Keynes’ liquidity preference theory. The high explanatory power of measures for the degree of confidence in financial markets as well as detrimental effects of fiscal austerity on the evolution of sovereign yield spreads are demonstrated empirically by means of panel regressions and supplementary correlation analyses.     

Economic Openness and Fiscal Multipliers*

Recent empirical findings attribute a central role to the degree of economic openness to determine the size of the fiscal multiplier. See, for instance, Ilzetzki et al. (2013) [How big (small?) are fiscal multipliers? Journal of Monetary Economics, 60(2), 239–254]. However, traditional macroeconomic models have difficulties to account for this evidence. By introducing ‘deep-habit’ formation into a New Keynesian small open economy model, this paper provides a theoretical framework which is able to attest for the new empirical evidence. Deep habits give rise to counter-cyclical firm markups, which are crucial to generate effects of openness on the fiscal multiplier as found in the data. We study three dimensions of economic openness: exchange rate flexibility, trade openness, and capital mobility. In line with the empirical findings, we report a negative relationship between measures of economic openness and the fiscal multiplier.     

‘An Incomplete Contract Approach to Eurozone Fiscal Governance’ – Commitment vs. Flexibility

In this paper, we take an incomplete contract approach to Eurozone Fiscal Governance between the European Commission (EC) and any heavily debt member state, Greece in particular. Incomplete contract approach makes possible to put a long process of Eurozone Fiscal Governance into an extensive form game in which a renegotiation procedure is incorporated. We theoretically reveal the conflict of interests between the EC (Germany) and Greece over the Greek debt repayment plan proposed in 2015. We show that the Greek’s position is consistent with incomplete contract theory, but that the EC (Germany) does not allow the renegotiation for restructuring for growth-oriented debt repayment program proposed by the Greek government because the EC (Germany) judges that the commitment effect (on fiscal austerity) is greater than the flexibility one (pro-growth effect). This will undoubtedly provide a novel and interesting approach to Eurozone Fiscal Governance.     

New European Banking Governance and Crisis of Democracy: Bank Restructuring and Privatization in Slovenia

ABSTRACT

The paper makes three contributions to the understanding of the post-crisis European banking governance. First, it offers a more comprehensive approach to banking governance, beyond the Banking Union, through its concept of ‘New European Banking Governance’ (NEBG) that incorporates EU state aid rules and fiscal regulations. Second, it considers the impact of NEBG on democratic institutions and processes in EU member states, an under-researched topic in the literature on European banking governance. Finally, through its in-depth case study of Slovenia it considers the NEBG in relation to peripheral Eurozone states. It argues that the post-crisis banking governance framework of the EU not only severely constrained the Slovenian state in its policy choices but rearranged its policy-making institutions in a way that restricted and continues to restrict democratic banking policy formation.     

金融风险社会化的最后防线及我国的现实选择

金融风险社会化是金融风险从金融系统溢出,蔓延至实体经济、国家财政甚至社会公众的过程,这种风险扩散后患无穷。通过对历次金融危机的梳理,总结金融风险社会化的一般路径,厘清国家财政必须承担起金融风险社会化最后防线的责任,并参考国际经验和我国国情,提出防范金融风险社会化的政策建议。     

关于促进工业设计产业发展的财税金融政策研究

工业设计产业是生产性服务业的重要组成部分,对于中国工业转型升级,提升企业自主创新能力具有重要的意义。当前,中国发展工业设计产业还存在资金投入不足,引导社会投资、激励企业创新力度不够,多层次资本市场发育不完善等财税金融问题,为促进其发展,在结合中国国情,并对配套财税金融政策的分析的基础上,提出了政府引导工业设计产业健康发展的相关建议。     

我国财政支出规模变化的分析及其合理控制

文章对我国改革开放以来财政支出规模的变化趋势进行了实证分析,揭示了我国财政支出规模下降的背后仍然是政府实际支配资源规模的扩大,对这种变化趋势的合理性进行了分析判断,剖析了我国“财政之谜”(财政支出规模下降而企业负担重)的实质,给出了我国适度财政支出规模的基本要求及界定标准,提出合理控制我国财政支出规模的基本思路就是根据公共财政的内在要求,系统改造现行财政支出制度安排,构建符合公共财政要求的公共财政支出制度框架。     

土地财政、虚高城市化与土地粗放利用

本文从我国当前土地利用低效的现实出发,借助制度经济学和博弈论等理论方法,分析了我国体制转型期土地财政、虚高城市化以及土地粗放利用之间的因果联系。研究表明,我国在城市化过程中出现的种种土地低效利用现象,与体制转型期地方政府的行为,尤其是追求土地财政的冲动密不可分。城市化虚高除表现在城市拓展与产业结构升级背道而驰、人口城市化明显滞后于土地城市化之外,更直接的表现则是许多地方热衷“摊大饼”式的城市化扩张模式。在以经济增长为导向的发展目标激励下,作为城镇建设土地的所有者、供给者与垄断者“三位一体”的政府,会倾向于通过权衡土地的成本和收益,从而赋予土地宏观方面的增长功能。由于中央政府对地方政府的软预算约束,在城市化过程中,地方政府采取“经营城市”、“经营土地”的策略行为就成为题中应有之义,土地的粗放利用也成为必然之后果。     

Paradox of plenty: Norway’s macroeconomic policy dilemmas during the oil price crash, 2014-15

Norway, a country at the top of global rankings in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and human development was also in an enviable position with large current account and fiscal surpluses, as well as a massive stock of public assets. Then came a shock; between June 2014 and early 2016 oil prices tumbled by more than 70 percent. As a major oil exporter, Norway’s current account was severely impacted but could this actually draw Norway into a macroeconomic crisis? Couldn’t it just fund its way out of the contractionary pressures building up in the economy using its stock of foreign currency reserves being held in a sovereign wealth fund? This article explores the fiscal and monetary policy challenges that Norway faced in preempting falling GDP growth and rising unemployment while at the same time, warding off a housing bubble going bust.