In this article in The Nation, Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier ask a critical question: Should the enormous U.S. military budget—which is more than double the combined levels of military spending by China, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and Germany—be cut? The authors look at the military's record as a jobs engine, and as a source of technological innovation, and recommend that to achieve both of these objectives optimally, the federal government is best off shifting its resources to other investments.

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As we continue to suffer the consequences of the global financial crash, a tax on financial market transactions has been gaining support as a way to bring some measure of control over speculative financial practices. The movement to establish a tax in the U.S. has been energized by the National Nurses Union under the theme “Heal America, Tax Wall Street.” In this "Economic Prospects" column for New Labor Forum, Robert Pollin describes the mechanics of the tax, its international support, and how to set a rate that can have a real impact on excessive speculation and the nation’s economic health.

The minimum wage and Earned Income Tax Credit are frequently presented as substitutes, or even in competition with one another, because they offer distinct approaches toward improving living standards for low-income workers and their families. Jeannette Wicks-Lim and Robert Pollin put forth an alternative view: that these policies can work in complementary ways, generating greater benefits for low-income workers when they operate in tandem at a high level. Wicks-Lim and Pollin reach this conclusion through an in-depth examination of state-level EITC and minimum wage policies.

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Engelbert Stockhammer argues that the economic imbalances that caused the present crisis were an outcome of the interaction of between financial deregulation and the macroeconomic effects of rising inequality. In this sense, rising inequality should be regarded as a root cause of the present crisis. He identifies the channels by which it has contributed to the crisis, and argues that equitable distribution of wealth is not an economic luxury, but an essential aspect of any stable growth regime.

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Carlo Panico and Francesco Purificato argue that flaws in the organization of European institutions affected the economic performance of the euro countries before 2007, and then exacerbated the conflicts among nations and between them and the European authorities. These conflicts contributed to speculative attacks against government debts and exposed the peculiar conditions under which central banking is carried out in Europe. The authors conclude that this institutional organization must be reformed to allow it to effectively protect Europe’s economies and citizens from the instability of the international financial markets.

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Ilene Grabel explores how, in the wake of the crisis, global financial architecture is evolving in ways that may contribute to innovation and diversity in financial governance. She discusses examples of regional, sub-regional, bilateral, and national financial institutions that are demonstrating new-found strength and self-confidence, and which are far less U.S.- and IMF-centric than has been the norm over the past several decades. At the same time, policymakers in some developing countries are demonstrating growing economic assertiveness. Together, these trends may lead toward more equitable dispersal of power across the global financial system.

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