More than a decade after the global financial crisis, macroeconomists have failed to absorb three crucial sets of lessons. Their models are still struggling – and mostly failing – to cope with disruptive change, and with the fact that both balance sheets and inequality matter.…Stating the obvious but it that most at the top don't get it yet.
Project Syndicate
What Economists Still Need to Learn
Mark Cliffe is Chief Economist and Head of Global Research of the ING Group.
Also of interest is this review of Raghuram Rajan's new book.
His latest book attempts to go beyond warning of the dangers of unfettered capitalism to what can be done to fix it. Rajan suggests restoring the third pillar of society, the community, which he defines as a social group residing in a specific area that shares government and often a common heritage. Markets and the state remain indispensable, but “when the three pillars of society are appropriately balanced” … “society has the best chance for providing for its people,” particularly those who lose out from the effects of trade and technology.
At least some economists are rediscovering community if not society. The convention assumption is still "there is no such thing as society" (Margaret Thatcher). As a result no systems awareness.
Fixing Capitalism
Prakash Loungani | Assistant Director and Senior Personnel & Budget Manager in the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office
The second lesson from the crisis is that balance sheets matter. The financialization of the global economy leaves national economies vulnerable to major corrections in asset prices that can render debt unserviceable. Prakash Loungan
ReplyDeleteDue to government privilege for depository institutions such as deposit insurance, their liabilities toward the non-bank private sector are largely a sham.
So if balance sheets matter, how about eliminating those privileges?