THE LEVY NEWS

CONTRIBUTE

February 14, 2025

HIGHLIGHTS

Dear Friends,

Last month’s devastating fires in Los Angeles were the latest testament to policy failures on two fronts. The first is the glacial pace at which climate policy is advancing, both domestically and internationally. Extreme climate events will continue to shape the contours of the economy and exacerbate economic insecurity. The second failure lies in the lack of adequate preparedness and prevention policies. Firefighters were flown in from other states and countries, including Mexico and Canada, to help battle the LA-wildfires, side-by-side with hundreds of incarcerated inmates who earn as little as $1/hr but make up one-third of CA’s firefighting labor force. Meanwhile, mutual aid organizations quickly organized to provide clothing, food, medicine, shelter assistance, and other resources to families whose neighborhoods were incinerated. However, reliance on mutual aid and volunteers is not a rigorous policy response to the devastation caused by extreme weather events. This holds true for Los Angeles, Florida, and anywhere climate disasters strike.

What we need is a robust policy infrastructure—a climate army, a national Green Hats Corps, ready to spring into action when the next climate disaster strikes—with all of the material, logistical, and personnel support that a permanent climate corps can provide. This was the key message of my talk at the Policy Speaker Series at Central European University, titled "The Climate Case for a Job Guarantee", which extends the analysis from the last chapter of my book The Case for a Job Guarantee (Polity 2020). Stakeholders and mutual aid organizations have demonstrated that communities can organize swiftly but that they are understaffed and under-resourced. A Green Job Guarantee can be the social and climate public infrastructure that enables hiring enough helping hands, mobilizing massive fire prevention efforts, and ensuring neighborhood cleanup, remediation, and social infrastructure in every community. This will ensure they are not left scarred after floods, fires, or hurricanes.

Regardless of the political environment, caring for the young, elderly, and vulnerable communities will remain an ongoing challenge. The Levy Institute's research is uniquely suited to providing policy answers, and our work continues to be sought after. This month, Senior Scholar Ajit Zacharias and I met with researchers from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to discuss the Institute's work on unpaid care. In 2024, the Levy Institute (Zacharias, Rios-Avila, Folbre, and Masterson) conducted research commissioned by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to develop a methodology to integrate home production (unpaid household labor like cooking, cleaning, and caring for children) into the BLS measure of household consumption. As the GAO embarks on its own research on unpaid work, its researchers are studying the methods and framework proposed by the Levy Institute.

You can learn more about the Levy Institute study conducted for the BLS and the ideas behind that report on our latest podcast episode, featuring Institute scholars Ajit Zacharias and İpek Ilkkaracan.

Sincerely,

Pavlina R. Tcherneva

President

Levy Economics Institute

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS AND ABSTRACTS

To be considered for the Summer Seminar, complete the application form and be sure to upload all required documents by March 1st, 2025.

The 2025 Levy Institute Summer Seminar is geared toward graduate students and those at the beginning of their academic or professional careers. Through lectures, hands-on workshops, and breakout groups, the seminar, organized by Pavlina R. Tcherneva and L. Randall Wray, is designed to give participants an opportunity to engage with the theory and methods of the Levy Economics Institute—particularly the work of Institute Distinguished Scholars Hyman Minsky and Wynne Godley, alongside new developments and research directions in Modern Money Theory (MMT)—and to apply them to critical emerging policy questions.

This year, seminar participants will have an opportunity to workshop their research during breakout sessions with fellow participants and seminar faculty.

APPLY HERE

UPCOMING EVENTS

Towards a European Job Guarantee

Join us for this session of the 2025 Spring Semester, with Rania Antonopoulos, Senior Scholar and Program Director at the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, on Wednesday, February 19, 5-6pm in the Levy Conference Room at Blithewood, or LIVE on Zoom. Dr. Antonopoulos' presentation will be followed by an open Q&A session with audience members—both those in person and on Zoom are welcome to ask questions. This event is moderated by Levy Institute President Pavlina R. Tcherneva and co-sponsored by the Economic Democracy Initiative.

Long-term unemployment negatively affects individuals, households, communities, and overall economic stability, making it a persistent challenge for many countries, including EU Member States. Dr. Antonopoulos will present statistical evidence on unemployment in the EU, discuss job guarantee policies, examine existing EU job creation initiatives, outline key principles for an EU-wide Job Guarantee (EU-JG), and explore financing options, with a particular focus on gender implications. Her presentation is based on a recent European Trade Union Institute report and previous research for the UN and Levy Economics Institute on employment guarantee policies and gender equality.

FEATURED PUBLICATIONS

Read Now

There is no contradiction between state money and private credit money—each played a role in the creation of the modern monetary system. Indeed, today’s system was created by bringing state money into the private money giro, thereby strengthening both.

Drawing on his books—Money and Credit in Capitalist Economies: The Endogenous Money Approach (1990), Understanding Modern Money: the Key to Full Employment and Price Stability (1998), and Credit and State Theories of Money: The Contributions of A. Mitchell Innes (2004, ed.)—Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray integrates the credit money approach (Post Keynesian endogenous money theory) with the state money approach (Modern Money Theory).

A Critical Examination of the “China Collapse” Narrative

Working Paper No. 1077 by Yan Liang

Western media and academia have heralded the China collapse narrative. In this paper, Research Associate Yan Liang provides a critical and balanced examination of the four challenges facing the Chinese economy—namely, deflation, debt, demographics, and de-coupling/de-risking. Liang argues that while deflationary pressure is present, consumer demand has been improving as the property market stabilized and policies to bolster domestic demand were and continue to be effective in reflating the economy.

Read Now

GRADUATE PROGRAMS

Next Session March 5th @ 9:00 AM EST

These information sessions provide an overview of the Levy academic programs, student life, admission requirements, enrollment steps, financial aid procedures, and immigration requirements for international students. Applicants who attend a virtual information session will have their application fees waived.

Backed by over 30 years of proven policy impact, the Levy Institute Graduate Programs in Economic Theory and Policy provide innovative approaches to topics such as time use, poverty, gender, student debt, and employment that other programs neglect, encouraging students to evaluate policies, examine behavior, and dig deeper into the social phenomena that underlie economic outcomes.

Along with a challenging academic environment, the Levy Institute programs also offer a supporting and caring community where students benefit from sharing their research with faculty and their peers to promote academic exchanges and intellectual collaboration.

To find out more, visit bard.edu/levygrad or follow the program’s Facebook page.

Interested students should contact the Institute at [email protected] for more information. Scholarships are available.

IN THE NEWS

Levy Institute President Pavlina R. Tcherneva was featured on Marketplace Morning watch on February 10, discussing current job market trends.

The podcast Entrepreneur, Among Other Things interviewed Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray for the episode "Does the US Debt Really Matter and is it Actually a Good Thing?" Wray also presented on February 11, at the the Instituto de Investigaciones Económicas UNAM. You can watch his presentation on Modern Money Theory on the UNAM institute's Facebook page. The podcast Neutrality Studies featured Wray on their episode titled, "How Economists Hide TRUE Money Mechanics To Sell Wars."

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