Supra-National Money and the Euro Crisis: Lessons from Karl Polanyi

The paper seeks to examine some of the key features of Karl Polanyi’s ideas explaining the collapse of the pre-Great Depression unregulated market system by using his broad framework of analysis, as developed in The Great Transformation and published over 70 years ago, to explain the present Eurozone crisis. Emphasis is placed on the two key institutions of the pre-Depression era, namely haute finance and the gold standard, as well as his heterodox views on the nature and origin of money to shed light on the evolving crisis within the Eurozone. On the basis of Polanyi’s insights, the paper concludes that the cause of the latter crisis is similar and it lies primarily in the adoption of stateless or supra-national money that is even more restrictive on the behaviour of national authorities than the conditions imposed under the gold standard. The current situation of quasi-permanent austerity in the Eurozone is the inevitable consequence of its monetary architecture, and it will remain a long-term feature of Europe, unless significant institutional changes are put in place to bridge the gap between money and the state.     

论纳兰性德词中雨的意象

纳兰词中雨意象出现频率颇高,统计起来,在纳兰性德的三百四十三首词中,雨出现了八十七次之多。可将雨意象归纳为四类,分别是思妻之雨、悼亡之雨、思友之雨和怀乡之雨。雨的意象的形成,与词人个人独特的感伤性格、词人自己一生的遭遇、词人的伤感的审美观以及传统的婉约词尤其是北宋词的影响有关。     

2014年上半年中国货币市场运行报告

2014年上半年，中国人民银行继续执行稳健货币政策，适时主动地进行预调微调，有效稳定市场预期。货币市场平稳运行，成交规模稳步扩大，市场利率震荡下行，波动幅度逐步收窄，各子市场发展速度出现分化。银行业金融机构融出意愿有所增强，非银行市场主体参与度不断提升，货币市场流动性管理功能进一步发挥。     

Rethinking Money as an Institution of Capitalism and the Theory of Monetary Circulation: What Can Modern Heterodox Economists/Institutionalists Learn from Karl Polanyi?

Modern heterodox theories of money reject the neoclassical conception of money as primarily a medium to facilitate exchange. These heterodox theories of money all have as common starting point an analysis of credit-debt relations in which production is a central feature, with these economies organized along capitalistic design. The Keynesian-Marxian framework describing the process of monetary circulation, traditionally referred to as the theory of the monetary circuit (TMC), perhaps best represents this comprehensive vision. This broad TMC analytical framework is compatible with institutionalist theories of money that also point to the importance of credit-debt relations. The question, however, is whether this more unified heterodox theory of money, which describes sequentially monetary relations under capitalism, can be used to understand pre-capitalistic monetary institutions. By conceptualizing money as a means of payment rather than medium of exchange, Karl Polanyi’s analysis offers social scientists crucial insights to understanding monetary relations in all types of societies in which credit-debt relations have emerged historically.     

Skidelsky's Keynes: a review essay

Abstract

The paper examines the pro-work doctrines of four writers who were connected with the ‘utopian’ and ‘romantic’ critique of classical economics in the nineteenth century. These authors are Charles Fourier, Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, and William Morris. All four argued that the problem of work aversion stemmed from the existing institutions of capitalist society, and could be overcome by the creation of an alternative system of production. Their aim was to create a future society in which work could be experienced as a positive activity. The paper argues that the views of the aforementioned authors provided an important counterchallenge to the classical economists' conception of work as a disutility.     

POST-KEYNESIAN MONETARY THEORY: SOME ISSUES

Abstract. Post-Keynesian monetary theory is of increasing interest to economists in the light of world-wide financial deregulation of financial markets. This paper offers an exposition of the main issues in this area, including an overview of the most divisive issue, that of interest rate determination, and hence, the slope of the money supply function. Post-Keynesian monetary theorists divide into two camps with respect to the determination of interest rates: the 'markup school'and the 'liquidity preference school'. It is argued in the paper that the post-Keynesian theory of the business cycle, which incorporates endogeneity of the money supply, requires a liquidity preference notion of interest rate determination.     

Monetising the Classical Equations: a theory of circulation

The Classical Equations describe output and income in real terms.To use them to analyse aggregate demand, the transactions theydescribe must be ‘monetised’. A sum of money equalto the wage bill of the capital goods sector can be shown tobe necessary and sufficient to carry out all transactions, ina process of circulation which also defines an expression forvelocity. When money has intrinsic value, the quantity approachmay hold in the short run but, in the long run, money will beendogenous. In these conditions, the rate of interest will bedetermined by the supply and demand for reserves, but when moneyis purely nominal, only a minimum rate will be fixed, and therate of interest will have to be pegged. The Appendix developsthe Classical Equations and shows that they define an invariableunit of account.     

The Value of the Rent Control Option

In this paper, we combine direct arbitrage arguments and an option-pricing approach to develop a method of pricing the option for rent control. For a lump-sum payment of key money, a tenant acquires the right to rent a real estate unit for an exogenously determined controlled rent, as opposed to paying the free-market rent. The tenant may continue exercising this right as long as he or she lives. Alternatively, the tenant may sell the right to occupy the controlled rent unit and receive a fraction of the key money paid by the subsequent tenant. We value the equilibrium key money, in a representative agents partial equilibrium, while endogenously determining the expected tenure duration in a controlled rent unit. We propose a procedure for valuing rent control options different from the representative agents. Our analysis shows that under real-world levels of conditional life expectancy, the level of the fraction of the key money retained by a departing tenant has an insignificant effect on the expected tenure duration in a controlled rent unit and on the level of key money.     

Changing monetary transmission mechanisms within the EU

The paper presents a comparative analysis of monetary transmission mechanisms and changes in them after the secondERM in March 1983. The empirical model investigates the determination of money, income, prices, and interest rates in Germany, Denmark, and Italy based on the cointegratedVAR model. It provides empirical results on the macroeconomic effects of joining theERM and financial deregulation.     

2008年10月金融形势评述

2008年10月,金融运行总体平稳,主要特点是：广义货币M2和狭义货币M1增速回落幅度有所减缓;贷款平稳增长,票据融资连续7个月反弹;储蓄存款增速快速回升,企业存款增速小幅回升;人民币汇率较上月末微贬0.11%,海外人民币汇率贬值预期有所增强。