From the Editor
Heterodox economics
continues to make the news, as indicated by many
of the entries in the FYI section. The Ivory
Tower article created a lot of work for me
because it mentioned the Newsletter with the
result I got a lot of requests to be added to
the mailing list. Heterodox economists view
econometrics as just one kind of research tool,
but rarely is there extensive discussion, except
among critical realist heterodox economists, of
alternative research tools. One alternative tool
is oral history; so I would like to call your
attention to the ‘Oral History Workshop’ in the
Conferences section. Finally, in the heterodox
Websites section there is a very interesting
website on the financial crisis put together by
Barbara Hopkins and her wonderful and wacky
heterodox colleagues at Wright State—take a look
at it.
Fred Lee
In
this issue:
|
Call for Papers |
|
- Assessing Heterodox Economics in a
European Context – A Workshop
- The Global Food Crisis
- 2010 HOPE Conference: History of Econometrics as an Exact
and Inseparate Science
- The flexibilization of labor market between globalization
and the global economic crisis: Comparing Japan and Germany
- 2009 Thought & Action: A New Progressive Era in Higher
Education
- 6th International Conference Developments in Economic
Theory and Policy
- Special Issue of Journal of Critical Realism
- International Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education
- Forum de la Régulation 2009
- The EAEPE Conference 2009 |
|
Conferences, Seminars and Lectures |
|
- Oral History
Workshop
- Forum on the Solidarity Economy: building another world
- Innovative Economic Policies for Climate Change Mitigation
|
|
Job Postings for Heterodox Economists |
|
- California State University-Fresno
|
|
Heterodox Conference Papers and
Reports and Articles |
|
- Boom for Whom?
- A (Post-) Keynesian perspective on "financialisation"
- Rethinking Macro Economic Strategies from a Human Rights
Perspective
- The finance-dominated growth regime, distribution, and
aggregate demand in the US |
|
Heterodox Journals and Newsletters |
|
- economic sociology - the european
electronic newsletter
- Review of Social Economy
- CASE Newsletter
- Cuadernos de Relaciones Laborales
- Local Economy
- The Friends of Associative Economics Bulletin
- Development Dialogue
- International Journal of Political Economy
- Marxist Interventions
- PERI In Focus: Winter 2009
- Levy News
- International Socialist Review
|
|
Heterodox Books and Book Series |
|
- Handbook on Trade and Environment
- Workers of the World: Essays toward a Global Labor History
- Economic Abundance: An Introduction
- Why Unions Matter
|
|
Heterodox Websites and Blogs |
|
- Financial Crisis
- Blog Grupo Lujan
- Rethinking Finance |
|
Queries from Heterodox Economists |
|
- Updating Radical Political Economy: A Concise Introduction |
|
For
Your Information |
|
- PhilPapers
- Time For The World To Turn The Page To Chapter 11
- Ivory Tower Unswayed by Crashing Economy
- World Recession Forces Economic Re-thinking
- Folly of excluding the hard-won wisdom of the past
- The Economic Crisis and the Developing World: What Next?
- John Maynard Keynes (Great Thinkers in Economics)
- The unfortunate uselessness of most ’state of the art’
academic monetary economics
- Warning
- Promoting Excellence in Research
- The Revenge of Karl Marx |
|
|
Call for Papers
Assessing Heterodox
Economics in a European Context – A Workshop
You are invited to submit a paper for a Workshop on
Assessing Economic Research in a European Context: the future of
Heterodox economics and its research in a non-pluralist mainstream
environment
26-27 June 2009, University of Bremen, Germany
Click
here for detailed information.
The Global Food
Crisis
Zacatecas, Mexico
August 13-15, 2009
The Critical Development Studies (CDS) network
Announces an international conference.
Inviting participation and submission of a paper on any conference
subtheme
Organised by the Critical Development Studies Network
(www.critdev.org) the conference is hosted by the Universidad
Autónoma de Zacatecas and co-sponsored by the Journal of Agrarian
Change (JAC), theJournal of Peasant Studies (JPS), the Canadian
Journal of Development Studies (CJDS), Globalizations,the Review of
International Political Economy (RIPE), Routledge and Fernwood
Books. Editors of these journals will be in attendance.
Institutional and programmatic support is also provided by the
Transnational Institute (Amsterdam) and Food First.
Click here
for detailed information.
2010 HOPE
Conference: History of Econometrics as an Exact and Inseparate
Science
The 2010 History of Political Economy Conference will be devoted to
study the history of econometrics as an exact and inseparate
science, to be held at Duke University, Durham NC, USA. The project
is headed by the editors Marcel Boumans (University of Amsterdam),
Duo Qin (University of London) and Ariane Dupont-Kieffer (Inrets).
Our editorial aims are expressed in a prospectus, which will be sent
by email on request.
The conference is one of a series of annual conferences that,
starting in 1989, have been held each spring on a particular topic
in the history of political economy. The conferences are sponsored
by the journal, History of Political Economy, with the continuing
support of Duke University Press. HOPE conferences are small and
generally invitation-only events. However, a small number of places
may be open for additional participants. The editors will select a
number of the papers to be published in a conference volume (a
special number of HOPE, published in hardcover and distributed
separately as a book as well).
The 2010 HOPE Conference will be focused on history of econometrics
in relation to the history of other disciplines and papers on the
history of 'outside-west' econometrics are particularly welcome.
Should you be interested in contributing to the conference, please
submit an abstract of 1000 words to one of the editors (deadline 1
June 2009):
Marcel Boumans
Dept. of Economics
University of Amsterdam
The Netherlands
m.j.boumans@uva.nl
Tel +31 20 525 4197
Duo Qin
Dept. of Economics
University of London
United Kingdom
d.qin@qmul.ac.uk
Tel. +44 20 7882 3641
Ariane Dupont-Kiefer
Dept. of Transport Economics and Sociology INRETS France
adupont@inrets.fr Tel.
+33 1 4740 7273
The flexibilization of labor market
between globalization and the global economic crisis: Comparing
Japan and Germany
Call for Papers for a workshop on Friday June 05, 2009, at Bremen
University of Applied Sciences, Bremen / Germany
Through the globalization push, which had started towards the end of
the 1980s, economies all over the world were confronted with severe
adjustment challenges, including considerable consequences for their
labor markets. In nearly all high income countries, the structural
component of unemployment increased, with the result that overall
unemployment rates in cyclical booms did not generally return to
their preceding levels (hysteresis and persistence effects).
For Japan and Germany, two of the so far most successful HICs and
export economies, additional problems aggravated the situation: in
Germany the challenge of the transformation of the East German
economic system following the country's reunification in 1990, and
in Japan the crisis following the burst of the Bubble Economy in
1991, demanding far-reaching structural change and adjustment.
Click
here for detailed information.
2009 Thought &
Action: A New Progressive Era in Higher Education
The Thought & Action Review Panel invites submissions for a Special
Focus section in the 2009 Thought & Action: A New Progressive Era in
Higher Education.
We would like to publish a range of articles from authors in a wide
spectrum of disciplines and areas of knowledge explaining how the
academy might contribute to a new era of progress if given
sufficient opportunity and resources.
We invite contributions from the full range of academic
disciplines—the hard sciences, the social sciences, the humanities,
and the creative arts. How might we persuade the nation to focus on
higher education as a public good rather than a
private good? How do we ensure that the intellectual capital of the
nation is invested to promote human progress rather than individual
greed? And perhaps most importantly, how do we best educate our
students in the New Progressive Era?
In addition to Special Focus submissions, Thought & Action welcomes
compelling articles on all aspects of life in the academy,
especially teaching and learning, professional development, higher
education policy, and union issues. Authors should send submission
to the address below. Guidelines are available at
www.nea.org/he/taguid.html or contact:
pubint3@nea.org or
clehane@nea.org.
Deadline: June 1, 2009
Con Lehane, Editor
NEA Higher Education Publications
1201 16th Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036-3290
Phone: 202-822-7214
Fax: 202-822-7206
E-mail: clehane@nea.org
6th International Conference
Developments in Economic Theory and Policy
The Department of Applied Economics V of the University of the
Basque Country and the Cambridge Centre for Economic and Public
Policy, Department of Land Economy, of the University of Cambridge,
are organizing the 6th International Conference Developments in
Economic Theory and Policy. The Conference will be held in Bilbao
(Spain), in July 2-3, 2009.
Although papers are invited on all areas of economics, there will be
Plenary Sessions with Invited Speakers about the following topics:
- Regional Economics
- Current Economic and Financial Crisis
- 21st Century Keynesian Economics
Invited Speakers include, among others, Gary Dymski (University of
California), Marco Crocco (Universidade Federale de Minas Gerais),
Barry Moore (University of Cambridge), Mike Kitson (University of
Cambridge), Amitava Dutt (University of Notre Dame), Ilene Grabel
(University of Denver), Philip Arestis (University of Cambridge),
Malcolm Sawyer (Leeds University), Costas Lapavitsas (SOAS,
University of London), Eckhard Hein (Berlin School of Economics),
Terry Barker (University of Cambridge), Elias Karakitsos (University
of Cambridge) and Giuseppe Fontana (University of Leeds).
Suggestions for Organized Sessions are encouraged. An Organized
Session is one session constructed in its entirety by a Session
Organizer and submitted to the conference organizers as a complete
package. Session organizers must provide the following information:
- Title of the session, name and affiliation of the organizer, name
and affiliation of chair (if different than organizer)
- Titles of the papers, name, affiliation and contact information of
authors
Besides Plenary, Organized and Normal Parallel sessions, there will
also be Graduate Student Sessions (i.e., students currently making a
MSc or a PhD programme). In these sessions, students can present
their research and discuss that of other students. Participants in
Graduate Student Sessions will pay a lower conference fee.
The deadline to submit papers and ‘Organized Sessions’ is 31st May
2009.
For more information, you can contact with Jesus Ferreiro (
jesus.ferreiro@ehu.es )
or visit the website
www.conferencedevelopments.com
Special Issue of Journal of Critical
Realism
Engaging Postcolonialism: Critical Realism, Marxism and Other
Realisms
Journal of Critical Realism 9 (3) 2010
Guest editor: Radha D’Souza
General editor: Mervyn Hartwig
Submission deadline: 30 November 2009
http://www.equinoxjournals.com/ojs/index.php/JCR
Click here for detailed
information.
International
Journal of Pluralism and Economics Education
The objectives of IJPEE are:
to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas thereby fostering
communication within the growing pluralist community; to advance the
techniques and concepts of pluralist economics by providing
practical suggestions to incorporate pluralism into the classroom;
to offer teachers and educators interested in pluralism an outlet
for their research; and to change the emphasis of economic education
by making pluralism a central feature.
The subject matter will cover all branches of economics, with the
objective of enhancing economic education in order to solve today’s
pressing economic and ecological problems. Suitable topics include,
but are not limited to:
Defining pluralism
What is pluralism and how can we incorporate it into the classroom
The rhetoric of pluralism: communicating within and across
disciplines Teaching the theory of the firm from a pluralist
perspective Teaching pluralism in developing countries What can
pluralists learn from Adam Smith and other classical economists?
Incorporating pluralism into online courses Using pluralism to
construct a framework for solving global problems Are there limits
to extending pluralism?
Pluralism and the individual
Pluralism as a central component of honours courses Pluralism at the
community college Encouraging pluralism at the high school level
Necessary mathematics for pluralism Reaching out to other social
sciences Teaching ecology from a pluralist perspective Understanding
the financial crisis from a pluralist perspective Pluralism and
system dynamics
You may send one copy in the form of an MS Word file attached to an
e-mail to:
Jack Reardon, Editor IJPEE
Hamline University
Department of Management and Economics
School of Business
1536 Hewitt Avenue MS-A1740
St. Paul, MN 55104 USA
jreardon02@hamline.edu
The 4th Bi-Annual
Cross-Border Post Keynesian Conference
“Financial Crisis and Reform”
Economics & Finance Department
Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY, USA
October 9-10, 2009
The Economics and Finance Department at Buffalo State College (SUNY)
invites papers and participants for the 4th Bi-Annual Cross-Border
Post Keynesian Conference in October 2009. Following the tradition
of the Conference which was held in Vermont (U.S), Ottawa and
Montreal (Canada), we are encouraging Post Keynesian scholarship.
While the main theme is “Financial Crisis and Reform,” the
Conference is also open to all perspectives and topics. Selected
papers will be published in a conference volume.
Click here for detailed
information.
Forum de la Régulation 2009
1-2 décembre 2009, Paris
Appel à communication
L'Association Recherche & Régulation organise le troisième
Forum de la Régulation les 1 & 2 décembre 2009 à Paris. Ce Forum
vise ``111à stimuler la production et la diffusion de recherches de
qualité sur l'analyse des formes de régulation en économie, afin
d'enrichir la connaissance et éclairer la prise de décision publique
et privée. Il encourage aussi les échanges entre chercheurs
travaillant sur ces questions (du doctorant au chercheur senior, en
France et à l'étranger).
The EAEPE
Conference 2009
The EAEPE Conference 2009 will be organized in Amsterdam from Friday
6 until Sunday 8 November.
The call for papers is available on the EAEPE website:
http://eaepe.org/node/207
Abstracts can be uploaded until the 1st of May. More information on
submitting abstracts can be found here:
http://eaepe.org/eaepe-conference-2008
Top
Conferences, Seminars
and Lectures
Oral History Workshop
If you are doing an oral history project or are thinking about doing
one, you should apply to attend this year's Oral History Institute,
June 2-4 on the beautiful campus of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.
The program trains participants in planning and conducting
successful oral history projects. Emphasizing hands-on experience,
topics covered in the two-and-a-half-day schedule include framing
questions, interviewing techniques, transcribing and archiving, and
devising public programs based on oral history. To develop these
skills, participants will work on a practice project that
encompasses all stages of oral history and will also have time to
consult with experts about planned projects. Sessions will also be
available on using technology in oral history and on fundraising.
The faculty consists of professors from the fields of History,
Sociology, Archiving, and Telecommunications who all have extensive
experience with Oral History.
We encourage volunteers or paid staff from local historical
organizations, libraries, schools, and colleges and universities to
apply. Admission to the institute is limited to thirty and is
competitive. The cost of the institute is $275, which includes two
nights stay, six meals, and all other workshop materials. The Ohio
Humanities Council is making available partial scholarships for Ohio
residents to subsidize the cost of the institute. You can download
an application from
www.ohiohumanities.org , or contact the Ohio Humanities Council
at (800) 293-9774 or
frankd@ohiohumanities.org. The application deadline is May
4.
The Oral History Institute is co-sponsored by the Ohio Humanities
Council and The Rural Life Center at Kenyon College, in cooperation
with Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums and the
Ohio Historical Society.
Forum on the Solidarity Economy:
building another world
co-convened by the U.S. Solidarity Economy Network,
Universidad de los Andes, Venezuela and RIPESS, N. America
March 19-22, 2009 Isenberg SOM Bldng, UMass Amherst (Campus
map)
The current economic crisis provides an historic opportunity to push
for an economic system that puts people and planet front and center.
The solidarity economy is a growing global movement that is building
real world practices & policies, grounded in principles of
solidarity, sustainability, equity, participatory democracy and
pluralism.
Join us to learn, exchange, network, celebrate, and build ‘another
world.’
Register online
Visit the
Forum webpage for updated schedule, logistical information, map,
parking, transportation from airport. Click
here for detailed information.
Innovative Economic Policies for
Climate Change Mitigation
We are seriously concerned with global climate change, the higher
frequency of extreme weather conditions, the rise of sea level, the
acidification of the oceans, the salinisation of sweet water in
small islands, the dramatic reduction in biodiversity, and
ubiquitous pollution. But we are optimist that mitigation is still
possible if the world reacts with extreme energy and cohesion.
Economics as a science has been reducing the issue of climate change
to prices and quantities, interest rate and utility functions,
converting health and security issues in tradable commodities.
Neoclassical economics with all its empirical and logical flaws
risks to provide unsufficient advice to goverments and firms, while
neglecting technological and fairness issues.
At the same time, economic aspects of any mitigation strategy will
be crucial for its success. So we are keen to solicit economists to
device, develop and articulate innovative economic policies and
measures to be integrated in effective and fair climate change
mitigation efforts at every geographical and industry level.
New insights from evolutionary economics, prospect theory,
behavioural economics and finance might be coupled with the
established body of knowledge developed by sociology and managerial
disciplines and with the experience on the terrain of real
policymaking.
Instead of framing climate change mitigation as a cost, we feel it
is a huge opportunity for innovation, profits, employment, wages and
improvement of real quality of life.
Join us in the International Symposium on "Innovative Economic
Policies for Climate Change Mitigation" to be held on the 25th-26th
June 2009 near Rome
(Italy) and contribute to the subsequent book we would like to
submit to national and international authorities before the
Copenhagen summit, where the new Treaty will be signed and whose
recomendations could be implemented in the following months and
years.
Influencing the debate, the outcome and the implementation of
decisions is the practical goal of this initiative, while helping
the consolidation of a new attention in those strands of economics
for real policymaking.
For more information, please visit our website:
http://www.economicswebinstitute.org/innopolicymitigation.htm
Thanks,
Valentino Piana
Director
director@economicswebinstitute.org
Top
Job Postings for
Heterodox Economists
California State University-Fresno
The Department of Economics, California State University-Fresno
invites applications for two tenure track assistant professor
positions to begin Fall 2009:
MACROECONOMICS:
E0 General Macroeconomics
E4 Money and Interest Rates
O4 Economic Growth
E3 Business Fluctuations
E5 Monetary Policy
We seek candidates with teaching and research interests in
macroeconomics and money and banking, and one or more of the
following
fields: economic growth, business fluctuations, or monetary policy.
In addition, candidates will be expected to teach principles of
economics as well as intermediate macroeconomics. Faculty
responsibilities include research and publication, advising
students, and service at all levels of the university. An earned
doctorate (Ph.D.) in Economics is required for appointment to a
tenure track position. Candidates nearing completion of the
doctorate (ABD) may be considered for a lectureship (temporary
position) with the possibility of conversion to tenure track upon
completion of the doctorate. Preference will be given to candidates
with teaching experience and strong commitment to excellence in
undergraduate instruction. The Department is committed to economic
pluralism and welcomes applicants from all economic perspectives.
Applicants are encouraged to have all application materials on file
by April 15, 2009 to ensure consideration. Send application form
(www.csufresno.edu/aps/vacancy/sc1.pdf), vita, 3 letters of
reference and evidence of teaching performance to: Dr. Va Nee Van
Vleck, Search Committee Chair, Department of Economics, California
State University, Fresno, 5245 North Backer Avenue M/S PB 20,
Fresno, CA 93740-8001,
Phone: (559) 278-4932, Fax: (559) 278-7234, Email:
vanvleck@csufresno.edu
REGIONAL ECONOMICS:
R1 General Regional Economics
R11 Growth, Development and Change
E0 General Macroeconomics
H Public Economics
Q5 Environmental Economics
We seek candidates with teaching and research interests in regional
economics, and one or more of the following fields: macroeconomics,
public economics, or environmental economics. In addition,
candidates will be expected to teach principles of economics.
Faculty responsibilities include research and publication, advising
students, and service at all levels of the university. An earned
doctorate (Ph.D.) in Economics is required for appointment to a
tenure track position.
Candidates nearing completion of the doctorate (ABD) may be
considered for a lectureship (temporary position) with the
possibility of conversion to tenure track upon completion of the
doctorate. Preference will be given to candidates with teaching
experience and strong commitment to excellence in undergraduate
instruction. The Department is committed to economic pluralism and
welcomes applicants from all economic perspectives. Applicants are
encouraged to have all application materials on file by April 15,
2009 to ensure consideration. Send application form
(www.csufresno.edu/aps/vacancy/sc1.pdf), vita, 3 letters of
reference and evidence of teaching performance to: Dr. Janice
Peterson, Search Committee Chair, Department of Economics,
California State University, Fresno, 5245 North Backer Avenue M/S PB
20, Fresno, CA 93740-8001, Phone: (559) 278-2673, Fax: (559)
278-7234, Email:
japeterson@csufresno.edu
California State University-Fresno is an equal opportunity employer.
Top
Heterodox Conference Papers and Reports and Articles
Boom for Whom?
Family Farmers Saw Lower On-Farm Income Despite High Prices
by Timothy A. Wise and Alicia Harvie
Policy Brief No. 09-02, February 2009
To listen to the last year of press reports, these have been boom
times for U.S. farmers thanks to high crop prices. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture estimated net farm income of $89.3 billion
in 2008, 50% above the average for the preceding 10 years. Cash
receipts for the sector in 2008 were up 35% over 2006. USDA also
reported average farm operator household income of $86,864 in 2008,
27% higher than in 2003. This seemed to confirm that farm households
were better off than those of most Americans, with average farm
household income nearly 28% above the U.S. average.
As GDAE’s Timothy Wise pointed out in a 2005 paper, many sector-wide
statistics are misleading, and these are no different. To better
understand how most farmers fare, one must look behind the press
releases and big averages for the “farm sector.” GDAE previously
examined disaggregated data from the USDA’s ARMS survey for 2003, a
year of relatively low commodity prices, to illustrate some of the
ways that the USDA data is “true, but truly misleading.” Recently
published survey data for 2007 allow us to examine this issue once
again, revealing how family farmers fared in a year with high crop
prices.
The data suggest that mid-sized family farmers actually saw lower
incomes from farming operations in 2007 than they did in 2003, with
high costs and reduced government support outpacing the rise in
income from higher crop prices. The only reason their household
incomes were higher was an unprecedented rise in off-farm income.
According to USDA data, only the largest farms were able to gain
from high crop prices.
Now, with crop prices falling faster than the prices for inputs,
many farmers are in crisis. The diary sector is under particular
stress, with prices more than 50% below production costs. Any
suggestion that farmers should be able to weather the current
economic storm by drawing on savings from the price boom is
misguided. For family farmers, at least, there were no savings. With
prices falling precipitously and costs remaining stubbornly high,
and with credit tight due to the financial crisis, family farmers
face a very difficult year on the farm.
Download “Boom for Whom?”:
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/PB09-02BoomForWhomFeb09.pdf
A (Post-) Keynesian perspective on "financialisation"
by Hein, Eckhard: IMK Studies, Nr. 1/2009. Düsseldorf 2009
http://www.boeckler.de/pdf/p_imk_studies_01_2009.pdf
Rethinking Macro Economic Strategies
from a Human Rights Perspective
By Diane Elson, Raj Patel and Radhika Balakrishnan
http://www.ushrnetwork.org/files/ushrn/images/linkfiles/MES-II.pdf
The finance-dominated growth regime,
distribution, and aggregate demand in the US
by O. Onanan, E. Stockhammer, and L. Grafl
http://www.wu-wien.ac.at/inst/vw1/papers/wu-wp126.pdf
Top
Heterodox Journals and
Newsletters
economic sociology - the european
electronic newsletter
Vol. 10, No. 2 - March 2009
http://econsoc.mpifg.de/newsletter/newsletter_current.asp
Note from the Editor
Dear reader,
The financial crisis has drawn attention to the fragility of
markets, and the importance of trust and organization for their
stabilization. Ideas of deregulation and free market coordination
are under scrutiny. The roles of markets and of governments are
rethought and the boundaries between politics and markets redrawn.
Markets are no longer seen only as a way to promote choice and
efficiency, but also as beasts to be ordered, tamed and civilized.
Reflecting on recent events, this issue of the Newsletter focuses on
economic sociology and the study of risk, regulation and security.
I invited Michael Power, author of Organized Uncertainty: Designing
a World of Risk Management (Oxford University Press, 2007), to
provide the lead editorial. He argues that we should be cautious
about taking the label of ‘financial crisis’ too much at face value.
"We should be mindful of the mechanisms by which the crisis is
represented by regulators and others since this will reveal the
diagnostic biases of any reform process", he writes. Jakob
Vestergaard analyzes regulatory failure underlying the financial
crisis. Oliver Kessler discusses systemic market risks as social
phenomena. Ute Tellmann scrutinizes "scenario planning" as a new
"post-probabilistic" approach to producing knowledge about risk.
Andreas Langenohl examines the relationship between social security
and financial professionalism in neo-liberalism.
The interview was conducted with Richard Sennett, one of the world’s
foremost critical sociological thinkers. In the interview, Richard
Sennett, amongst other things, discusses the relevance of the notion
of craftsmanship for economic sociology and the organisation of
economic life.
As in previous issues, Brooke Harrington edited the book review
section, and I would like to thank her for all her work. Further,
William Davies and Horacio Ortiz provide summaries of their doctoral
research projects, in which they investigate rival normative and
cultural frameworks shaping fields of neoliberal thinking, and
practices of valuing, investing and innovating in French investment
companies, respectively.
The next issue of the Newsletter will focus on intersections between
economic sociology and law. Please continue to submit material that
you think should be published in the Newsletter. From November 2009,
Philippe Steiner (Université Paris-Sorbonne) with associate editors
Sidonie Naulin (Université Paris-Sorbonne) and Nicolas Milicet (Université
Paris-Sorbonne) will take over the editorship of the Newsletter.
Materials for the November issue should be send to one of the
following email addresses:
Philippe.Steiner@paris-sorbonne.fr,
sidonie.naulin@gmail.com
,
milicet@phare.normalesup.org.
Finally, I would like to thank Christina Glasmacher (MPIfG) and Rita
Samiolo (LSE) in helping me to put this issue together.
With best wishes, until Summer,
Andrea Mennicken
a.m.mennicken@lse.ac.uk
Links:
economic sociology - the european electronic newsletter:
http://econsoc.mpifg.de/newsletter/newsletter_current.asp
Review of Social Economy
Volume 67 Issue 1 is now available online at informaworld
( http://www.informaworld.com
).
Special Issue:Ethics and Economics
This new issue contains the following articles:
Introduction to Ethics and Economics
Author: Mark D. White
Virtue and Behavior
Author: Jennifer A. Baker
Communitarianism and the Market: A Paradox
Author: Irene van Staveren
Pareto, Consent, and Respect for Dignity: A Kantian Perspective
Author: Mark D. White
Identity and Individual Economic Agents: A Narrative Approach
Adam Smith on Instincts, Affection, and Informal Learning: Proximate
Mechanisms in Multilevel Selection
Author: Jonathan B. Wight
The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce
Author: Maryann O. Keating
Targeting in Social Programs: Avoiding Bad Bets, Removing Bad Apples
Author: Nazmi Sari
Human Development in the Era of Globalization. Essays in Honor of
Keith B. Griffin
Author: Lorenzo
CASE Newsletter
www.case-research.eu
CASE - Center for Social and Economic Research,
Sienkiewicza 12, 00-010, Warsaw, POLAND
T: +48 22 622 66 27
F: +48 22 828 60 69
E: case@case-research.eu
Cuadernos de Relaciones Laborales
Adjuntamos un fichero con el sumario de Cuadernos de Relaciones
Laborales Vol. 26, num. 2, 2008, “Domesticación del Trabajo”,
coordinado por María Jesús Miranda López, María Teresa Martín Palomo
y Matxalen Legarreta Iza, que acaba de publicarse
Así mismo le recordamos los títulos de los últimos números:
Cuadernos de Relaciones Laborales,
Vol. 26, núm. 2, 2008, “Globalización y Sindicalismo” presentado
y coordinado por Fausto Miguelez
Cuadernos de Relaciones Laborales, Vol. 25, núm. 2, 2007, “La
transformación del Derecho del Trabajo” presentado y coordinado por
Fernando
Valdés Dal-Ré y Jesús Lahera Forteza
El contenido de todos los números de Cuadernos de Relaciones
Laborales, salvo los dos últimos, puede consultarse directamente en
el Portal de revistas Científicas de la UCM en la página:
http://www.ucm.es/BUCM/revistasBUC/portal/modulos.php?name=Revistas2&id=CRLA&col=1
Local Economy
Volume 24 Issue 2 is now available online at informaworld
( http://www.informaworld.com
).
This new issue contains the following articles:
Managing the Urban Consumption Experience?
Author: Gary Warnaby
A Framework for Assessing Regeneration, Business Strategies and
Urban Competitiveness
Authors: Shaleen Singhal; Jim Berry; Stanley Mcgreal
Which Sectors Drive Regional Economic Development? Changes in
Employment in Knowledge-based and Consumption-based Sectors and
Regional Economic Performance
Author: Andrew Johnston
Structural Funds and Gender Equality: The Impact of Gender
Mainstreaming in Western Scotland
Authors: Jim Campbell; Rona Fitzgerald; Leaza Mcsorley
The Revitalization of New England's Small Town Mills: Breathing New
Life into Old Places
Authors: Zenia Kotval; John Mullin
In Recession
Author: David Walburn
Cities in Recession–The Crisis in UK Financial Services
Author: Malcolm Cooper
Regeneration Projects and the Credit Crunch
Author: Michael Ward
Policy Making in a Time of Transition: Economic Development in the
New Obama Administration
Author: Erik R. Pages
State Aids and the Credit Crunch
Author: David Walburn
The Friends of Associative Economics
Bulletin
March 2009
1) Colbertism - Out of the frying pan into the fire
2) Forthcoming Events
3) Associate! March 2009 - Romancing Economics
The Friends of Associative Economics Bulletin provides an overview
of what is going on around the world in the associative economics
movement. The bulletin is viewable as a webpage at
www.cfae.biz/fae-bulletin/09mar/
Development Dialogue
we are happy to announce the publication of a special issue of the
journal "Development
Dialogue" (Day Hammarskjöld Foundation) on the highly actual
topic on postneoliberalism.
Find below the table of content.
In order to get a copy (for free), please send your mailing address
to: secretariat@dhf.uu.se
Best wishes,
Nicola Sekler and Ulrich Brand
Development Dialogue 51 (January 2009)
Preface
Henning Melber
Postneoliberalism : catch-all word or valuable analytical and
political concept? – Aims of a beginning debate
Ulrich Brand and Nicola Sekler
Ways out of the crisis of neoliberalism
Michael Brie
Postneoliberalism and its bifurcations
Ana Esther Ceceña
Postneoliberalism and post-Fordism: Is there a new period of
capitalist mode of production?
Alex Demirovic
Postneoliberalism from and as a counter-hegemonic perspective
Nicola Sekler
Postneoliberalism or postcapitalism? The failure of neoliberalism in
the financial market crisis
Elmar Altvater
‘Neoliberalism’ and development policy: dogma or progress?
Kurt Bayer
Environmental crises and the ambiguous postneoliberalising of nature
Ulrich Brand
The crisis of neoliberalism and the impasse of the union movement
Gregory Albo
Women peasants, food security and biodiversity in the crisis of
neoliberalism
Christa Wichterich
On recent projects and experiences of the sufficiency economy: a
critique
Chanida Chanyapate and Alec Bamford
Struggles against Wal-Martisation and neoliberal competitiveness in
(southern) China: Towards postneoliberalism as an alternative?
Ngai-Ling Sum
Postneoliberalism in Latin America
Emir Sader
Notes on postneoliberalism in Argentina
Verónica Gago and Diego Sztulwark
Realistic postneoliberalism: A view from South Africa
Patrick Bond
International Journal of Political
Economy
Volume 37 Number 3 / Fall 2008 of International Journal of Political
Economy is now available on the mesharpe.metapress.com web site at
http://mesharpe.metapress.com/link.asp?id=P2V351858405
This issue contains:
Editor's Introduction
Mario Seccareccia
The Search for a New Developmental State
Jamee K. Moudud, Karl Botchway
The Concept and Evolution of the Developmental State
Esteban Pérez Caldentey
Toward a New Developmental Paradigm for Latin America
Ignacio Perrotini, Juan Alberto Vázquez, Blanca L. Avendaño
What Is New and What Is Left of the Economic Policies of the New
Left Governments of Latin America?
Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid, Igor Paunovic
Marxist Interventions
Marxist interventions , a new on-line journal has just gone live at
www.anu.edu.au/polsci/mi/.
PERI In Focus: Winter 2009
IN THIS ISSUE
- Green Economics: An Update on PERI's Activities
- Financial Crisis and Re-Regulation: The Progressive Perspective
- A Progressive Economists' Program for Economic Recovery
- Resources on the Employee Free Choice Act
- Welcome Jeff Thompson, PERI’s New Assistant Professor
- Pro-Poor Development in Europe and Africa
- Employment, Growth & Poverty Reduction in Developing Countries: A
Festschrift Conference in Honor of Professor Aziz Khan
- Robert Pollin in New Labor Forum
- Gerald Epstein in Truthout
- PERI Working Papers
- PERI Events
Levy News
http://www.levy.org/pubs/LevyNews/2009/March/13.html
IN THIS ISSUE
- 18th Annual Hyman P. Minsky Conference: Meeting the Challenges of
Financial Crisis
- The Return of Big Government: Policy Advice for President Obama
- The Case Against Intergenerational Accounting: The Accounting
Campaign Against Social Security and - Medicare
International Socialist Review
ISSUE 64:March-April 2009
http://www.isreview.org/
Hothouse Earth
Capitalism, climate change, and the fate of humanity
EDITORIALS
Letter from the editor
Obama's mixed message
REPORTS AND ANALYSIS
Behind the myths about Hamas
Israel and South Africa--a tale of two apartheids
Australia: Crisis down under
FEATURES
Return of the one-state solution
Phil Gasper makes the case for a single democratic state in all of
Palestine
The Road to Gaza's killing fields
Toufic Haddad draws a balance sheet on Israel's offensive in Gaza
Colombia: the right wing counteroffensive
Ernesto Herrera on the role of Colombia in Washington's plans for
Latin America
Hothouse Earth: Capitalism, climate change, and the fate of humanity
The second and final installment of Chris Williams' analysis of
global warming
The New Deal: Myth and Reality
An excerpt from Lance Selfa's new book The Democrats: A Critical
History
SPECIAL SECTION ON THE ECONOMIC CRISIS
The U.S. economic crisis: Causes and solutions
Fred Moseley
Prospects for a new labor movement
Kim Moody
Looking at the crisis through Marx
Ben Fine
REVIEWS
Manufacturing the "silent majority"
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor reviews Rick Perlstein's Nixonland
Food and the fight for social justice
Nicole Colson reviews Raj Patel's Stuffed and Starved
PLUS: The American way of poverty; Uprising on the inside; A social
democratic plan for Obama; A "New Keynesian" prescription
Top
Heterodox
Books and Book Series
Handbook on Trade
and Environment
Edited by Kevin P. Gallagher
Edward Elgar, 2009
Just as policy-makers in the United States are evaluating how to
fulfill President Barack Obama’s pledge to evaluate the
environmental impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement,
and policy-makers and scholars worldwide are looking to mitigate the
effects of global climate change in a manner that does not disrupt
the global economy, GDAE has published a comprehensive handbook on
international trade and the environment.
The Handbook on Trade and Environment has been edited by GDAE Senior
Researcher and Boston University professor Kevin P. Gallagher. It
includes chapters by GDAE researchers and affiliates Timothy A.
Wise, Lyuba Zarsky, Frank Ackerman, and Alejandro Nadal. The volume
will serve as a guide for scholars new to the field as well as
students and policy-makers needing a quick reference to the research
on the interface between trade and environment.
For more information and for ordering see:
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/TradeEnviron.html
Workers of the World: Essays toward a
Global Labor History
Marcel van der Linden, International Institute of Social History,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=210&pid=28984
The studies offered in this volume contribute to a Global Labor
History freed from Eurocentrism and methodological nationalism.
Using literature from diverse regions, epochs and disciplines, the
book provides arguments and conceptual tools for a different
interpretation of history – a labor history which integrates the
history of slavery and indentured labor, and which pays serious
attention to diverging yet interconnected developments in different
parts of the world. The following questions are central:
▪ What is the nature of the world working class, on which Global
Labor History focuses? How can we define and demarcate that class,
and which factors determine its composition?
▪ Which forms of collective action did this working class develop in
the course of time, and what is the logic in that development?
▪ What can we learn from adjacent disciplines? Which insights from
anthropologists, sociologists and other social scientists are useful
in the development of Global Labor History?
Economic Abundance: An Introduction
by William M. Dugger and James T. Peach
March 2009. 240 pp. Tables, figures, references, index.
Cloth 978-0-7656-2340-9 $69.95
Paper 978-0-7656-2341-6 $25.95
Most principles of economics texts are predicated narrowly on the
concept of scarcity, but that is only one aspect of economics. This
supplemental
text for basic and intermediate level undergraduates provides a
serious discussion of the concept of abundance —what it means, how
we can move toward it, and what keeps us from doing so.
https://www.mesharpe.com/mall/resultsa.asp?Title=Economic+Abundance%3A+An+Introduction
Why Unions Matter
10th Anniversary Edition
by Michael D. Yates
“A comprehensive, readable introduction to the history, structure,
functioning, and yes, the problems of U.S. unions. For labor and
political activists just coming on the scene or veterans looking for
that missing overview, this is the best place to start.”
—Kim Moody, founder of Labor Notes
author of Workers in a Lean World and U.S. Labor in Trouble and
Transition
University of Illinois, Chicago
“Everyone needs to read Why Unions Matter. Michael Yates shows why
unions are worth fighting for—despite the decline in membership and
power and their checkered past of exclusion. Unions are still one of
the best hopes for working people, as Yates vividly explains,
whether it involves nitty gritty issues like protecting workers
against unjust firings or enforcing safer workplaces, or larger
concerns like securing more control over the work process or
democratizing the entire economy. This book is a classic, and the
new edition could not be more timely. With the world economy in
recession some employers see this as the moment to crush unions once
and for all. Yates argues that now is the moment for unions to build
a broad social movement that can advance labor’s vision of a better
society, centered on the needs of all working people. Why Unions
Matter is essential reading for anyone wanting to help build that
new world.”
—Stephanie Luce, Labor Center of the University of
Massachusetts–Amherst
author of Fighting For a Living Wage
“If there was ever a time for workers to rethink their organizations
and ensure that unions really continue to matter, that time is now.
Michael Yates’s Why Unions Matter appreciates that the threats to
unions are not only external but also internal and provides
essential background for the strategic discussions we consequently
need to share. His passion and respect for the class he came out of
delivers a book that is especially accessible without retreating
from the complexities and internal contradictions of working class
life and organization—a book committed not only to defending
workers, but also to building on their potentials to transform
society. Get a copy for yourself and one to pass around.”
—Sam Gindin, former chief economist, Canadian Auto Workers Union
Packer Visitor in Social Justice in the Political Science Dept. at
York University, Toronto
“For anyone interested in where the American labor movement has
been, where it is now, and, most importantly, where it is likely
headed in the years to come, Mr. Yates’s book is a must read. It
offers a rousing and compelling account of organized labor’s unique
role in our history. Uncompromising, riveting, and, despite some
brutally honests truths, oddly inspiring. A terrific book for both
the casual reader and the labor wonk.”
—David Macaray, labor writer for CounterPunch
and playwright, author of Junk Bonds and Borneo Bob
In this new edition of Why Unions Matter, Michael D. Yates shows why
unions still matter. Unions mean better pay, benefits, and working
conditions for their members; they force employers to treat
employees with dignity and respect; and at their best, they provide
a way for workers to make society both more democratic and
egalitarian. Yates uses simple language, clear data, and engaging
examples to show why workers need unions, how unions are formed, how
they operate, how collective bargaining works, the role of unions in
politics, and what unions have done to bring workers together across
the divides of race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation.
The new edition not only updates the first, but also examines the
record of the New Voice slate that took control of the AFL-CIO in
1995, the continuing decline in union membership and density, the
Change to Win split in 2005, the growing importance of immigrant
workers, the rise of worker centers, the impacts of and labor
responses to globalization, and the need for labor to have an
independent political voice. This is simply the best introduction to
unions on the market.
Michael D. Yates is Associate Editor of Monthly Review and Editorial
Director of Monthly Review Press. He has taught working people in
Labor Studies programs at Penn State University; The University of
Massachusetts, Amherst; Cornell University; Indiana University; and
Baltimore County Community College. He is the author of Cheap Motels
and a Hot Plate: An Economist’s Travelogue, Naming the System:
Inequality and Work in the Global Economy, and Longer Hours, Fewer
Jobs.
Top
Heterodox Websites and Blogs
Financial Crisis
In collaboration with my heterodox colleagues (and your
contributions), I have developed a bibliography of internet
resources explaining the current economic crisis.
www.wright.edu/~barbara.hopkins/Financial_crisis.htm (note
it is an _ between financial and crisis).
Barbara Hopkins
Wright State University
Blog Grupo Lujan
http://grupolujan-circus.blogspot.com/
Rethinking Finance
An international group of civil society organisations has launched a
new website:
http://www.rethinkingfinance.org
The global financial and economic system is in crisis. Existing
economic policies and institutions have overseen an economic system
scarred by high levels of poverty and inequality, which is
contributing to an environmental catastrophe. Blind faith in the
virtues of markets, and inadequate public control, regulation and
accountability of finance are at the heart of the financial crisis.
Before the financial crisis, people across the world and in Britain
were already suffering from the effects of rising food prices,
inadequate essential services and the threat of climate chaos. There
can be no return to business as usual.
Fundamental change is needed.
Rethinking finance addresses these shortcomings. It puts forward
alternative ideas and analyses, provides information about and
comments on latest events, and gives an overview of civil society
and other alternative activities. In consolidated the latest
thinking from the best blogs, commentary, blogs, analysis, and
includes links to the most important mainstream media coverage. We
hope you find it useful. You can email suggestions, ideas, comments,
and other observations to
info@rethinkingfinance.org
Top
Queries from Heterodox Economists
Updating Radical Political Economy: A
Concise Introduction
We are planning to update my text _RADICAL POLITICAL ECONOMY: A
Concise Introduction_ and would like suggestions and feedback on the
current edition. Any and all suggestions or feedback would be most
welcome, especially from those of you who have used this text in
your courses but also for those of you have not used this text it
would be helpful to know what changes might be made that would make
it a text that you would adopt.
A few words about the nature of this text: This text was written as
an accessible introductory text for undergraduates that could be
taught in a few weeks. It was not written as a text for a semester
long course course in radical economics. I wrote this text for a
required course for econ majors on heterodox economics at Dickinson
College where multiple perspectives are covered in addition to RPE
including Institutional, Feminist, and Austrian economics. Of course
we are lucky here to have a pluralist economics program and it would
be good to hear from users of this text how you have used it and in
what courses, as well as how it could be improved and updated.
Any and all comments will be most helpful and appreciated. Chuck
Barone
barone@dickinson.edu
Top
For Your Information
PhilPapers
PhilPapers is a comprehensive directory of online philosophy
articles and books by academic philosophers:
http://philpapers.org/.
Time For The World To Turn The
Page To Chapter 11
Nick Potts
28-2-09
Southampton Solent University
Nick.Potts@Solent.ac.uk
Stiglitz (2008) is right to suggest that the big three US carmakers
should not be bailed out but rather, should be placed in Chapter 11
pre-packaged bankruptcy. This essentially means the business
continues to operate after it is financially wound down, to the cost
of shareholders and holders of corporate bonds issued by these
carmakers. (cont.)
Ivory Tower Unswayed by
Crashing Economy
By PATRICIA COHEN
For years economists who have challenged free market theory have
been the Rodney Dangerfields of the profession. Often ignored or
belittled because they questioned the orthodoxy, they say, they have
been shut out of many economics departments and the most prestigious
economics journals. They got no respect.
That was before last fall’s crash took the economics establishment
by surprise. Since then the former Federal Reserve chairman Alan
Greenspan has admitted that he was shocked to discover a flaw in the
free market model and has even begun talking about temporarily
nationalizing some banks. A Newsweek cover last month declared, “We
Are All Socialists Now.” And at the latest annual meeting of the
American Economic Association, Janet Yellen, president of the
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, said, “The new enthusiasm for
fiscal stimulus, and particularly government spending, represents a
huge evolution in mainstream thinking.” (cont.)
World Recession Forces
Economic Re-thinking
By Mark Weisbrot
This op-ed was published by The Guardian Unlimited on March 4, 2009.
If anyone wants to reprint it, please include a link to the
original.
A serious economic crisis can force some rethinking of economic and
political dogma. The current crisis is serious for most of the
world; the IMF is projecting world economic growth of just one half
percent this year - the worst since World War II - and this number
could easily be revised downward. (cont.)
Folly of excluding the
hard-won wisdom of the past
From Mr Robert Jones.
Sir, Lord Turner’s claim that there has been a “fundamental
intellectual failure” around the world of regulators, politicians
and economists, (“FSA head promises regulation revolution”, February
26) is only partially justified.
In economics there has been intellectual failure, but by zealous and
influential members of the neoclassical school of economics. Those
economists have unfortunately dominated “the mainstream” and have
dictated the terms of the conventional wisdom, to the exclusion of
what therefore became labelled “heterodox”.
There are many economists who did not suffer intellectual failure
but, on the contrary, have consistently warned of the dangers of
systemic financial instability. Their output can be found in various
publications, such as the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics and
those of research bodies such as the Levy Institute.
It is now more than 30 years since mainstream economics last
entertained the possibility that uncertainty and unstable money
market behaviour could have contagious effects on the real macro
economy. In those days “monetary economics” went hand in hand with
macroeconomics, a subject that was still truly “macro” in the sense
that it rested on the Keynesian premise that the whole is more than
the sum of its parts.
For neoclassical macroeconomists, who have since dominated the
mainstream, that era represented a dark age. For them, what
constituted intellectual progress was a concerted and co-ordinated
attack on the wisdoms drawn from the Great Depression. Nobel prizes
were awarded for reducing mainstream macroeconomics to a high-tech
application of pre-Keynesian supply-side microeconomics, divorced
from any consideration of the possible problems arising from
institutional changes in the monetary economy.
At the same time “monetary economics” turned into “financial
economics”, a much narrower, technical subject. The efficient
markets hypothesis had well and truly replaced Keynes’s theory of
liquidity preference. The significance of the insights of Keynes,
and his “disciple”, Hyman Minsky, are now being widely discussed and
promoted, but this would have been inconceivable just a few years
ago.
As the public “blame debate” focuses on the roles of politicians and
regulators, it is worth remembering Keynes’s observation that “the
ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are
right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly
understood. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else.”
None of the above is to imply that all, or even most, neoclassical
economics is wrong, or that market incentives are unimportant. But
there will be times when its crude application is dangerous and when
it is folly to exclude hard-won wisdoms of the past, no matter how
inconvenient to vested interests.
Robert Jones,
Senior Lecturer in Economics,
Nottingham Business School,
Nottingham, UK
copyright The Financial
Times Limited 2009
The Economic Crisis and the
Developing World: What Next?
In November 2008, GDAE’s Kevin P. Gallagher interviewed economists
José Antonio Ocampo and Robert Wade when they were at Tufts
University to receive the institute’s Leontief Prize for Advance the
Frontiers of Economic Thought. The interview appeared in the
January-February 2009 issue of Challenge magazine under the title
“The Economic Crisis and the Developing World: What Next?” The
interview is now available online at:
http://www.challengemagazine.com/interview.htm
For the Ocampo-Wade interview:
http://www.challengemagazine.com/Challenge%20interview%20pdfs/027_039.pdf
For more on GDAE’s Globalization and Sustainable Development
Program:
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/globalization.html
For more on the Leontief Prize awards ceremony in November of 2008:
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/about_us/leontief08.html
Information for those of you who teach macroeconomics -- my KEYNES
book will be available in paperback in May --- in time to order for
Fall 2009 semester for your class. (Price under $30.)
John Maynard Keynes (Great
Thinkers in Economics)
publisher Palgrave/Macmillan- New York and London
by Paul Davidson (Author)
Editorial Reviews
Review
'Davidson convincingly shows how Keynes's radical assault on
classical economic theory was undermined by mainstream interpreters
anxious to make his doctrines politically acceptable. Keynes's own
'general theory' is compellingly explained; its obfuscators attacked
with Davidson's familiar panache.' - Lord Skidelsky, author of John
Maynard Keynes 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman
'This could be the best one-volume treatment of Keynes's economics
since Keynes himself. Clear, logical and faithful, Paul Davidson
introduces the real Keynes to a new generation. And do we ever need
him.' - James K. Galbraith, The University of Texas at Austin and
Levy Economic Institute
'Global imbalances, the unshackling of capital, the precarious state
of modern capitalism: rarely has the world of economics been in more
need of the thoughts of John Maynard Keynes. Although Keynes is no
longer with us, this book is the next best thing. Paul Davidson is
the leading expert on Keynes and Keynesianism and his book should be
read by anybody who wants to understand the world as it is, rather
than as the economic text books say it ought to be.' - Larry
Elliott, Economics Editor, The Guardian
'Paul Davidson's fascinating, encyclopaedic book captures the drama
of the appearance of the General Theory, illuminates the
controversies still surrounding it, and passionately defends
Keynes's radical innovations in economic theory and policy. It is
high time for economists and policymakers to go back to Keynes's own
words, whose power Davidson so effectively articulates.' - Peter L.
Bernstein, President of Peter L. Bernstein, Inc., and author of
Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk and Capital Ideas
Evolving
The unfortunate uselessness of
most ’state of the art’ academic monetary economics
by Willem Buiter
March 3, 2009 1:37pm
The Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England I was
privileged to be a ‘founder’ external member of during the years
1997-2000 contained, like its successor vintages of external and
executive members, quite a strong representation of academic
economists and other professional economists with serious technical
training and backgrounds. This turned out to be a severe handicap
when the central bank had to switch gears and change from being an
inflation-targeting central bank under conditions of orderly
financial markets to a financial stability-oriented central bank
under conditions of widespread market illiquidity and funding
illiquidity. (cont.)
Warning
Assuming the present crisis will bring many new readers to Keynes's
"The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money," I thought I
might warn against a very bad new edition from BN Publishing (2008,
2009) prominently displayed on the Amazon.com website. The book is
riddled with errors, including omissions of text and substitution of
incorrect text and numbers. Tables are thoroughly garbled. All
equations are muddled by substituting Roman letters for the standard
Greek algebraic operators (e.g., delta for "change," sigma for
"summation"). Keynes's detailed index is entirely omitted. Perhaps
most egregiously, the edition removes Keynes's important graph
analyzing the classical theory of interest and re-writes his text to
cover up this omission.
As if this difficult book needed additional muddying! Reliable
editions of "The General Theory" are available from Prometheus Books
and Palgrave/Macmillan.
Promoting Excellence in
Research
The Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council has
produced a interesting report on peer-review practices: “Promoting
Excellence in Research – An International Blue Ribbon Panel
Assessment of Peer Review Practices at the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada”.
http://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/site/about-crsh/publications/peer-pairs_e.pdf
The Revenge of Karl
Marx
The late Huw Wheldon of the BBC once described to me a series, made
in the early days of radio, about celebrated exiles who had lived in
London. At one stage, this had involved tracking down an ancient
retiree who had toiled in the British Museum’s reading room during
the Victorian epoch. Asked if he could remember a certain Karl Marx,
the wheezing old pensioner at first came up empty. But when primed
with different prompts about the once-diligent attendee
(monopolizing the same seat number, always there between opening and
closing time, heavily bearded, suffering from carbuncles, tending to
lunch in the Museum Tavern, very much interested in works on
political economy), he let the fount of memory be unsealed. “Oh Mr.
Marx, yes, to be sure. Gave us a lot of work ’e did, with all ’is
calls for books and papers …” His interviewers craned forward
eagerly, to hear the man say: “And then one day ’e just stopped
coming. And you know what’s a funny fing, sir?” A pregnant pause.
“Nobody’s ever ’eard of ’im since!” This, clearly, was one of those
stubborn proletarians for the alleviation of whose false
consciousness Marx had labored in vain. (cont.)
Source:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200904/hitchens-marx
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