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Recently, considerable research effort has been devoted to studying the impact of monetary policy on inequality. This paper summarizes the literature on the causes of rising inequality and looks at the empirical work on interest rates and inequality. It argues that growing empirical evidence concerning the impact of monetary policy on inequality is mixed and that the conflicting results concerning monetary policy and inequality involve, to a large extent, how one measures inequality. Overall, it seems that loose monetary policy increases incomes of those at the bottom of the distribution but reduces their income relative to those at the top of the distribution. The paper also examines some post-Keynesian monetary policy rules to deal with inequality and finds them wanting in many respects. Going further, the paper argues that monetary policy is too a blunt instrument for reducing inequality and that reducing inequality needs to be the job fiscal policy, which is better suited to dealing with this problem and which has the political authority to deal with distributional problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the publication of the journal "Review of Political Economy" from 1988 to 2013.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses french economist, Thomas Piketty's capital laws and his book "Capital in the Twenty-First Century".

This paper discusses some of the key contributions of John Kenneth Galbraith to economics and puts them into an historical context. It argues that the work of Galbraith should be recognized as making major contributions to the Post Keynesian paradigm. His work expands on the contributions made by John Maynard Keynes and is consistent with the main ideas of Post Keynesian thought. Much of his work can be thought of as a Post Keynesian microeconomics that needs to be added on to the Post Keynesian macroeconomics begun by Keynes. This work encompasses an understanding of how people behave and how firms behave, a recognition of the importance of uncertainty in the real world, and an emphasis on income effects being more important than substitution effects. The paper then points out how Galbraith has provided a Post Keynesian approach to key macroeconomic issues. The paper concludes with a brief summary of the other articles that make up this special issue to honor John Kenneth Galbraith on the hundredth anniversary of his birth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Galbraith's principal theoretical contribution is foreshadowed in American capitalism and unfolds more clearly into view in his trilogy The Affluent Society, The New Industrial State and Economics and the Public Purpose . His thesis is that the economic ideas that once explained a world of poverty have not adjusted to a world of affluence dominated by the modern corporation. His main themes are the concentration of economic power in the large corporation and the social and environmental imbalance that results from the large corporation. Galbraith attempts to tease out the implications of the uneven development of modern affluence and outlines an emancipatory case for social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the capability approach theory of economist Amartya Sen. Description of interrelated concepts in capability approach; Distinction between entitlements based on production and exchange; Useful applications of entitlements; Analysis of famines by Sen; Role of capability approach in the development of Human Development Index; Analysis of Sen's theory by various economists.

This paper examines the major economic contributions of Amartya Sen. Sen's contributions fall into three main areas: a philosophical critique of traditional economic assumptions, an attempt to build a more realistic economic science based on the notion of entitlements and human capabilities, and a long series of practical contributions to welfare economics that follow from the capabilities approach - how to measure poverty and inequality better, how to understand famine and hunger, the importance of gender in economic development, and the differences between economic development and economic growth. The paper concludes with a brief assessment of the significance of Sen's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the contributions made to economics by David Gordon. Detailed information on his work; Conclusions of examination.

According to orthodox economic wisdom, fiscal policy is incapable of solving the unemployment problem because government deficits crowd out consumer spending, business investment and net exports. This paper argues that neither theoretical nor empirical support exists for such claims. In addition, misplaced and mistaken fears about government deficits have kept national governments from employing fiscal policy when necessary. By abandoning fiscal policy, national governments have contributed to rising unemployment in the developed world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces the papers concerning unemployment trends in the Group of Seven countries from 1955 to 1994. Implications of the incorrect view of labor market; Reduction of the individual components of demand for the wrong reasons; Unemployment trends.

This paper divides USA government expenditures into an investment component and a consumption component in three different ways, and seeks to determine whether this distinction has any real world impact. Greater government investment spending is not more likely to get politicians re-elected. Nor does government investment have a larger macroeconomic effect than government consumption spending. Government investment does, however, tend to increase business productivity; government consumption, in contrast, tends to reduce business productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interviews economist, Edward J. Nell on transformational economic growth. Nature of transformational growth; Impact of transformational growth on economy; Outlook on theory of long-term demand and long term-growth; Connections between transformational growth and neo-Ricardian economics.

Interviews U.S. economist, John Kenneth Galbraith. Difference between good economics and bad economics; Factors influencing his views on economics; Views about women and the role of women in the economy; Contemporary economic issues and problems; Views on the proposed value-added taxes; Problems in the deregulation of various industries.

An obituary for economist and former publication editor John Derek Pheby is presented.