The Levy Economics Institute of Bard College is pleased to announce the ninth Minsky Summer Seminar will be held from June 17–23, 2018. The Seminar will provide a rigorous discussion of both the theoretical and applied aspects of Minsky’s economics, with an examination of meaningful prescriptive policies relevant to the current economic and financial outlook. It will also provide an introduction to Wynne Godley’s stock-flow consistent modeling methods via hands-on workshops.

The Summer Seminar will be of particular interest to graduate students, recent graduates, and those at the beginning of their academic or professional careers. The teaching staff will include well-known economists working in the theory and policy tradition of Hyman Minsky and Wynne Godley.

Applications may be made to Kathleen Mullaly at the Levy Institute ([email protected]), and should include a letter of application and current curriculum vitae. Admission to the Summer Seminar will include provision of room and board on the Bard College Campus. The registration fee for the Seminar will be $325.

Due to limited space availability, the Seminar will be limited to 30 participants; applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis starting in January 2018.

Last year’s seminar featured the following faculty (the roster changes somewhat from year to year, but will be broadly similar for ’18):

Robert J. Barbera
Codirector, Center for Financial Economics, The Johns Hopkins University

Leonardo Burlamaqui
Associate Professor, University of the State of Rio de Janeiro

Fernando J. Cardim de Carvalho
Senior Scholar, Levy Institute; Emeritus Professor of Economics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Steven M. Fazzari
Research Associate, Levy Institute; Professor, Washington University in St. Louis

John F. Henry
Senior Scholar, Levy Institute

Arturo Huerta González
Professor of Economics, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Fadhel Kaboub
Research Associate, Levy Institute; Associate Professor, Denison University; President, Binzagr Institute for Sustainable Prosperity

Stephanie A. Kelton
Research Associate, Levy Institute; Professor, University of Missouri–Kansas City

Jan Kregel
Director of Research, Levy Institute; Professor, Tallinn University of Technology

Tracy Mott
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Economics, University of Denver

Michalis Nikiforos
Research Scholar, Levy Institute

Felipe Rezende
Assistant Professor of Economics, Bard College

Pavlina R. Tcherneva
Research Associate, Levy Institute; Associate Professor, Bard College

Mario Tonveronachi
Professor, University of Siena

Frank Veneroso
President, Veneroso Associates, LLC

L. Randall Wray
Senior Scholar, Levy Institute; Professor, Bard College

Gennaro Zezza
Research Scholar, Levy Institute; Associate Professor, University of Cassino

Today at the New School, L. Randall Wray and Stephanie Kelton take part in a public workshop organized by the National Jobs for All Coalition that is focused on developing a “A New ‘New Deal’ for NYC and the USA.”

Wray and Kelton will be sharing initial findings from an upcoming Levy Institute project that proposes a universal job guarantee for the United States. The program would create nearly 20 million jobs that pay $15 per hour plus benefits, raising national output by over $500 billion annually, stimulating the private sector to create more than 3 million additional jobs. Using standard simulation models, the study finds that impacts on inflation would be negligible, while state and local government budgets would improve by $60 billion annually and as many as 14 million children would be pulled out of poverty.

The entire event begins at 5pm today. You can follow it live here:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jqG3wtqm5A&w=427&h=240]

The schedule for the two-day event can be found here.

The Levy Institute is accepting applications to the M.S. and M.A. in Economic Theory and Policy for Fall 2018.

The new, one-year M.A.* joins the two-year M.S. in offering students an alternative to mainstream programs in economics and finance. Our graduate curriculum is rooted in the Institute’s distinctive research program, including macroeconomic theory and policy analysis, the development and exploration of alternative measures of economic well-being and poverty, and continuing efforts to extend the work of Distinguished Scholars Hyman Minsky and Wynne Godley.

Students can specialize in one of the Institute’s five research areas:

• Macroeconomic Theory, Policy, and Modeling
• Employment and Labor Markets
• Monetary Policy and Financial Structure
• Distribution of Income, Wealth, and Well-Being
• Gender Equality and the Economy

You can find out more about these programs at the new graduate website:

The application deadline for early decision is November 15th; regular decision is January 15th.

Interested students can join upcoming online information sessions run by program faculty:

October 19th, 7:00pm (EST) with Jan Kregel, Director of the Institute’s Master’s Program (sign up here)

November 3rd, 9:00am (EST) with Ajit Zacharias, Director of the Institute’s Distribution of Income and Wealth Program (sign up here)

A previous session with Director of Applied Micromodeling Thomas Masterson can be viewed here at the Levy Institute Graduate Programs Facebook page.

And don’t miss the work that Levy M.S. students and recent graduates have done at The Minskys.

* The M.A. is currently open only to US citizens and permanent residents — the M.S. accepts international students.

Jan Kregel opened this year’s Minsky Conference (which just wrapped up yesterday) with a reminder that the broader public challenges we face today are still in many ways an echo of those that faced the nation in 1930s. What follows is an abridged version of those remarks:

This year’s conference takes place in an increasingly charged and divisive economic and political atmosphere. Sharp differences in approach are present within the new administration, within the majority party, and even within the opposition. It is a rather different environment than the one envisaged when planning for the Conference started last September. I had originally proposed as a title “The New Administration meets the New Normal: Economic Policy for Secular Stagnation.” It was an obvious attempt to hedge our bets on the outcome of the election. After the election the first adjustment to the title was “Can the New Mercantilism Displace the New Normal: Economic Policy under the New Administration.” As you can see the final title eventually adopted the elocution proposed at the presidential Inauguration.

My intention was not to elicit recollection of the “America First” committee’s support of isolation from the emerging European conflict in the 1930s. It was rather to recall that the phrase was first used, to my knowledge, by Franklin Roosevelt during his first election campaign.

Herbert Hoover had resolutely refrained from direct government support for the growing masses of the unemployed (although support was more than most give him credit for) for fear of interfering with the operation of the market mechanism in producing recovery from what was presumed to be a temporary cyclical downturn: “Recovery was just around the corner.” When this did not occur as expected the blame was laid on foreign financial and political events eroding confidence.

For Roosevelt, Hoover’s policy implied that “farmers and workers must wait for general recovery until some miracle occurs by which the factory wheels revolve again” but “No one knows the formula for this miracle.” Instead he argued in favor of direct measures to “restore prosperity here in this country by re-establishing the purchasing power of half the people of the country … In this respect, I am for America first.”

Instead of the miracle of a spontaneous market recovery, Roosevelt promised to take action to defend the condition of the “forgotten man” by offering him a “new deal” to protect from the ravages of bankers and industrialists. The simple substitution of “America Great” for “new deal” suggests an important similarity between the rhetoric and the target audience of the two campaigns.

It is instructive that in both cases the election was won with promises, creating a belief that appropriate actions would be forthcoming. We know from history how Roosevelt proceeded by experimentation, by trial and error, of what at the time were considered audacious, radical policies.

The question before us today is how the experimentation of the new administration may be directed to fulfill campaign promises. continue reading…

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN:

April 18–19, 2017

Levy Economics Institute of Bard College
Blithewood
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York 12504

The 2017 Minsky Conference will address the implications of the new administration’s “America First” policies, focusing on the outlook for trade, taxation, fiscal, and financial regulation measures to generate domestic investments capable of moving the growth rate beyond the “new normal” established in the aftermath of the Great Recession, without jeopardizing financial stability. It will also seek to assess the impact of different financing schemes on both infrastructure investment and the return of central bank monetary policies to more neutral interest rates. Since these new policy proposals will have a global impact, the conference will focus on their implication for the performance of European and Latin American economies.

Register here.

The preliminary program and list of participants is below the fold: continue reading…

If you’re a grad student or just starting out your career and want to learn more about the work of Hyman Minsky and Wynne Godley, and wouldn’t mind doing so in a turn-of-the-century manor on the banks of the Hudson, you’re in luck.

The Levy Institute’s annual Minsky Summer Seminar is now accepting applications for the June 2017 session:

The Levy Economics Institute is pleased to announce that it will hold the eighth Minsky Summer Seminar June 10–16, 2017. The Seminar will provide a rigorous discussion of both the theoretical and applied aspects of Minsky’s economics, with an examination of meaningful prescriptive policies relevant to the current economic and financial outlook. It will also provide an introduction to Wynne Godley’s stock-flow consistent modeling methods via hands-on workshops.

The Summer Seminar will be of particular interest to graduate students, recent graduates, and those at the beginning of their academic or professional careers. The teaching staff will include well-known economists working in the tradition of Minsky.

To apply, send a letter of application and current curriculum vitae to Kathleen Mullaly at the Levy Institute ([email protected]). Admission to the Summer Seminar includes room and board on the Bard College campus. A registration fee of $250 is required upon acceptance.

Due to space constraints, the Seminar will be limited to 30 participants. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis beginning in January 2017.

The 2017 Summer Seminar program will be organized by Jan Kregel, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, and L. Randall Wray.

Below the fold is a copy of the 2016 program, to give a sense of the sort of topics and speakers featured at the Seminar (note the guest speakers do change from one year to the next): continue reading…

Designed as a terminal degree with a professional focus, the Levy Economics Institute Master of Science in Economic Theory and Policy offers students an alternative to mainstream graduate programs in economics and finance. This innovative two-year program combines a rigorous course of study with exceptional opportunity to participate in advanced economics research, with direct access to the Institute’s global network of researchers.

Application deadlines are November 15 for Early Decision and January 15 for Regular Decision. Scholarships are available. Visit bard.edu/levyms for more information. Click here to apply.

Learn about the Levy M.S. by joining one of our online information sessions hosted by Institute scholars:

Wednesday, October 5, 3:00 p.m. EDT, with Research Scholar Michalis Nikiforos
Tuesday, October 11, 11:00 a.m. EDT, with Ajit Zacharias, Senior Scholar and Distribution of Income and Wealth Program Director
Tuesday, October 18, 10:00 a.m. EDT, with Senior Scholar and Bard College Professor of Economics L. Randall Wray

The program application fee will be waived for all prospective students who attend. Click here for details.

Audio from the 25th Annual Minsky Conference will be broadcast live. Listen here beginning tomorrow at 9am.

Tuesday, April 12

Wednesday, April 13

continue reading…

The preliminary program has been posted for the 25th Annual Hyman Minsky Conference, being held April 12-13 here at Blithewood on the Bard College campus.

The deadline for registration is April 1st.

Tuesday, April 12

Wednesday, April 13

The deadline to apply for this year’s Hyman P. Minsky Summer Seminar is approaching:

Organized by the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College with support from the Ford Foundation

Levy Institute
Blithewood
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York

June 10–18, 2016

The seventh Minsky Summer Seminar will be held at the Levy Economics Institute in June 2016. The annual Summer Seminar provides a rigorous discussion of both the theoretical and applied aspects of Minsky’s economics, with an examination of meaningful prescriptive policies relevant to the current economic and financial crisis. Organized by Jan Kregel, Dimitri B. Papadimitriou, and L. Randall Wray, the Seminar program is geared toward graduate students and those at the beginning of their academic or professional careers. The teaching staff includes well-known economists concentrating on and expanding Minsky’s work.

Applications may be made to Kathleen Mullaly at the Levy Institute ([email protected]), and should include a current curriculum vitae. Admission to the Summer Seminar includes provision of room and board on the Bard College campus.

Due to limited space availability, the deadline for applications is March 1, 2016.

A user name and password are required for the Summer Seminar webpage; participating students may log in by clicking here.