Political Economy Commons^™

Credit And Debt In Economic Theory: Which Way Forward?, Thorvald Grung Moe

Thorvald Grung Moe

Background paper for INET workshop on Debt and finance in economics in Waterloo, Toronto nov. 2012

Luxury In Ancient Rome: Scope, Timing And Enforcement Of Sumptuary Laws, Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci, Anna Plisecka

Giuseppe Dari-Mattiacci

Between 182 BC and 18 BC, Roman lawmakers enacted a series of sumptuary laws regulating banquets (including the number of guests and the consumption of specific foods). Enforcement was hardly successful and these regulations had to be reiterated over time. Traditional explanations based on morals, protection of patrimonies and electoral competition do not fully account for the scope, timing and enforcement patterns of such laws. We advance and formalize a novel hypothesis holding that sumptuary legislation originated from the misalignment between political and economic power following the military and economic expansion of Rome in the last two centuries of the …

Terms And Conditions For Central Bank Liquidity Support, Thorvald Grung Moe

Thorvald Grung Moe

In this note I review the appropriate terms and conditions of central bank liquidity support. I first document what Bagehot actually said about lending at a penalty rate in his 1873 book. Then I review the modern discussion of the penalty rate, before ending with some policy conclusions. I note that during a systemic banking crisis it is not uncommon for central banks to provide liquidity support to banks at below market rates. This enables the banking system to recoup and eventually recover its capacity to provide essential payment services to the public.

The Role Of The Law In The Availability Of Public Transit And Affordable Housing In Atlanta’S West End, Elliott Lipinsky

ELLIOTT LIPINSKY

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is a branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation that administers federal funds and provides technical assistance for the support of locally operated public transit systems. MARTA / Atlanta metro area are part of FTA Region IV (the Southeast). FTA would be involved, for instance, in financing the federal grant monies discussed above. But actual regulation of operations (i.e., what MARTA does each day, or what MARTA will plan to do regionally) is more closely regulated by Georgia agencies.

Until recently, the Atlanta metropolitan area had no powerful central agency to coordinate regional transit. The …