Author Archives: pilkingtonphil

About pilkingtonphil

Philip Pilkington is a macroeconomist and investment professional. Writing about all things macro and investment. Views my own.You can follow him on Twitter at @philippilk.

A Few Thoughts on Tom Palley’s Asset Based Reserve Requirements Proposal

Posted on April 10, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

Tom Palley has an interesting paper out on the Fed’s attempt to taper its QE program. I have written about the tapering program before here and here and I have written about how QE works here. Anyway, I will deal … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Policy | 6 Comments

The Concept of Time Preference is Completely at Odds With Reality

Posted on April 8, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

A conversation that I was having yesterday reminded me of a rather funny point in economic theory. When we consider the value of a financial asset we take into two components: that is, it’s price and it’s income stream. It’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Theory, Statistics and Probability | 29 Comments

What Constitutes a Money Crank?

Posted on April 7, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

I’ve been asking myself that question rather a lot in the past two weeks. This is because I have had two separate commissions for pieces of writing that require me jump down the rabbit hole into the land of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Theory, Politics, Psychology | 19 Comments

The British Financial Account 2002-2012

Posted on April 4, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

Today I published an article on The Guardian’s website entitled The left needs a deft touch in tackling the financial sector’s dominance. In the article I made the case that the value of the sterling is inherently tied up with … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic History, Economic Policy | 1 Comment

Marginalist Microeconomics: The Path to Totalitarian Tyranny

Posted on April 3, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

Kevin Hoover, although not generally well-known in Post-Keynesian circles, is easily one of the most interesting economists writing on epistemology and ontology today. He was originally an applied macroeconomist but, like anyone who is remotely philosophically literate, he quickly began … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Policy, Economic Theory, Philosophy, Politics | 9 Comments

Making Sense of the Sterling Depreciation of 2007-2008

Posted on April 2, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

Something rather strange happened in Britain around the time of the financial crisis. The sterling tanked, import prices rose substantially and yet the inflation rate didn’t respond as much as we might assume. Other weird stuff happened too. For example, … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic History, Economic Policy | 20 Comments

Misdirection: Galbraith on Piketty’s New Book on Capital

Posted on April 1, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

I’ve been waiting for this for some time but now Jamie Galbraith has come out and provided an extensive discussion of Thomas Piketty’s new book Capital in the Twentieth Century. While I haven’t yet read Piketty’s book its difficult not … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic History, Economic Policy, Economic Theory | 32 Comments

Was Marx Right?

Posted on March 31, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

Well, it looks like The New York Times has opened a bit of a can of worms by asking Was Marx Right?. I generally find that this question to be a bit annoying. Was Marx right about what, specifically? That … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic History, Economic Theory | 20 Comments

Why Long-Run Theories of Profit and Accumulation Fall Short

Posted on March 28, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

Nothing gets heterodox economists quite so fussed as the long-run theory of the rate of profit. Yet, Keynes did without one altogether and when examined closely there is no way that such a theory can say anything tangible about the … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic Theory | 4 Comments

Krugman Uses ISLM to Proclaim Looming Fiscal Crisis, Denounces Those Who Don’t Use ISLM

Posted on March 27, 2014 by pilkingtonphil

Some people often ask why I complain about Krugman. “Hey Phil, Krugman is a good guy. He likes government spending. You like government spending. Therefore you must like Krugman,” says our budding young Socrates. Well, I’ll tell you why: because … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic History, Economic Policy, Economic Theory | 26 Comments