A brief guide to deficits , debts & surpluses

This note is intended for my students but others may find it helpful.In addition to the "Revisiting deficit hysteria" review article in Labour/Le travail students will find the following articles of use in exploring these issues.

The first group is collected in Harold Chorney, The deficit papers available from me and it includes among others the following articles that I have written on this subject over the years since 1984."The power of reason and the legacy of Keynes, The Canadian journal of social and political theory, vol.8, 1984 reprinted in Toward a Humanist Political economy, Montreal, 1992;

The deficit:hysteria and the current crisis, 1984 originally done for the Canadian Centre for Policy
Alternatives published in H.Chorney and P.Hansen, Toward a Humanist Political Economy, Montreal, 1992;

"Keynes and the problem of inflation:The Roots of the Return to Sound finance", 1987 originally published in French in G.Dostaler&G.Boismenu, eds, La theorie generale et le keynesianisme Montreal, 1987.

"Debts, deficits and full Employment" published in D.Drache and R.Boyer, States against markets, the Limits of Globalization, Routledge, New York 1996.

"The Economic and Political Consequences of Canadian Monetarism" paper presented to the British Association of Canadian studies, University of Nottingham, April 12, 1991.

"A Regional Approach to monetary and fiscal Policy" originally published in J. McCrorie&M.MacDonald, eds. The Constitutional Future of the Prairie and Atlantic Regions of Canada,, Canadian Plains research Centre, U. of Regina,1992.

"Globalization, monetarism, the local economy and the search for full employment" in Tim Thomas,ed. The Politics of the Canadian City, 1996.

Also very useful are:

Harold Chorney, The Deficit and Debt Management: An Alternative to Monetarism, Ottawa: CCPA, 1989.

Robert Eisner, How Real is the Federal deficit ?, 1986;
Linda McQuaig, Shooting the Hippo:Death by deficit and other Canadian Myths,1995

Daniel Shaviro, Do Deficits Matter ?, 1997

Lars Osburg&Pierre Fortin, Unnecessary Debts

R.Allen& G.Rosenbluth, False Promises:The Failure of Conservative Economics

Abba Lerner's classic The Theory of Functional Finance is now dated but still brilliant.

James Rock, Debt and the Twin Deficits Debate, 1991.

Robert Ascah, Politics and Public debt, 1999 (dealing with Alberta in the 1930s)

L.Randall Wray has also written a complex but brilliant analysis of money,taxes, debt and employment.Understanding modern money: The Key to Full Employment and Price Stability, 1998.