After the Great Recession

Barry Cynamon is a Research Associate at the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy at the Washington University, St Louis. His early research on the US consumer age of the past quarter century linked rising household spending and debt to group interactions and cultural norms. This work was published in 2008, just as the 'risk of collapse' it identified played out to become known as the Great Recession. He has also published research on both monetary and fiscal policy and is Chief Financial Officer of GLC Investments, a renewable energy investment management firm. He holds an MBA from the University of Chicago. Steven Fazzari is Professor of Economics and Associate Director of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy at Washington University, St Louis. He received a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University in 1982. The author of more than forty peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, Professor Fazzari's research explores two main areas: the financial determinants of investment and R&D spending by US firms and the foundations of Keynesian macroeconomics. His teaching awards include the 2002 Missouri Governor's award for excellence in university teaching, the 2007 Emerson Award for teaching excellence and Washington University's distinguished faculty award, also in 2007. Mark Setterfield is Professor of Economics at Trinity College, Hartford, Associate Member of the Cambridge Centre for Economic and Public Policy at the University of Cambridge, and Senior Research Associate at the International Economic Policy Institute, Laurentian University, Canada. He is the author of Rapid Growth and Relative Decline: Modelling Macroeconomic Dynamics with Hysteresis, the editor (or co-editor) of six volumes of essays, and has published on macroeconomic dynamics and Keynesian macroeconomics in journals including the Cambridge Journal of Economics, European Economic Review, the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics and The Manchester School.

'It has come as a shock to some that decades of relative economic stability could end with the calamity of the Great Recession and continued economic stagnation. Yet, many economists did see the writing on the wall, warning us that decades of productivity gains outstripping wage growth and increased reliance on debt and complicated and increasingly risky financial instruments were a recipe for disaster. The authors in this volume lay out the paths that policy makers could take that would deliver good jobs and sustained economic stability. This time, we should seriously consider their advice.' Heather Boushey, Senior Economist, Center for American Progress

• Part I. Introduction and Overview: 1. Understanding the great recession Barry Z. Cynamon, Steven M. Fazzari and Mark Setterfield; 2. America's exhausted paradigm: macroeconomic causes of the financial crisis and great recession Thomas I. Palley; Part II. Emergence of Financial Instability: 3. Minsky's money manager capitalism: assessment and reform L. Randall Wray; 4. Trying to serve two masters: the dilemma of financial regulation Jan Kregel; 5. How bonus-driven 'rainmaker' financial firms enrich top employees, destroy shareholder value, and create systemic financial instability James Crotty; Part III. Household Spending and Debt: Source of Past Growth-Seeds of Recent Collapse: 6. The end of the consumer age Barry Z. Cynamon and Steven M. Fazzari; 7. Wages, demand and US macroeconomic travails: diagnosis and prognosis Mark Setterfield; Part IV. Global Dimensions of US Crisis: 8. Global imbalances and US trade in the great recession and its aftermath Robert Blecker; Part V. Economic Policy after the Great Recession: 9. Confronting the Kindleberger moment: credit, fiscal, and regulatory policy to avoid economic disaster Gerald Epstein; 10. Fiscal policy: the recent record and lessons for the future Dean Baker; 11. No need to panic about US government deficits Barry Z. Cynamon and Steven M. Fazzari; 12. Fiscal policy for the great recession and beyond Pavlina Tcherneva; Part VI. The Way Forward: 13. Demand, finance, and uncertainty beyond the great recession Barry Z. Cynamon, Steven M. Fazzari and Mark Setterfield.