Thomas Mayer - Böcker

The Jewish community of Egypt in modem times-now practically non-existent-consisted in part of autochthonous Jews who traced their origins to the periods of Maimonides, Philo, and even the prophet Jeremiah, thus making it the oldest community in the Jewish Diaspora. It also contained Jews who were part of the waves of immigration into Egypt that began in the second half of the nineteenth century. Coming mostly from Mediterranean countries, this predominantly Sephardic community maintained a network of commercial, social, and religious ties throughout the entire region, as well as a distinctively Mediterranean culture and life-style. In this volume, international scholars examine the Ottoman background of this community, the political status and participation of the Jews in Egyptian society, their role in economic life, their contributions to Egyptian-Arabic culture, and the images of the community in their own eyes, as well as in the eyes of Egyptians and Palestinian Jews. The book includes an extensive set of appendixes that illustrate the wide range of primary sources used by the contributors.

The Jewish community of Egypt in modem times-now practically non-existent-consisted in part of autochthonous Jews who traced their origins to the periods of Maimonides, Philo, and even the prophet Jeremiah, thus making it the oldest community in the Jewish Diaspora. It also contained Jews who were part of the waves of immigration into Egypt that began in the second half of the nineteenth century. Coming mostly from Mediterranean countries, this predominantly Sephardic community maintained a network of commercial, social, and religious ties throughout the entire region, as well as a distinctively Mediterranean culture and life-style. In this volume, international scholars examine the Ottoman background of this community, the political status and participation of the Jews in Egyptian society, their role in economic life, their contributions to Egyptian-Arabic culture, and the images of the community in their own eyes, as well as in the eyes of Egyptians and Palestinian Jews. The book includes an extensive set of appendixes that illustrate the wide range of primary sources used by the contributors.

The financial crisis has exposed severe shortcomings in mainstream monetary economics and modern finance. It is surprising that these shortcomings have not led to a wider debate about the need to overhaul these theories. Instead, mainstream economists have closed ranks to defend existing theories and public authorities have expanded their interference in markets.This book investigates the problems associated with mainstream monetary economics and finance, and proposes alternatives based on the Austrian school of economics. This school emanated from the work of the nineteenth-century Austrian economist Carl Menger and was developed further by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich August von Hayek. In monetary economics, the Austrian school regards the creation of money by banks through credit extension as a key source of economic instability. From this follows the need for a comprehensive reform of our present monetary system. In a new monetary order, money could be issued by both public and private institutions, and there would be no need for fractional reserve banking. Instead of creating money, banks would intermediate it.In finance, the Austrian school rejects the notion of rational expectations and measurable risk. Individuals use their subjective knowledge to gather and evaluate information, and they act in a world of radical uncertainty. Hence, markets are not "efficient" nor can portfolios be built on the basis of known probability distributions of asset prices as described in the modern finance literature.This book explores the need for a new theoretical foundation for asset pricing and investment management that will give practitioners more useful orientation.

Shining new light onto an historically pivotal time, this book re-examines the Tudor commonwealth from a socio-political perspective and looks at its links to its own past. Each essay in this collection addresses a different aspect of the intellectual and cultural climate of the time, going beyond the politics of state into the underlying thought and tradition that shaped Tudor policy. Placing security and economics at the centre of debate, the key issues are considered in the context of medieval precedence and the wider European picture.

Permanent Income, Wealth, and Consumption: A Critique of the Permanent Income Theory, the Life-Cycle Hypothesis, and Related Theories is a pivotal exploration of the theoretical and empirical foundations of modern consumption theories. This work revisits the revolutionary concepts introduced in the mid-20th century, including Milton Friedman's Permanent Income Hypothesis and the Life-Cycle Hypothesis, to critically evaluate their assumptions and implications. Through a methodical synthesis of prior research and the introduction of new empirical tests, the book aims to resolve the longstanding debates surrounding the validity of these theories.The critique challenges the central claims of the "new theories," particularly the notions that consumption is directly proportional to permanent income and that transitory income plays no role in consumption behavior. By examining existing tests and presenting novel evidence, the author proposes an "intermediate" approach that aligns closer to traditional consumption theories while acknowledging certain insights from the newer models. The book underscores the complexities of testing these theories, highlighting issues such as data limitations, the influence of unobservable variables like tastes, and inconsistencies in definitions of consumption. Ultimately, this comprehensive evaluation offers a balanced perspective on the dynamics of income, wealth, and consumption, making it an essential read for economists and scholars interested in macroeconomic theory and empirical analysis.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1972.

Permanent Income, Wealth, and Consumption: A Critique of the Permanent Income Theory, the Life-Cycle Hypothesis, and Related Theories is a pivotal exploration of the theoretical and empirical foundations of modern consumption theories. This work revisits the revolutionary concepts introduced in the mid-20th century, including Milton Friedman's Permanent Income Hypothesis and the Life-Cycle Hypothesis, to critically evaluate their assumptions and implications. Through a methodical synthesis of prior research and the introduction of new empirical tests, the book aims to resolve the longstanding debates surrounding the validity of these theories.The critique challenges the central claims of the "new theories," particularly the notions that consumption is directly proportional to permanent income and that transitory income plays no role in consumption behavior. By examining existing tests and presenting novel evidence, the author proposes an "intermediate" approach that aligns closer to traditional consumption theories while acknowledging certain insights from the newer models. The book underscores the complexities of testing these theories, highlighting issues such as data limitations, the influence of unobservable variables like tastes, and inconsistencies in definitions of consumption. Ultimately, this comprehensive evaluation offers a balanced perspective on the dynamics of income, wealth, and consumption, making it an essential read for economists and scholars interested in macroeconomic theory and empirical analysis.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1972.

This collection of essays examines the institutional framework in which monetary policy is made. The essays consider two questions: how free is the Fed to set monetary policy and to what extent do organisational problems affect the choice of that monetary policy? Topics covered include the Fed's response to movements on its goals, Congressional and presidential pressures on the Fed, the existence of political business cycles operating through monetary policy, and the extent to which monetary policy may be explained by the Fed's own interests. A final section examines the claim that the Federal Reserve follows counter-cyclical policy and evaluates its performance as a lender to banks both in normal times and as a lender of last resort.

Thomas Starkey (c. 1495-1538) was the most Italianate Englishman of his generation. This book places Starkey into new and more appropriate contexts, both biographical and intellectual, taking him out of others in which he does not belong, from displaced Roundhead to follower of Marsilio of Padua. Beginning with his native Cheshire, it traces his career through Oxford, Padua, Paris, Avignon, Padua again, and finally England, where he spent the last four years of his life trying to fulfil his ambition to serve the commonweal. Most of Starkey's career revolved around his patron Reginald Pole, scion of the highest nobility, but Starkey (and many other Englishmen) managed to balance loyalty to Pole with allegiance to Henry VIII. Out of favour with the king's secretary after the middle of 1536, Starkey turned increasingly to religion, continuing to cling to his conciliarist and Italian Evangelical opinions until his death.

The euro was originally seen as another stepping stone to a politically unified Europe. Yet with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the unification of Germany, the need for European political union as a means to ensure peace in Europe disappeared. Due to the fading will for full political union, the euro project lost the prospect of a stable platform in the foreseeable future. As a result, the euro crisis forces policymakers to develop a new architecture for EMU. ‘Europe’s Unfinished Currency’ proposes that this can only be done by way of a currency union of sovereign states, which in itself is a unique historical experiment as no such union has ever survived to date. This volume offers ideas of how the EMU could potentially work, and sketches scenarios of how things might evolve in case of failure.Key Insights: *Outlines the origins of the euro within the quest for the unification of Europe. *Explains the historical failures of past monetary unions, including the Latin and Scandinavian currency unions, the US dollar standard and the Austro-Hungarian union. *Posits that the European Central Bank in cooperation with a European Monetary Fund should act as the lender of last resort to all systemically important borrowers, including governments, to safeguard price stability. *Proposes a new EMU architecture, which includes the creation of a European Monetary Fund.*Discusses possible mutations of the EMU in case of failure.

Shining new light onto an historically pivotal time, this book re-examines the Tudor commonwealth from a socio-political perspective and looks at its links to its own past. Each essay in this collection addresses a different aspect of the intellectual and cultural climate of the time, going beyond the politics of state into the underlying thought and tradition that shaped Tudor policy. Placing security and economics at the centre of debate, the key issues are considered in the context of medieval precedence and the wider European picture.

The financial crisis has exposed severe shortcomings in mainstream monetary economics and modern finance. It is surprising that these shortcomings have not led to a wider debate about the need to overhaul these theories. Instead, mainstream economists have closed ranks to defend existing theories and public authorities have expanded their interference in markets.This book investigates the problems associated with mainstream monetary economics and finance, and proposes alternatives based on the Austrian school of economics. This school emanated from the work of the nineteenth-century Austrian economist Carl Menger and was developed further by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, and Friedrich August von Hayek. In monetary economics, the Austrian school regards the creation of money by banks through credit extension as a key source of economic instability. From this follows the need for a comprehensive reform of our present monetary system. In a new monetary order, money could be issued by both public and private institutions, and there would be no need for fractional reserve banking. Instead of creating money, banks would intermediate it.In finance, the Austrian school rejects the notion of rational expectations and measurable risk. Individuals use their subjective knowledge to gather and evaluate information, and they act in a world of radical uncertainty. Hence, markets are not "efficient" nor can portfolios be built on the basis of known probability distributions of asset prices as described in the modern finance literature.This book explores the need for a new theoretical foundation for asset pricing and investment management that will give practitioners more useful orientation.

Invitation to Economics empowers the reader to spot naive and spurious economic arguments by inculcating an intuitive 'feel' for economics. A unique and critical guide to understanding economic arguments in the mediaFocuses on microeconomics, specifically on the idea that economic policies often have important indirect effectsKey ideas are applied repeatedly in numerous case studies drawn from newspapers and other mediaEconomic principles are presented in an accessible and non-rigorous format using case studiesIncorporates the value judgments and political judgments that underlie economic policies

A fresh examination of the idea of martyrdom in the transition from the medieval to the modern periods.Concepts of Christian martyrdom changed greatly in England from the late middle ages through the early modern era. The variety of paradigms of Christian martyrdom (with, for example, virginity or asceticism perceived as alternateforms of martyrdom) that existed in the late medieval period, came to be replaced during the English Reformation with a single dominant idea of martyrdom: that of violent death endured for orthodox religion. Yet during the seventeenth century another transformation in conceptions of martyrdom took place, as those who died on behalf of overtly political causes came to be regarded as martyrs, indistinguishable from those who died for Christ.The articles in this book explore these seminal changes across the period from 1400-1700, analyzing the political, social and religious backgrounds to these developments. While much that has been written on martyrs, martyrdom and martyrologies has tended to focus on those who died for a particular confession or cause, this book shows how the concepts of martyrdom were shaped, altered and re-shaped through the interactions between these groups.THOMAS S. FREEMAN is Research Officer at the British Academy John Foxe Project, which is affiliated with the University of Sheffield; THOMAS F. MAYER is Professor of History at Augustana College. Contributors: JOHN COFFEY, BRAD S.GREGORY, VICTOR HOULISTON, ANDREW LACEY, DANNA PIROYANSKY, RICHARD REX, ALEC RYRIE, WILLIAM WIZEMAN

This engaging and intelligent book provides an accessible, down to earth assessment of the role of formalism and rigour in economics.Professor Mayer argues that there is room in economics for both highly formalised theory and for the less formal theory that predominates in the natural sciences. But economists generally fail to distinguish between these two types of theory. As a result, they often act as if the strength of an argument depends on the strength of its strongest link. They misallocate effort, polishing those parts of the argument that tend to be formalised, while paying insufficient attention to the others. Drawing on public choice theory, Mayer shows how this emphasis on the strongest link has distorted research particularly in new classical theory. He advocates stricter econometric testing, showing that many procedures currently used are only soft tests.

Doing Economic Research brings together a series of authoritative and illuminating essays by Thomas Mayer which bridge the gap between the abstract work of methodology and the practical research problems that concern the professional economist. Arguing that methodologists should pay more attention to the day-to-day problems that face practising economists, Professor Mayer illustrates how simple methodological considerations can clarify a series of issues in applied economics. In particular, he offers a defence of positivism in economics and counters the argument that economics is not an empirical science. Specific essays reassess debates about microfoundations and Ricardian equivalence, consider whether assumptions should be realistic, question whether recent improvements in techniques have helped to resolve the monetarist debate, discuss the role of consumer theory and deal with some key issues in econometric practice.Doing Economic Research differs from other work on economic methodology by focusing on specific issues of concern to applied economists, such as whether the failure of consumer choice theory on experimental tests matters. Applied economists and methodologists will welcome the book's direct, down-to-earth manner and the way in which Professor Mayer's ideas are applied to contemporary economic research.

This two volume set reprints 28 papers on fiscal and monetary policy interpreted broadly enough to include such issues as the effects of government debt and intergenerational accounting. It emphasizes problems that are not specific to a particular country but are relevant for all developed market economies. Fiscal and Monetary Policy is divided into three parts; the first deals with the problems that are common to both fiscal and monetary policies; the second deals with fiscal policy and the third with monetary policy.Fiscal and Monetary Policy includes important articles on the effects of lags on the feasibility of stabilization policy, time inconsistency, the motivation of monetary and fiscal authorities, the Lucas critique, Ricardian equivalence, the choice of monetary targets, feedback rules, international aspects of monetary policy and the appropriate role of government in the monetary system.

This unique book deals with the most serious macroeconomic failure experienced in the US in the post-war period and the great inflation of the late 1960s and 1970s. It is the first detailed analysis, using Federal Reserve documents, of the thinking behind the inflationary monetary policy during this period.The book examines documentary evidence, including minutes, memos and reports and interviews with people who were closely involved in making policy decisions, to explain the monetary policy that led to this inflation. Thomas Mayer considers forecasting errors and wage and price controls in his attempt to explain why the inflation occurred and places some of the blame on ineffective operating procedures, institutional inefficiencies, and political pressures on the Federal Reserve. The author concludes that much of the responsibility for the mistaken policies lies with academic economists who underestimated the dangers of inflation and encouraged the Federal Reserve to focus on an unattainable employment goal.Monetary Policy and the Great Inflation in the United States will be welcomed by economists, political scientists and economic historians interested in monetary policy

Verfolgt die Politik gegenwärtig die falschen Rezepte zur Überwindung der Finanzkrise und Stabilisierung des Euro? Thomas Mayer empfiehlt in seiner Hayek-Vorlesung 2012 weniger Konstruktivismus in der Wirtschaftspolitik, einen besseren Ordnungsrahmen für das Spiel der Marktkräfte, die Verbindung von Souveränität und Haftung bei den Staatsfinanzen der EWU-Länder und (in der EWU und anderswo) entpolitisiertes Geld. Er erläutert, wie die Einsichten der österreichischen Schule in die Verbindungen zwischen Realwirtschaft und Finanzsektor in der Vergangenheit von der Politik und dem akademischen Mainstream weitgehend ignoriert wurden, zum Schaden für unser Gemeinwesen. Daraus scheint man auch heute nichts gelernt zu haben. Der Trend geht zu noch mehr Konstruktivismus, mehr Staat, der Vergemeinschaftung der finanziellen Haftung in der EWU und zur Politisierung des Geldes.