James K. Galbraith on"A question of Institutions: Why in spite of Reactionary Economic Ideas the US Still Survived the Great Financial Crisis and Europe Did Not"

James K. Galbraith in an extremely useful historical and institutional view of the American and European situations. The speech, entitled "A question of Institutions: Why in spite of Reactionary Economic Ideas the US Still Survived the Great Financial Crisis and Europe Did Not," delivered to a seminar on full employment policy in Helsinki Finland, December 2012.



The event was organised by the Foundation for European Progressive Studies with the support of the Kalevi Sorsa Foundation and the Finnish Confederation on Trade Unions (SAK).

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Material from the Conference website:

It is often argued that the era of full employment and Keynesian economic policy is over. Most orthodox economists claim that, in the long run, real full employment cannot be achieved with demand management policies. Active demand management is, thus, deemed to be too costly and inflationary.

Top Post-Keynesian economists James K. Galbraith and L. Randall Wray, however, argue that achieving full employment through demand management is still perfectly possible. They suggest that, in order to achieve full employment and carry out democratic economic policies, governments have to break out from the pressures of the private bond markets.

Program

14.00–14.15 Opening
Ernst Stetter, Secretary General, FEPS
Mikko Majander, Director, Kalevi Sorsa Foundation

14.15–15.00 A Question of Institutions: Why In Spite of Reactionary Economic Ideas the US Still Survived the Great Financial Crisis, and Europe Did Not
James K. Galbraith, Professor, University of Austin Texas

15.00–15.45 Wray: Money, the State, and Employment as Anti-Poverty Policy: A Minskian Approach (ppt)
L. Randall Wray, Professor, University of Missouri – Kansas City

15.45–16.15 Break

16.15–18.00 Comments and Panel Discussion
Comments will be delivered by Olli Koski (Chief Economist, SAK), Jukka Pekkarinen (General Director, Economics Department at the Ministry of Finance) and Lena Sommestad (Professor of Economic History, MP in Sweden). They will join professors Galbraith and Wray in a panel discussion, which will be moderated by Dr. Ville-Pekka Sorsa (University of Helsinki).