Introduction [to] Gypsy economy

‘Gypsy economy’ is a conceptual fiction as well as a matter of lived experience. First, it heuristically stabilises analytical focus on diverse economic practices of those traditionally labelled by states majorities as ‘Gypsies’ (Roma, Sinti, Travellers, peoples that identify as Gypsies, and so on). Second, it is a condensed image that makes visible recent changes in the relationship between the society, the state and the market. Ethnographic studies of Romani communities that have experienced marginalisation in relation to the dominant work ethics, informal employment and precarity for generations, but who nevertheless face their situation with self-determination and creativity that they find meaningful, therefore promises to add to the ways of thinking about human economy under the latest capitalism.

Review of 'The Thai Village Economy in the Past'

This charmingly old-fashioned little book was first published in Thai in 1984, and now appears in an elegant English translation. The two major intellectual influences that gave it birth are rather older, dating from the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. The first developed from the intersection of the academic pre-eminence of varieties of Marxist thinking about the Third World and the struggles of anticolonial peasant-based revolutionaries and produced a high age of romanticism about the Southeast Asian village and the unfortunate victims who inhabited them. The origins of the second are more uncertain, but probably represent, paradoxically, a Thai appropriation of those Western social-science constructions of Thai cultural uniqueness which were especially popular in the 1950s and 1960s.

Inflation targeting and macroeconomic stability in a Post Keynesian economy

This paper examines the compatibility of inflation targeting with an economy that is Post Keynesian in character. We show that in a Post Keynesian environment, policymakers can both set and achieve an inflation target without adverse consequences for the real economy, as long as an appropriate policy mix is chosen. The latitude that policymakers have in making this choice is investigated. One of our key results is that orthodox policy regimes do not provide appropriate policy mixes. Indeed, the more orthodox the policy regime becomes, the less viable is inflation targeting in a Post Keynesian economy.