Law and macroeconomics : legal remedies to recessions

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part I. Macroeconomics outside of a liquidity trap -- Law and fiscal policy when interest rates are well above zero -- Law and monetary policy when interest rates are well above zero -- The painful costs of prolonged recessions: evidence and theory -- Law, monetary policy, and fiscal policy in a liquidity trap -- Institutional reform of fiscal policy -- Expansionary fiscal policy by administrative agencies -- Part II. The pros and cons of expansionary legal policy: Expansionary legal policy: the case of the Keystone Pipeline -- The costs of expansionary legal policy -- Law and macroeconomics: lessons from history -- Expansionary legal policy options -- Conclusion: Five lessons of law and macroeconomics.

Law and Macroeconomics is among a small number of books to explore law, regulations, and macroeconomics. Most of law and economics is focused on microeconomics. In contrast, Listokin is interested in macroeconomic policy, and especially the question of what legal and regulatory options are there to quickly respond to a crisis like the Great Depression or the recent Great Recession. To make this manageable, Listokin focuses on the role of law in confronting the 2008 financial crisis. In the economist's toolkit for confronting a recession are choices such as lowering interest rates and "quantitative easing." The law offers no such toolkit. Listokin argues that it should, especially given how modest the economic fixes have been since 2008.--