The rapid expansion of digital currencies-including cryptocurrencies, sta-ble coins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)-has reshaped the monetary landscape. As is usual, moments of technological leaps are accompanied by debate over larger and smaller considerations, from how the new technology will effect the course of human development, to what the new thing should be called and how it should be classified within the realm of already existing things. What is unusual about the rise of digital currencies is the sheer amount and variety of the technological innovation. Perhaps as never before, monetary reality is quickly outrunning theory. At a popular level, Bitcoin has occupied much debate since its public appear-ance in the early 2010s. Since then, prominent individuals have associated themselves with one or another short-lived cryptocurrency, grabbing much of the spotlight while the universe of digital currencies has grown expo-nentially, unnoticed by most.

In questo articolo analizziamo il quadro teorico di Juan Noyola per diagnosticare le origini dell’inflazione e i suoi metodi di propagazione e lo confrontiamo con la metodologia molto simile di John Kenneth Galbraith sullo stesso argomento. Al fine di evidenziare la continua rilevanza dell’approccio istituzionalista di Noyola e Galbraith, mettiamo a confronto i diversi contesti economici dell’America Latina e degli Stati Uniti (USA) di oltre mezzo secolo fa con quelli odierni e discutiamo diversi altri autori che, analogamente, rifiutano la narrativa mainstream.

In this article we argue that we can more easily understand the duality of central banks (CBs) and independent central banks (ICBs) through an understanding of their underlying dualities. As we explore, heterodox and orthodox views and methodologies present two distinct ways of conceptualizing all that is involved in economic activity, and correspond to a social interpretation and a market interpretation of economics. This clear dividing line can be traced between visions of individuals, society, money and banking, and indeed central banking and independent central banking. As we will show, CBs and ICBs have well recognized-but poorly classified-distinctions that allow for a clear separation between their natures. Once revealed as quite distinct institutions, the public policy decision of maintaining independent central banks more fully aligns with the disastrous history of such institutions on the well being of national economies.

In this article, we argue that as humanity falls deeper into the Capitalocene, the consequences of our misunderstanding of ourselves as humans and our place on earth become ever more pronounced. It would seem that only a true change in telos from an economics that serves the private interest of financial rent to one that serves humanity would be adequate to meet the challenges currently facing humanity. Ridding our thinking of the notions of humans as individualistic by nature, and economies as only driven by the motive of individual monetary accumulation, would allow us not only to understand the true social natures of work, technology, and money, but also to envision public policy proposals that need not involve either trillions of dollars in spending, nor tearing the whole system down, but rather the transformation of the mission of our current economic institutions, guided by more realistic thinking than that currently offered by the mainstream.

This Encyclopedia is an invaluable reference book for post-Keynesian and heterodox economics. It consists of 300 entries, written by 180 different authors. The volume includes entries on key concepts of interest to post-Keynesians as well as descriptions of some of the seminal books in the post-Keynesian tradition. It will interest both students and scholars of heterodox economics, as well as policy makers around the world looking for a better alternative to mainstream economic policies at national and international levels in the aftermath of the global financial crisis that burst in 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis that began in 2020.

En este artículo examinamos el cambiante orden monetario internacional y las posibles implicaciones que tendrá para América Latina. En el ámbito teórico, prestamos especial atención a las posibilidades de superar la restricción externa que ha definido las economías de la región, así como a una perspectiva polanyiana del orden internacional. En el ámbito práctico, enfatizamos los roles potenciales del Banco de Sur y del banco BRICS.

This Encyclopedia is an invaluable reference book for post-Keynesian and heterodox economics. It consists of 300 entries, written by 180 different authors. The volume includes entries on key concepts of interest to post-Keynesians as well as descriptions of some of the seminal books in the post-Keynesian tradition. It will interest both students and scholars of heterodox economics, as well as policy makers around the world looking for a better alternative to mainstream economic policies at national and international levels in the aftermath of the global financial crisis that burst in 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis that began in 2020.

This article traces the pedigree of ideas and the personal and institutional connections that led us to collaborate with Alain Parguez, whose academic legacy we celebrate here by exploring the roots, the current relevance, and the future of his research agenda.

Este artículo busca establecer un diálogo entre la obra de Adam Smith y el Neoliberalismo en sus múltiples aspectos: su obra escrita; su tratamiento de otros pensadores y sus obras; y su forma de gobernar. Aquí se argumenta que Adam Smith ha sido coptado por el pensamiento neoliberal para promover ideas que son todo lo contrario de las favorecidas por Smith. Sus citas más famosas se malinterpretan deliberadamente, dado que su significado explícito en el texto es que toda la actividad humana está determinada por “poderes divinos”, lo cual es un anatema para el pensamiento neoliberal, que eleva el dinero y los mercados al reino de lo divino. Los textos de Smith no solo sirven como evidencia de las formas engañosas del neoliberalismo, sino que también ofrecen advertencias proféticas de cómo tanto la religión como la ciencia pueden ser capturadas por las autoridades y distorsionadas a su voluntad.

In this article, we analyze the coordinated global rate hikes of independent central banks in 2022 from the perspective of public policy making. We will discuss the probabilistic approach developed by Massimo Cingolani in order to both diagnose the current formulation of interest rate policy regarding inflation, and to discuss alternative ways of considering inflation and constructing public policy.

Hassan Bougrine, Massimo Cingolani, Thomas Ferguson, James K. Galbraith, Alicia Girón, Joseph Halevi, Wesley Marshall, Edward Nell, John Smithin, Pavlina Tcherneva and Slim Thabet University of Bergamo (retired), Bergamo, Italy; Laurentian University, Sudbury, Canada; University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada; Laurentian University, Sudbury, Canada; European Investment Bank, Luxembourg; Institute for New Economic Thinking, New York, NY, USA; University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, USA; University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Mexico; Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; International University College of Turin, Turin, Italy; Autonomous Metropolitan University, Iztapalapa, Mexico; New School for Social Research, New York, USA; Aurora Philosophy Institute, Aurora, Canada; York University, Toronto, Canada; Bard College and Levy Economics Institute, Annadale-On-Hudson, USA; University of Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France

In this article, we critique the secular stagnation hypothesis and offer an alternative theoretical framework capable of more fully explaining the current economic trajectory of developing countries: falling interest rates, asset price deflation, and falling investment.

In this introductory piece, the authors reminisce on the role played by the late Eugenia Correa in both Mexico and internationally in developing a counter-hegemonic economic thought that matured in her writings and that was sown in the thinking of a whole generation of students over the last three decades.

This article asks a simple question that does not have a simple answer: whose interests do independent central banks serve? Employing a Polanyian lens, we explore the many facets of independent central banks, including their history, their institutional nature and functions, and the academic debate surrounding them, in order to reach several conclusions that can hopefully continue to expand the debate regarding the issue.

In this paper, we argue that Keynes correctly diagnosed the principles of ‘sound finance' as limiting human progress, but did not map out a viable alternate solution of ‘full investment', and seems to even warn against it. E.F. Schumacher critiqued Keynes's position that until the problem of production is solved, only following ‘the money motive' could lead humanity out of the tunnel of economic need. Now a half century since Schumacher’s critiques, the production problem can be seen in a new light, and the debate surrounding the money motive can be reevaluated with greater context. We build upon the debate and the lessons of recent history, and within the context of other thinkers such as Veblen and Polanyi, to argue that the money motive does not need to be abandoned, but rather placed within a reformed institutional and monetary framework. We argue that full investment can only be properly addressed by shifting the overall objective of economic activity from production to human advancement. We conclude the paper by offering several considerations on why public banks are ideal institutions to shepherd a transformation of mentality into the creation of new markets and activities dedicated to human advancement.