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Minsky's Approach to Employment Policy and Poverty: Employer of Last Resort and the War on Poverty

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  • L. Randall Wray

Abstract

While Hyman P. Minsky is best known for his work on financial instability, he was also intimately involved in the postwar debates about fiscal policy and what would become the War on Poverty. Indeed, at the University of California, Berkeley, he was a vehement critic of the policies of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and played a major role in developing an alternative. Minsky insisted that the high investment path chosen by postwar fine-tuners would generate macroeconomic instability, and that the War on Poverty would never lower poverty rates significantly. In retrospect, he was correct on both accounts. Further, he proposed high consumption and an employer of last resort policy as essential ingredients of any coherent strategy for achieving macro stability and poverty elimination. This paper summarizes Minsky’s work in this area, focusing on his writings from the early 1960s through the early 1970s in order to explore the path not taken.

Suggested Citation

  • L. Randall Wray, 2007. "Minsky's Approach to Employment Policy and Poverty: Employer of Last Resort and the War on Poverty," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_515, Levy Economics Institute.
  • Handle: RePEc:lev:wrkpap:wp_515
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    Cited by:

    1. Georgios Argitis & Stella Michopoulou, 2011. "Are Full Employment and Social Cohesion Possible Under Financialization?," Forum for Social Economics, Springer;The Association for Social Economics, vol. 40(2), pages 139-155, July.
    2. Sawyer, Malcolm & Veronese Passarella, Marco, 2021. "A Comprehensive Comparison of Fiscal and Monetary Policies: A Comparative Dynamics Approach," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 384-404.
    3. Godin, Antoine, 2014. "Job Guarantee: a Structuralist Perspective," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 16.
    4. C. J. Polychroniou, 2014. "Dead Economic Dogmas Trump Recovery: The Continuing Crisis in the Eurozone Periphery," Economics Public Policy Brief Archive ppb_133, Levy Economics Institute.
    5. Nina Dodig & Hansjorg Herr, 2015. "Theories of finance and financial crisis – Lessons for the Great Recession," Working papers wpaper126, Financialisation, Economy, Society & Sustainable Development (FESSUD) Project.

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