DEBT episode 1: Debt, a great invention

This paper presents an overview of different models which explain financial crises, with the aim of understanding economic developments during and possibly after the Great Recession. In the first part approaches based on efficient markets and rational expectations hypotheses are analyzed, which however do not give any explanation for the occurrence of financial crises and thus cannot suggest any remedies for the present situation. A broad range of theoretical approaches analyzing financial crises from a medium term perspective is then discussed. Within this group we focused on the insights of Marx, Schumpeter, Wicksell, Hayek, Fisher, Keynes, Minsky, and Kindleberger. Subsequently the contributions of the Regulation School, the approach of Social Structures of Accumulation and Post-Keynesian approach, which focus on long-term developments and regime shifts in capitalist development, are presented. International approaches to finance and financial crises are integrated into the analyses. We address the issue of relevance of all these theories for the present crisis and draw some policy implications. The paper has the aim to find out to which extent the different approaches are able to explain the Great Recession, what visions they develop about future development of capitalism and to which extent these different approaches can be synthesized.

Am 06. November 2024 zerbrach die deutsche Bundesregierung an der Schuldenbremse und der Frage nach Zukunftsinvestitionen. Hinter der wirtschaftspolitischen Auseinandersetzung steckt eine tiefe Krise des exportabhängigen deutschen Wachstumsmodells, analysiert der Politökonom Max Hauser.

The historian Nicholas Mulder talks about the Western sanctions against Russia in the context of the Ukraine Crisis. He explains that the current sanctions are unprecedented in terms of size, speed and scope, expected consequences as well as potential drawbacks and problems.

The article discusses whether the turning point in EU's Russia policy with sanctions aimed directly at Putin's war chest of foreign reserves will change the landscape of countries' foreign assets.