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This essay critically examines a statement made by former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, Olivier Blanchard, before and during a debate with one of the authors. Blanchard argued that a Keynesian "revolution" is needed to avert a future "catastrophe." But analyzing the historical process this essay names the law of capital's reproduction and tendency toward centralization leads to a grim prediction: the tendency of free capital to centralize and thereby jeopardize all other freedoms threatens today's liberal-democratic hegemonic institutions. In the face of this prospect, neither Keynesian policy nor a universal basic income seem adequate. The only revolution able to avert catastrophe is the redefinition of the most powerful tool in the history of political struggles: collective planning, subversively regarded as a factor for developing free social individuality and a newly liberated human being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a complete macroeconomic (SFC) model to study income and wealth distribution in an open economy. We argue that exchange rates and the stock of foreign debt play a major role in shaping inequality across and within countries. Using the 'relative income hypothesis', we show that debt-financed consumption of low-income households can affect both total income and the disposable income of high-income households in the medium run. In addition, while higher inequality is detrimental to the domestic economy, it can benefit trading partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to cross-breed the standard monetary circuit accounting model with elements from the Post-Keynesian literature. The goals are: (i) to analyse the implications of credit-based household consumption fed by capital asset inflation for the soundness of a pure credit-money economy of production; and (ii) to provide a more sophisticated description of the working of modern financial systems than the one grounded in the usual ‘bank-based vs. market based’ distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In response to the economic crisis unleashed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the EU authorities have launched extraordinary fiscal and monetary measures in support of member states. The impact of these measures is of great significance for Italy, the EU third-largest economy, which as a result of the pandemic has suffered a dramatic decline in GDP, and a further rise in the government debt to GDP ratio. Building on a stock-flow consistent, structural macro-econometric model, this paper shows that the currently planned EU measures are insufficient to boost the recovery of the Italian economy, and to ensure the sustainability of its government debt. The paper also assesses two potential alternative policies. A fiscal consolidation (i.e. austerity) policy would exacerbate the decline in GDP and further deteriorate the government debt to GDP ratio. By contrast, a money-financed fiscal stimulus policy could lead the Italian economy on a path of sustainable growth, with positive outcomes for employment and government finances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]