Friday, April 5, 2013

Malcolm Sawyer — The Barriers to Full Employment are Political, Not Economic


Kalecki.

Naked Keynesianism

The Barriers to Full Employment are Political, Not Economic
Malcolm Sawyer | Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of Leeds

5 comments:

Ralph Musgrave said...

Malcolm Sawyer had some disagreements with Bill Mitchell and Randy Wray over JG a few years ago. See:

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4227957?uid=3738032&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21102098699017

Sawyer doesn’t completely rule out JG, but his paper is quality stuff and JG advocates need to think about some of criticisms he makes.

WillORNG said...

He seems to have backed away from some of his more neo-liberal positions?

Tom Hickey said...

Sawyer doesn’t completely rule out JG, but his paper is quality stuff and JG advocates need to think about some of criticisms he makes.

And without a JG, the alternative to the reserve army of the unemployed and destitute is?

Looks to me like it's a JG or some sort of BIG, or else continue with the army of the unemployed and destitute.

In economics there are no perfect solutions. There are trade-offs. The position of the left is that the chief priority is full employment with some floating price instability, and the chief position of the right is that it is price stability with floating unemployment.

MMT is the only theoretical solution out there that guarantees a job to anyone willing and able to work (technical def of full employment) and the promise of minimum float of price level.

Malcomm Sawyer has a better Idea?

Calgacus said...

Here is Mitchell & Wray's response: In Defense of Employer of Last Resort: a response to Malcolm Sawyer and here is Forstater's: Reply to Malcolm Sawyer. Nels Anderson's 1938 book cited by Forstater The Right to Work is of great interest too.

Calgacus said...

Also: Sawyer's response: Employer of Last Resort: A Response to My Critics free version

Original paper : Employer of Last Resort: Could It Deliver Full Employment and Price Stability?