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Issue 73: December 1, 2008

 

From the Editor

Heterodox activities continue without limit, or so it appears to me. A couple of things. This is the new book announcement season leading up to the ASSA meetings where publishers do a great deal of their business. As a result there are a lot of new book announcements in the Newsletter. On the other hand, this is also suppose to be a job season where young heterodox economists are trying to get their first academic appointments. In the United States, the current economic crisis is resulting in many tenure positions being without drawn from the market. This will make it very hard on the heterodox economists looking for positions. This may mean that a number of adjunct/temporary positions will open up around March or so. If such positions do open at your institution, please send them to me so that I can get the adverts distributed widely to those heterodox economists on the job market. One final thing, I received the following e-mail a couple of weeks ago asking me whether I knew of any journal ranking that ranked heterodox journals. The context of the request is that a young heterodox economist is going up for tenure and a ranking of heterodox journals would be useful in making a positive case to the administration. The author of the e-mail does not particularly like journal rankings, but the institutional context demanded their use. Opposition to developing rankings for heterodox journals means that heterodox economists in the context of tenure are being disadvantaged!

Fred Lee

In this issue:
  Call for Papers
  - The 2009 Left Forum
- Is Black and Red Dead?
- The 12th SCEME Workshop
- PEF at CEA: Call for Panel Suggestions and Papers
- Financing for Development: Lessons and Prospects Call for Papers
  Conferences, Seminars and Lectures
- Latest news from the Centre of Full Employment and Equity
- Governance of the Modern Firm
- The Financial Crisis and Developing Countries
- URPE at ASSA
- Seminaires Postkeynesiens programmes au CEPN en 2008-09
- Amsterdam History and Methodology of Economics Group and Cachan History of
Social Science Group
Job Postings for Heterodox Economists
  - University of Denver
  Heterodox Conference Papers and Reports and Articles
  - Democratic Transformation of European Finance
-Center for Global Justice
-REPENSAR EL TLCAN DESPUES DEL COLAPSO DE WALL STREET
-KEYNES SEMINAR
Heterodox Journals and Newsletters
  - International Joural of Political Economy
- Challenge
- New Political Economy
- History of Economic Ideas
- The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought
- The Journal of Philosophical Economics
  Heterodox Books and Book Series
  - Microeconomics in Context and Macroeconomics in Context
- From Political Economy Economics
- Networking Futures
- Capitalism and Christianity, American Style
- Two Bits
- Real World Latin America
- Violence Today: Actually Existing Barbarism
- Karl Marx's Grundrisse
- Alternative Institutional Structures
  Heterodox Book Reviews
  JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES: HYMAN P. MINSKY'S INFLUENTIAL RE-INTERPRETATION OF THE KEYNESIAN REVOLUTION
- STABILIZING AN UNSTABLE ECONOMY
- THE CHURCH AND THE MARKET: A CATHOLIC DEFENSE OF THE FREE ECONOMY
- Just linkage: The power of positive sanctions
- Union-Free America: Workers and Antiunion Culture
- A Buddhist Economic Approach to the Development of Community Enterprises
  Heterodox Websites and Associations
  - Foundation for European Economic Development
The HEN-IRE-FPH Project
  - The HEN-IRE-FPH Project for Developing Heterodox Economics and Rethinking the Economy Through Debate and Dialogue
Queries from Heterodox Economists
  - Emma Allen
  For Your Information
  - Keynes
- R.I.P.: the Experts, 1929-2008
- Keynes is Innocent
- Open letter to Economists
- Manifeste pour le plein emploi
   

Call for Papers

The 2009 Left Forum

The 2009 Left Forum will be held April 17-19 at Pace University, NYC near City Hall.
The theme is "Turning Points."
See http://leftforum.org for a description the theme and a call for panels.
Proposals are due January 2, 2009.
Stay tuned for more information!

Is Black and Red Dead?

7th -8th September, 2009
An academic conference organized and supported by the PSA Anarchist Studies Network, the PSA Marxism Specialist Group, Anarchist Studies, Capital & Class, Critique-Journal of Socialist Theory and Historical Materialism.
Appel a Contributions-Priere De Faire Circuler
Hosted By:
The Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice
University of Nottingham
"Crowned heads, wealth and privilege may well tremble should ever again the Black and Red unite!"
(Otto Von Bismarck, upon hearing of the split in the First International) What is the political relevance of the ideological labels "anarchist" and "Marxist" in the contemporary geo-political climate? Despite recurrent crisis, the costs typically borne by the people, neoliberal capitalism continues to colonize the globe in a never ending quest for profit and new enclosures. Meanwhile, an effective political response from the left to the wars, ecological destruction, financial collapse and social problems created by capital and state has so far failed to garner the widespread support and influence it needs. Indeed, the sectarianism of the left may well have contributed to this failure. Still, despite fracture, there have always been borrowings across the left. Most. recently, post-'68 radicalisms have contributed to a blurring of the divisions between the anarchist and Marxist traditions. Traditionally regarded as hostile and irreconcilable, many of these ideas find expression in the "newest social movements", taking inspiration from the Situationists, left communists, and social anarchist traditions. The anti-statist, libertarian currents within the socialist movement have repeatedly emerged during periods of acute political and economic crisis, from the council communists to revolutionary anarchism. Is this one such historical juncture in which dynamic reconciliation is not only welcomed but vital? To rephrase the question, what can we learn from 150 years of anti-statist, anti-capitalist social movements, and how might this history inform the formulation of a new social and political current, consciously combining the insights of plural currents of anarchism and Marxism in novel historical junctures? Indeed, to what extent have these traditional fault lines been constitutive of the political imagination? The modern feminist, queer, ecological, anti-racist and postcolonial struggles have all been inspired by and developed out of critiques of the traditional parameters of the old debates, and many preceded them. So, to what extent do capital and the state remain the key sites of struggle? We welcome papers that engage critically with both the anarchist and the Marxist traditions in a spirit of reconciliation. We welcome historical papers that deal with themes and concepts, movements or individuals. We also welcome theoretical papers with demonstrable historical or political importance. Our criteria for the acceptance of papers will be mutual respect, the usual critical scholarly standards and demonstrable engagement with both traditions of thought. Please send 350 word abstracts (as word documents), including full contact details, to: Dr Alex Prichard (ESML, University of Bath): a.prichard@bath.ac.uk Closing date for receipt of abstracts: 1st May, 2009 

The 12th SCEME Workshop

The 12th SCEME workshop will be held in Stirling on Saturday 25 April, on the topic 'Culture and Economic Performance'. Offers of contributions are invited, to be sent to Sheila Dow at s.c.dow@stir.ac.uk by 15th January. For further details, please go to
http://www.economics.stir.ac.uk/SCEME/events.htm

PEA at CEA: Call for Panel Suggestions and Papers

I know it is only November but planning is now underway for the PEF's contribution to the
2009 Canadian Economics Association meetings, to be held May 29-31 in Toronto.
Please come forward with any suggestions for panels that you would like to organize through the PEF. We will take all suggestions to the Steering Committee in early January to make a final submission. Please be as descriptive as possible -what topic, why, who will be on it.
Also if you have a paper you would like to present we can see if there is a panel that can fit it in. But you may want to submit through the regular CEA process for papers, just in case.
Nick Falvo will be coordinating the PEF's involvement with CEA this year. Thanks, Nick!
Please email Nick ( nfalvo@connect.carleton.ca ) and copy Marc ( info@progressive-economics.ca ) with any suggestions by Jan.9, 2009.

Financing for Development: Lessons and Prospects Call for Papers

The ADEK (French Association for Development of Keynesian Studies), the SFEG (University of Economics and Management of Sfax) of Sfax Tunisia and the ARDES (Research Association for Economic and Social Development Sfax) organize an international conference the 13 and 14 of March 2009.
Deadline for abstracts submission: 10 December 2008
Notification of acceptance: 15 December 2008
Final version of papers for the proceedings: 1 March 2009.
Click here for detailed information.

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Conferences, Seminars and Lectures

Latest news from the Centre of Full Employment and Equity

1. CofFEE Conference - Draft Program now available A draft program has now been comprised and is available at: http://e1.newcastle.edu.au/coffee/conferences/2008/final_program.cfm

Day 1
Dr Bob Birrell (Monash University)
- Labour market implications of the Review of Australian Higher Education.

Mr Ton van der Bruggen (Senior Consultant Philips Electronics and NUON The Netherlands)
- Socially responsible Entrepreneurship in the Netherlands

SPECIAL PUBLIC FORUM - The Financial Crisis Featuring Professor Randy Wray (Levy Institute and University of Missouri, Kansas City, USA)
- The causes of the global financial cris and the lessons to be learned.

Mr Warren Mosler (Valance Corp, USA and Cambridge Centre for Economic and Public Policy, Cambridge, UK)
- A bond trader's perspective on the global crisis and its solutions.

Professor Bill Mitchell (Director of the Centre of Full Employment and Equity, University of Newcastle)
- There is no financial crisis so deep that cannot be dealt with by public spending.

Day 2
SPECIAL SESSION - Functional Regions Presentation - Professor Bill Mitchell

Professor Robert McCutcheon (University of Witwatersrand Johannesburg South Africa)
- The generation of productive employment opportunities for the unskilled: principles, potential and pitfalls of labour - intensive construction.

2. Last Days for Registration
The conference is in two weeks on Thursday - you need to register NOW! http://e1.newcastle.edu.au/coffee/events/registration.cfm

3. CofFEE's 10th Birthday Celebration
CofFEE is 10 and you are invited to attend our celebrations to be held at Bar Beach Bowling and Sporting Club on Wednesday 3rd December from 7:30 - 10:30pm. Finger food will be provided, so if you are planning to attend, please email the coffee address coffee@newcastle.edu.au  to RSVP by 24th November.

Governance of the Modern Firm

11-13 December 2008
Current developments in financial markets are shaking up our economies. Large-scale takeovers, such as the ABN Amro takeover by RBS, Santander and Fortis, appear hard to digest. America's most important investment banks, usually at the heart of the world's most challenging -not to say speculative- investments, have stumbled into default. Meanwhile, workers and the public at large appear to be mere bystanders, despite the fact that it is them who have to foot the bill. Governments appear to be shaken in their free market beliefs, even to the extent that nationalisations are on the agenda again. Sturdy re-regulations of financial markets are widely expected.
It is against this background that Utrecht University has been able to get together some of the world's most prominent experts to set the stage for panel discussions in a high-level academic and professional conference. The discussion will zoom in on the law, economics and governance aspects of such issues as shareholder activism, hedge fund arbitrage, private equity risks and the position of workers and regulatory authorities amidst the hectic developments of today as well as the design of regulatory policies for tomorrow.
The conference Governance of the Modern Firm will be held from 11 to 13 December 2008 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Early bird registration is possible up till October 31th.
Further information about the programme can be obtained from Wilco Oostwouder (Dept. of Law) or Hans Schenk (Dept. of Economics). For information about registration and payment, please contact Mrs. Andrea Blokland-de Vries at the FBU Conference Office.
For more information please visit www.firmgovernance.nl.
Tel +31-30-253 2728
Fax +31-30-253 5851
E-mail firmgovernance@uu.nl 

The Financial Crisis and Developing Countries

IIPPE Financialisation Working Group workshops on "The Financial Crisis and Developing Countries" on 2nd December 2008 at 6pm
Click here to download the flyer.

URPE at ASSA

USING ECONOMICS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE—FIVE ORGANIZATIONS REPORT

The panel "Using economics for social change--five organizations report." will be given Saturday January 3, 2009 at 12:30 pm at the ASSA meetings in San Francisco. The panelists are:

Chris Sturr, Dollars and Sense “Bringing Left Economic Analysis to Activists, Students, and the General Public”

Heidi Hartmann, Institute For Women’s Policy Research “Shaping U.S. Policy to Address the Needs of Women and their Families” www.iwpr.org

Lawrence Mishel, Economic Policy Institute “Shaping the U.S. Debate on Policies Affecting Working People Through Empirical and Policy Analysis” www.epi.org

Kevin Danaher, Global Exchange “Implementing Fair Trade, a Green Economy and Other Steps to Economic Justice” http://www.globalexchange.org/

David Barkin, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco “Principles for Constructing Alternative Socio-Economic Organizations”

The reason for this email is that we would especially like members of other organizations that are trying to bring about social change using economics to a greater (eg. PERI, Economists for Peace and Security) or lesser degree to attend and offer their perspectives. How social change is brought about in the US and the role of radical/progressive economics in doing so is a neglected topic and I hope the panel presentations and the extended audience discussion will be useful. I intend to summarize the presentations and discussion for possible inclusion on the URPE website or as an RRPE article.

For comments or questions contact Lane Vanderslice at lvanderslice@verizon.net

Séminaires Postkeynésiens programmés au CEPN en 2008-09

E. Le Héron: Seminaire pôle 2/3, vendredi 23 janvier 14h-17h:
développement de la partie financière dans la modélisation SFC.

G. Zezza: formation à la modélisation macro sous eviews pour le Master 2 modélisation (mais ouverte), semaine du 9 au 13 février + séminaire de recherche, vendredi 13 février 14h-17h00: "Income distribution and sustainable growth"

G. Fontana : Seminaire pôle 2/3, vendredi 20 février 14h-17h, autour de
(1) l'approche néowicksellienne du taux d'"intérêt naturel" et de la politique monétaire, (2) son nouveau livre: 'Time , uncertainty and money', Routledge.

J. Kregel: Conférence Master1 (+ Master2, mais ouverte), mardi 17 mars 14h, thème: mouvements de capitaux, déséquilibres des balances courantes et développement des pays émergents.

L.P. Rochon: (1) Séminaire pôle 2/3 vendredi 27 mars 14h-17h, sur l'apport de la méthodologie du "circuit" sur les questions monétaires et financières, avec B. Vallageas, Univ. Sceaux. (2) Conférence Master1 (+ Master2, mais ouverte) mardi 31 mars 14h, sur les approches post keynesiennes de la réforme du système monétaire international. (3) Séminaire CEPN vendredi 3 avril 14h-17h autour de la politique monétaire.

Dany Lang, Maître de conférences,
CEPN, UMR CNRS 7115, Université de Paris XIII
99 avenue Jean-Baptiste Clément, F - 93430 Villetaneuse lang.dany@univ-paris13.fr  +33(0)1.49.40.38.37.

Angel Asensio, Maître de conférences,
CEPN, UMR CNRS 7115, Université de Paris XIII
99 avenue Jean-Baptiste Clément, F - 93430 Villetaneuse asensio@univ-paris13.fr

Amsterdam History and Methodology of Economics Group and Cachan History of Social Science Group

Fall Workshop, December 13, 2008
Tinbergen Institute Roetersstraat 31, 1018 WB Amsterdam, The Netherlands

http://www.tinbergen.nl

Floris Heukelom, University of Nijmegen
“Measuring decisions and measurement as decision at the University of Michigan”

David Gindis, University of Lyon 2
“Advancing the theory of the firm by revisiting
the history of legal doctrines of the corporation”

Roger Backhouse, University of Birmingham
Philippe Fontaine, Ecole normale supérieure de Cachan
“Postwar social science in context”

Chris Renwick, University of Leeds
“William Beveridge, British Sociology, and Social Biology?

Tiago Mata, University of Amsterdam
"Naming crisis: oral history of financial media 2007-2008”

For further information, please contact John Davis: john.davis@mu.edu
 
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International Confederation of Associations for Pluralism in Economics - News

ICAPE

ICAPE will be having its annual membership meeting in the "Golden Gate 5" room in the Hilton Hotel from 2:30-4:00 p.m. on Friday, January 2, 2009. While only members can vote, anybody interest in pluralism in economics and want to know more about ICAPE is welcome to attend. ICAPE is also co-sponsoring the ASE Plenary session at the ASSA, as noted in ‘From the Editor’. Finally, ICAPE is again paying for a booth at the ASSA. Associations, institutes, individuals, etc. who would like to use the booth to promote whatever, please contact me. The ASSA booth costs around $2,000. If you think that a booth at the ASSA that promotes pluralism in economics is important, then financial support of ICAPE is important. If you have any questions about ICAPE or want to get involved in its activities, please send me an e-mail.

Fred Lee
Executive Director

Job Postings for Heterodox Economists

University of Denver

Assistant Professor
Submission Deadline: December 10, 2008.
Click here for detailed information.


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Heterodox Conference Papers and Reports and Articles

Democratic Transformation of European Finance

Democratic transformation of European finance, a full employment regime, and ecological restructuring – Alternatives to finance-driven capitalism.
EuroMemorandum 2008/09
Click here to download the paper.

Center for Global Justice

In the past couple months, the Center for Global Justice has given attention to the growing financial crisis and the prospect of a major depression. We convened a group to discuss what was happening and prepare a series of public programs to widen the discussion in San Miguel de Allende. The first program on October 15 posed the question “What is the Financial Crisis All About?” and featured a panel consisting of Jeff Faux, Cliff DuRand, Arturo Yarish and Marge Allen, chaired by Bob Stone. That was followed on October 29 with a second panel “Which Way Out of the Financial Crisis?” featuring Jeff Faux, Cliff DuRand and Betsy Bowman, again chaired by Bob Stone. (a video of this panel is available at:

http://vimeo.com/2234376
http://vimeo.com/2257542
 
Some of the panel presentations along with other significant articles on the subject are posted on our website under the general subject CRISIS. We invite you to send us for posting additional material that you find especially insightful. We seek a wide dialog about the crisis and the opportunities it can provide for significant social change. Send your articles to <admin[at]globaljusticecenter.org>

Here’s what you will find now at www.globaljusticecenter.org  :

IS THIS THE BIG ONE?
By Jeff Faux
For more than a decade, we Americans have been living on an economic San Andreas fault--a foundation of fracturing competitiveness covered by unsustainable consumer spending with money borrowed from foreigners. A financial earthquake was inevitable. We don't know how high on the recession Richter scale the current crisis will take us, but it increasingly looks like, as they say in San Francisco, "The Big One."
Read more at http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/articles/big_one.html 

REFLECTIONS ON THE FINANCIAL CRISIS AND OVERACCUMULATION
By Cliff DuRand

Like many of you, I’ve been trying to figure out what is the deeper cause behind this financial crisis and the larger economic crisis that is likely to follow. The conclusion I’ve come to may seem counterintuitive at first blush: the problem is, there’s too much money! I don’t mean the average American has too much money –so many don’t have enough to pay their mortgage, fill their gas tank, buy groceries, send the kids to college. We don’t have enough money. It’s the wealthy capitalists who have too much money. They have so much that there is a problem finding places to invest it profitably –as capitalists, that is what they seek to do: invest money in order to make more money, to accumulate more capital.

Read more at http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/articles/financialcrisis.html 

BAILOUT!
By David Schweickart

Our economy is a capitalist economy. That is to say, we rely on the private savings of private individuals to provide for the investment that any healthy economy needs. But in depending on private savings, we are compelled to keep up the spirits of those with money to invest…. Let's be utopian for a moment. Let us imagine a quick transition from the deeply irrational, ultimately unsustainable economic system we presently inhabit to a democratic, socialist economy, one in which enterprises are run democratically, and economic stability no longer requires keeping our capitalists happy.

Read more at http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/articles/bailout.html 

WE ARE ALL BANKERS NOW
By Cliff DuRand

Collectively we are now bankers thanks to the $700 billion we taxpayers gave to the Treasury Department for the bailout. But before you get too excited I should point out that we won’t have any say in how our banks are run. … As owners we ought to have a say in how our money is used. We ought to be able to use it to benefit the public by promoting social projects. … What if we took seriously our ownership of the banks and decided to control them ?

Read more at http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/articles/bankers.html 

THE FINANCIAL CRISIS: WILL THE U.S. NATIONALIZE THE BANKS?
by Dan La Botz

The increasingly popular sentiment that the bankers should be made to pay for the crisis opens the door to the notion of nationalization of the banks. What would it mean to have the government own the banks?
Historically the Populists, various labor parties, and the Socialist and Communist left have raised the slogan of nationalization of the banks as part of a process of bringing about socialism. … During the last couple of decades, countries as different as Mexico, France, Sweden, and Japan carried out partial or more or less complete bank nationalizations to regain control of the financial situation.

Read more at http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/labotz280908.html 

WHOSE FREEDOM, WHOSE DEMOCRACY?
By Betsy Bowman

Why do a few people get to make economic decisions for the many when the end result is that the decisions made are those that make the most profit for the owners rather than provide for the common good? We can imagine and we can realize a real democracy. Free trade, globalization, the war in Iraq – this was all a lie. It’s time for us to demand that our elected representatives do what we want instead of doing what corporations want. Globalization we now see is really corporativization [1] . Taking control of our lives, however, will require changing paradigms, re-issuing our conceptions of freedom and democracy so we can live at peace with the people of the world.
Read more at http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/articles/whose.html 

REPENSAR EL TLCAN DESPUES DEL COLAPSO DE WALL STREET

Por Jeff Faux
http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/articles/TLCAM.html 

KEYNES SEMINAR

Linnett Room, Robinson College, Cambridge

Wednesdays 7.30 - 9.00 pm Michaelmas 2008 and Lent 2009

A reading group to work through Keynes's General Theory and hear different perspectives from guest speakers. All welcome.

Important: read the Guide to Downloading first!

- 8 October Victoria Chick, University College London
 The General Theory is difficult; whose fault is that? background paper errata
- 15 October Mark Hayes, Homerton, and Robinson College
General Theory Reading Group Session 1: Necessary preliminaries background paper
- 22 October Gerhard-Michael Ambrosi, University of Trier
Keynes, Pigou and The General Theory
draft paper - talk with slides - talk only - slides only - slide timings
- 29 October Mark Hayes, Homerton, and Robinson College
General Theory Reading Group Session 2: Two Theories of Employment background paper
- 5 November Claudio Sardoni, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’
Keynes, Marx and The General Theory background paper
- 12 November Mark Hayes, Homerton, and Robinson College
General Theory Reading Group Session 3: Measuring income and capital background paper
- 19 November Michel De Vroey, Université catholique de Louvain 
Keynes, Marshall and The General Theory unfinished draft paper
- 26 November Mark Hayes, Homerton, and Robinson College
General Theory Reading Group Session 4: Expectation and output background paper
Guest speakers for Lent Term will be Roy Rotheim, Geoff Harcourt, Jochen Hartwig and Brendan Sheehan

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Heterodox Journals and Newsletters

International Journal of Political Economy

Volume 37 Number 2 / Summer 2008 of International Journal of Political Economy is now available on the mesharpe.metapress.com web site at http://mesharpe.metapress.com

This issue contains:

Editor's Introduction
Mario Seccareccia

The Political Economy of Interest-Rate Setting, Inflation, and Income Distribution
Louis-Philippe Rochon, Mark Setterfield

The Rate of Interest, Monetary Policy and the Concept of "Thrift"
John Smithin

What the Fed Do When Inflation Died?: An Empirical Investigation
Olivier Giovannoni

Equity Returns and Monetary Policy
H. Sonmez Atesoglu

Basel II and the Political Economy of Banking Regulation- Monetary Policy Interaction
Peter Docherty

Challenge

Volume 51 Number 6 / November - December 2008 of Challenge is now available at http://mesharpe.metapress.com.

This issue contains:

Letter from the Editor
Jeff Madrick

Policy and Security Implications of the Financial Crisis: A Plan for America
James K. Galbraith

The U. S. Economy After Bush
Thomas Palley

Economics Still Matters to Poorer Voters
Larry Bartels

Money Manager Capitalism and the Commodities Market Bubble
L. Randall Wray

Reconciling Development, Global Climate Change, and Politics
Jay Mandle

Rethinking Fiscal Policy
Thomas Michl

The World Bank's New Poverty Estimates: Digging Deeper into a Hole
Sanjay Reddy

Questioning Bangladesh's Microcredit
Rafiqul Islam Molla, M. Mahmudul Alam, Abu N. M. Wahid

The Case for Government

New Political Economy

Volume 13 Issue 4 is now available online at www.informaworld.com 

This new issue contains the following articles:

Varieties of Change in German Capitalism: Transforming the Rules of Corporate Control
Authors: Susanne Lütz; Dagmar Eberle

Challenging ‘New Constitutionalism’ in the EU: French Resistance, ‘Social Europe’ and ‘Soft’ Governance
Author: Owen Parker

The Effect of State-endorsed Arbitration Institutions on International Trade
Author: Yu Wang

Korea's Recovery since the 1997/98 Financial Crisis: The Last Stage of the Developmental State
Author: Thomas Kalinowski

André Gorz: Freedom, Time and Work in the Post-Industrial Economy, Pages
Authors: Craig Berry; Michael Kenny

Venezuela under Hugo Chávez: The Originality of the ‘Bolivarian’ Project
Author: Richard Gott

Automobile Politics: Ecology and Cultural Political Economy
Author: John Barry

History of Economic Ideas

History of Economic Ideas- special issue that includes a discussion of the attack on the History of Economic Thought in Australia.
This to inform list readers that issue 3-2008 of HEI - History of Economic Ideas has just been published. Among other papers and book reviews, the issue contains a symposium on the "near death experience" of HET in Australia - an episode which was widely discussed on the HES List about a year ago.
The symposium features a leading article by Steven Kates and Alex Millmow, followed by five comments by AMC Waterman, Sam Bostaph, Tony Aspromourgos, Aldo Montesano and Ivan Moscati, plus a rejoinder by Kates and Millmow.
Information about the issue, and the journal, at www.historyofeconomicideas.com.

The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought

Volume 15 Issue 4  is now available online at http://www.informaworld.com.

This new issue contains the following articles:

The German tradition in late medieval value theory
Author: Odd Langholm

Philosophers and practical men: Charles Babbage, Irish merchants and the economics of information
Authors: Frank Geary; Renee Prendergast

A note on Juglar, Bonnet and the intuition of the interest parity relation
Authors: Claude Diebolt; Antoine Parent

John Wade's early endogenous dynamic model: ‘commercial cycle’ and theories of crises
Author: Daniele Besomi

Economic theorist and ‘entrepreneur of popularisation’: Schumpeter as Finance Minister and journalist
Author: Karsten von Blumenthal

Keynes's realisms
Author: Ricardo F. Crespo

The Journal of Philosophical Economics

Volume II Issue 1 (Autumn 2008)
http://www.jpe.ro/

ARTICLES
Incentives and reflective equilibrium in distributive justice debates (Julian Lamont)

The knowledge economy/society: the latest example of "Measurement without theory"? (Les Oxley, Paul Walker, David Thorns, Hong Wang)

Methodology and the practice of economists - a philosophical approach (Bjern-Ivar Davidsen)

"Social embeddedness": how new economic sociology goes into the offensive and meets the own roots (Dieter Bgenhold)

Not anything goes: a case for a restricted pluralism (Gustavo Marques, Diego Weisman)

Book review: Gilles Dostaler, Keynes and his battles, Edgar Elgar, Cheltenham, UK, Northampton, MA, USA, 2007,
384 pages (Mircea T. Maniu)

Book review: Cristina Neesham, Human and social progress: projects and perspectives, VDM Verlag, SaarbnJcken,
2008, 220 pages (James Moulder)

Book review: Akop P. Nazaretyan, Anthropology of violence and culture of self-sorqanization. Essays in evolutionary
historical psychology, 2nd edition, Moscow,
URSS, 2008, 256 pages (in Russian) (Andrey Korotayev)

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Heterodox Books and Book Series

New Editions of Microeconomics in Context and Macroeconomics in Context

Economics texts that take social and environmental issues seriously!

The Tufts University Global Development And Environment Institute is happy to announce that new editions of our introductory economics textbooks are now available for classroom adoption. Both texts are available at an affordable price of just $49.95 each from M.E. Sharpe.

Microeconomics in Context, Second Edition by Neva Goodwin, Julie A. Nelson, Frank Ackerman and Thomas Weisskopf, provides a thorough introduction to the principles of microeconomics, but also delves deeper, offering a fresh portrait of the economic, social, and environmental realities of the 21st century. The book can be ordered directly from M.E. Sharpe < http://www.mesharpe.com/mall/resultsa.asp?Title=Microeconomics+in+Context%2C+Second+Edition > , and free examination copies are available to potential adopters. A comprehensive Student Study Guide and the full set of PowerPoint slides are available for free download from GDAE’s website < http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/publications/textbooks/MIC_Supp.html > . An Instructor’s Resource Manual and Test Bank are also available at no cost on GDAE’s website to verified instructors. For more information, visit:

http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/publications/textbooks/microeconomics.html 

Macroeconomics in Context, First Edition by Neva Goodwin, Julie A. Nelson, and Jonathan Harris, covers standard macro topics such as classical and Keynesian approaches, but also addresses issues such as ecological sustainability, non-marketed production, the quality of life, and the distribution of income. Student copies and free examination copies can be ordered directly from M.E. Sharpe <http://www.mesharpe.com/mall/resultsa.asp?Title=Macroeconomics+in+Context>  . The accompanying Student Study Guide and the full set of PowerPoint slides are available to everyone for free download from GDAE’s website <http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/publications/textbooks/MAC_Supp.html>  . An electronic Instructor’s Resource Manual and Test Bank are available at no cost to verified instructors. For more information, visit:

http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/publications/textbooks/macroeconomics.html  
From Political Economy to Economics

By Dimitris Milonakis and Ben Fine
http://www.routledge.com/books/From-Political-Economy-to-Economics-isbn9780415423212

VARIETIES OF CAPITALISM AND NEW INSTITUTIONAL DEALS:
Regulation, Welfare and the New Economy,
Eds. W. Elsner, G. Hanappi
Cheltenham, UK, Northampton, MA, USA: E. Elgar, 2008.

ADVANCES IN EVOLUTIONARY INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS:
Evolutionary Mechanisms, Non-Knowledge, and Strategy,
Eds. G. Hanappi, W. Elsner,
Cheltenham, UK, Northampton, MA, E. Elgar, 2008.

Download the flyer.

Networking Futures

The Movements against Corporate Globalization
Jeffrey S. Juris, Arizona State University

“Networking Futures is one of the very first books to map in detail the multiple networks that are challenging corporate globalization. Taking as a point of departure an exemplary case—the Catalan anti–globalization movements of the past decade—Jeffrey S. Juris moves on to chronicle the collective struggles to construct not only an alternative vision of possible worlds but the means to bring them about. Networking Futures is a compelling portrait of the spirit of innovation that lies behind an array of progressive mobilizations, from anarchist movements and street protests to the World Social Forum. Based on a well-developed notion of collaborative ethnography, it is also a wonderful example of engaged scholarship: a much-needed alternative to academic work as usual.”—Arturo Escobar, author of Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes

“Jeffrey S. Juris gives us an illuminating model for how to study networks from below using the tools of ethnography. And in the process he reveals the extraordinary power (as well as the challenges) of network organizing for social movements today.”—Michael Hardt, co-author of Empire and Multitude


“Networking Futures is a terrific, deeply informed ethnographic account of the origins and activities of the anti–corporate globalization movement. Jeffrey S. Juris’s identity is as much that of an activist who happens to be doing first-rate anthropology as vice versa, and there is much for anthropologists to reflect on in the way that this work is set up and narrated through these dual identities.”—George E. Marcus, co-author of Designs for an Anthropology of the Contemporary

Since the first worldwide protests inspired by Peoples’ Global Action (PGA)—including the mobilization against the November 1999 World Trade Organization meetings in Seattle—anti–corporate globalization activists have staged direct action protests against multilateral institutions in cities such as Prague, Barcelona, Genoa, and Cancun. Barcelona is a critical node, as Catalan activists have played key roles in the more radical PGA network and the broader World Social Forum process. In 2001 and 2002, the anthropologist Jeffrey S. Juris participated in the Barcelona-based Movement for Global Resistance, one of the most influential anti–corporate globalization networks in Europe. Combining ethnographic research and activist political engagement, Juris took part in hundreds of meetings, gatherings, protests, and online discussions. Those experiences form the basis of Networking Futures, an innovative ethnography of transnational activist networking within the movements against corporate globalization.

In an account full of activist voices and on-the-ground detail, Juris provides a history of anti–corporate globalization movements, an examination of their connections to local dynamics in Barcelona, and an analysis of movement-related politics, organizational forms, and decision-making. Depicting spectacular direct action protests in Barcelona and other cities, he describes how far-flung activist networks are embodied and how networking politics are performed. He further explores how activists have used e-mail lists, Web pages, and free software to organize actions, share information, coordinate at a distance, and stage “electronic civil disobedience.” Based on a powerful cultural logic, anti–corporate globalization networks have become models of and for emerging forms of radical, directly democratic politics. Activists are not only responding to growing poverty, inequality, and environmental devastation; they are also building social laboratories for the production of alternative values, discourses, and practices.


Duke University Press
June 2008 376pp 29 illustrations £16.99 PB 978-0-8223-4269-4
SPECIAL DISCOUNTED PRICE OF £12.00 to CAPITAL-AND-CLASS Subscribers

Postage and Packing £2.75

To order a copy please contact Marston on 44(0)1235 465500 or email direct.orders@marston.co.uk  or visit our website www.combinedacademic.co.uk
(PLEASE QUOTE REF NUMBER: CC181108NF for discount)

Capitalism and Christianity, American Style

William E. Connolly, John Hopkin’s University

“William E. Connolly is a towering figure in contemporary political theory whose profound reflections on democracy, religion, and the tragic unsettle and enrich us. In this powerful work he casts his philosophical gaze on the internal dynamics of the American Empire—especially the role of Christian traditions and capitalist practices. The result is vintage Connolly, namely, indispensable!”—Cornel West, Princeton University

“In these times, we desperately need William E. Connolly’s impassioned study of inequality and the destruction of nature, his sheer awe at living-ness itself, his philosophy of immanent naturalism and deployment of the Deleuzian assemblage, and, especially, the interdisciplinary concreteness of his proposals for a resonance machine of resistance on the left. Along with Connolly’s description of an ethos, or spiritualization, of academic engagement, a key contribution of this book is to advance what has been dangerously lacking on the left, a powerful analytics of the right’s resonance machine and its recognition that the intellectual and the corporeal, the theological and the secular, never exist in purified, ‘clean’ categories.”—Linda Kintz, author of Between Jesus and the Market: The Emotions That Matter in Right-Wing America

“I immensely enjoyed reading Capitalism and Christianity, American Style. William E. Connolly offers insight, innovation, and wisdom. He brings substantive theorizing to the pressing political concerns of the moment, providing a sense of momentum and sheer energy. This book is relevant, in the strongest sense.”—Nigel Thrift, author of Knowing Capitalism

Capitalism and Christianity, American Style is William E. Connolly’s stirring call for the democratic left to counter the conservative stranglehold over American religious and economic culture in order to put egalitarianism and ecological integrity on the political agenda. An eminent political theorist known for his work on identity, secularism, and pluralism, Connolly charts the path of the “evangelical-capitalist resonance machine,” source of a bellicose ethos reverberating through contemporary institutional life. He argues that the vengeful vision of the Second Coming motivating a segment of the evangelical right resonates with the ethos of greed animating the cowboy sector of American capitalism. The resulting evangelical-capitalist ethos finds expression in church pulpits, Fox News reports, the best-selling Left Behind novels, consumption practices, investment priorities, and state policies. These practices resonate together to diminish diversity, forestall responsibility to future generations, ignore urban poverty, and support a system of extensive economic inequality.

Connolly describes how the evangelical-capitalist machine works, how its themes resound across class lines, and how it infiltrates numerous aspects of American life. Proposing changes in sensibility and strategy to challenge this machine, Connolly contends that the liberal distinction between secular public and religious private life must be reworked. Traditional notions of unity or solidarity must be translated into drives to forge provisional assemblages comprised of multiple constituencies and creeds. The left must also learn from the political right how power is infused into everyday institutions such as the media, schools, churches, consumption practices, corporations, and neighborhoods. Connolly explores the potential of a “tragic vision” to contest the current politics of existential resentment and political hubris, explores potential lines of connection between it and theistic faiths that break with the evangelical right, and charts the possibility of forging an “eco-egalitarian” economy. Capitalism and Christianity, American Style is William E. Connolly’s most urgent work to date.

Duke University Press
March 2008 216pp £15.99 PB 978-0-8223-4272-4
SPECIAL DISCOUNTED PRICE OF £11.50 to ANTHROPOLOGY-MATTERS Subscribers

Postage and Packing £2.75

To order a copy please contact Marston on 44(0)1235 465500 or email direct.orders@marston.co.uk  or visit our website www.combinedacademic.co.uk
(PLEASE QUOTE REF NUMBER: CC181108CCA for discount)

Two Bits

The Cultural Significance of Free Software
Christopher M. Kelty, University of California

“I know of no other book that mixes so beautifully a deep theoretical understanding of social theory with a rich historical and contemporary ethnography of the Free Software and free culture movements. Christopher M. Kelty’s book speaks to many audiences; his message should be understood by many more.”—Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law School

“Two Bits describes the way those who work and play with Free Software themselves change in the process—engendering what Kelty calls ‘recursive publics’—social configurations that realize the Internet’s non-hierarchical, ever-evolving, and thus historically attuned logic, creatively updating the types of public spheres previously theorized by Habermas and Michael Warner, among others. Two Bits does something similar, pulling readers into an experimental (ethnographic) mode that draws out how Open Source movements have garnered the momentum and significance they have today. The book—on paper and online—quite literally shows how it is done, itself embodying the standards that make Free Software work. Two Bits is critical reading, in all senses.”—Kim Fortun, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

In Two Bits, Christopher M. Kelty investigates the history and cultural significance of Free Software, revealing the people and practices that have transformed not only software but also music, film, science, and education. Free Software is a set of practices devoted to the collaborative creation of software source code that is made openly and freely available through an unconventional use of copyright law. Kelty explains how these specific practices have reoriented the relations of power around the creation, dissemination, and authorization of all kinds of knowledge. He also makes an important contribution to discussions of public spheres and social imaginaries by demonstrating how Free Software is a “recursive public”—a public organized around the ability to build, modify, and maintain the very infrastructure that gives it life in the first place.

Drawing on ethnographic research that took him from an Internet healthcare start-up company in Boston to media labs in Berlin to young entrepreneurs in Bangalore, Kelty describes the technologies and the moral vision that bind together hackers, geeks, lawyers, and other Free Software advocates. In each case, he shows how their practices and way of life include not only the sharing of software source code but also ways of conceptualizing openness, writing copyright licenses, coordinating collaboration, and proselytizing. By exploring in detail how these practices came together as the Free Software movement from the 1970s to the 1990s, Kelty also considers how it is possible to understand the new movements emerging from Free Software: projects such as Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization that creates copyright licenses, and Connexions, a project to create an online scholarly textbook commons.

Duke University Press
June 2008 368pp 10 illustrations £16.99 PB 978-0-8223-4264-9
SPECIAL DISCOUNTED PRICE OF £12.00 to CAPITAL-AND-CLASS Subscribers

Postage and Packing £2.75

To order a copy please contact Marston on 44(0)1235 465500 or email direct.orders@marston.co.uk  or visit our website www.combinedacademic.co.uk
(PLEASE QUOTE REF NUMBER: CC181108TB for discount)

Real World Latin America

We are pleased to announce the publication of our latest title, *Real World Latin America: A Contemporary Economics and Social Policy Reader*.

Click here for more information.

Click here to order an exam copy.

Looking for diverse perspectives to explain the profound economic and social transformations taking place in Latin America? Real World Latin America brings together the best recent reporting on the region from *Dollars &
Sense* and *NACLA Report on the Americas*.

Forty-five well-researched and clearly-written articles will give students a thorough introduction to Latin American economic policies, including the region's changing political maps, the hidden costs of development, struggles for human rights, international trade deals, and the role of the United States in the region.

Chapters on social movements and alternative forms of production document the grassroots challenges to the Washington Consensus that are rising from Argentine factory shop-floors, Venezuelan cooperatives, Oaxacan schoolrooms, and elsewhere. Further chapters look at the impact of migration on home countries and diasporan communities, and the challenges of responsible environmental stewardship.

*Praise for Real World Latin America:*

The editors of *Dollars & Sense* and *NACLA Report on the Americas* have done us a great service. This is a timely collection of essays, sophisticated yet highly readable analysis of the most pressing issues facing Latin America today. The book is ideally suited for undergraduate courses on the region, and will be of interest to a broader readership as well.

—Eric Hershberg, President, Latin American Studies Association

Latin America is on the move, finding its way towards new approaches to economic development with social justice. *Real World Latin America*provides a compelling picture of change, political conflict, and the real stakes involved in the region. It is a valuable guide to the contemporary history of the present, inviting readers to stay tuned for more to come.

—Michael A Cohen, Director of the International Affairs Program, New School University

This is a timely and invaluable overview of current political, economic, social and cultural dynamics in Latin America. It brings together an impressive array of experts who write in a concise and accessible manner on a wide range of topics that define the current Latin American and hemispheric reality. Here the reader will find analysis and context for making sense of today's headlines. I cannot imagine a more important collection for classroom use and for readers from the general public interested in understanding contemporary Latin America.

—William I. Robinson, Professor of Sociology, Global Studies, and Latin American Studies, University of California at Santa Barbara, and author of *Latin America and Global Capitalism*

Violence Today: Actually Existing Barbarism

Socialist Register 2009
edited by Leo Panitch and Colin Leys
TO ORDER, Click Here, or call 800.870.9499 http://www.monthlyreview.org/sr2009.php 
Given the extent and extremity of violence today, even in the absence of world war, and two decades after the end of actually-existing socialism, it is hard not feel that we are living in another age of barbarism. The scale and pervasiveness of violence today calls urgently for serious analysis—from “the war on terror” and counter-insurgencies, from terror and counter-terror, suicide bombings and torture, civil wars and anarchy, entailing human tragedies on a scale comparable to those of the two world wars, not to mention urban gang warfare, or the persistence of chronic violence against women. That the nirvana of global capitalism finds millions of people once again just “wishing (a) not to be killed, (b) for a good warm coat” (as Stendhal is said to have put it in a different era) is, when fully contemplated, appalling.
The opening essay offers an overview of the scale and variety of contemporary violence while also taking up once again the question of socialism versus barbarism. Other essays analyze the nature and roots of paradigmatic cases and types of violence today around the world. And several of the concluding essays deal, from various different standpoints, with the still important question of whether violence has any place in socialist strategy in the context of today’s actually-existing barbarism.
Contributions:
Henry Bernstein, Colin Leys, and Leo Panitch — Reflections on Violence Today
Vivek Chibber — American Militarism and the U.S. Political Establishment: The Real Lessons of the Invasion of Iraq
Philip Green — On-Screen Barbarism: Violence in U.S. Visual Culture
Ruth Wilson Gilmore — Race, Prisons and War: Scenes from the History of U.S. Violence
Joe Sim and Steve Tombs — State Talk, State Silence: Work and ‘Violence’ in the UK
Lynne Segal — Violence’s Victims: The Gender Landscape
Barbara Harriss-White — Girls as Disposable Commodities in India
Achin Vanaik — India’s Paradigmatic Communal Violence
Tania Murray Li — Reflections on Indonesian Violence: Two Tales and Three Silences
Ulrich Oslender — Colombia: Old and New Patterns of Violence
Sofiri Joab-Peterside and Anna Zalik — The Commodification of Violence in the Niger Delta
Dennis Rodgers and Steffen Jensen — Revolutionaries, Barbarians or War Machines? Gangs in Nicaragua and South Africa
Michael Brie — Emancipation and the Left: The Issue of Violence
Samir Amin — The Defense of Humanity Requires the Radicalization of Popular Struggles
John Berger — Human Shield

Leo Panitch is professor of political science at York University in Toronto and author of Renewing Socialism: Democracy, Strategy, and Imagination.
Colin Leys is emeritus professor at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario and author of Market-Driven Politics.

Karl Marx's Grundrisse

Foundations of the critique of political economy 150 years later

Edited by Marcello Musto
With a special foreword by Eric Hobsbawm
- ISBN: 978-0-415-43749-3
- Binding: Hardback
- Published by: Routledge
- Publication Date: 25th July 2008
- Pages: 320

http://www.routledgeeconomics.com/books/Karl-Marxs-Grundrisse-isbn9780415437493

Download the review and library form

Alternative Institutional Structures

Evolution and impact
Edited by Sandra Batie, Nicholas Mercuro
Price: $170.00
http://www.routledgeeconomics.com/books/Alternative-Institutional-Structures-isbn9780415774789 

About the Book
In the spring on 2006, a workshop was held at Michigan State University to honour the career of A. Allan Schmid and his writings about how institutions evolve and how alternative institutions, including property rights, shape political relationships and impact economic performance. This edited book is the outcome of the workshop. It is a collection of original essays that explores several approaches to understanding the impact of alternative legal-economic institutions. The collection investigates questions such as: What are the similarities and differences among the various strands and approaches? Could parts of the different approaches be integrated to achieve greater insight into economic behaviour? Do different analytical problems require different approaches? Are the various strands of institutionalism actually saying the same things, but using different language and perspective?
In gathering together authors who represent different approaches or strands of institutionalism, this book addresses several different issues such as transactions as the unit of observation, bounded rationality and learning, power issues embedded in the concept of efficiency, comparative empirical analysis, multiple equilibria and institutional diversity within a given environment, specification of institutional rules and structures, evolutionary perspectives, decentralized processes, and the significance of historical content.
Table of Contents
CONTENTS, Foreword, Nicholas Mercuro and Sandra S. Batie, Chapter 1 - Power and the Troublesome Economist: Complementarities Among Recent Institutional Theorists, A. Allan Schmid, Chapter 2- Some Problems in Assessing the Evolution and Impact of Institutions, Warren J. Samuels, Chapter 3 - Developing a Method for Analyzing Institutional Change, Elinor Ostrom, Chapter 4 - Does Economic Development Require "Certain" Property Rights?, Peter J. Boettke and J. Robert Subrick, Chapter 5 - Institutional Economics as Volitional Pragmatism, Daniel W. Bromley, Chapter 6 - Institutions and Rationality, Arild Vatn, Chapter 7 - Simplicity in Institutional Design, Nathan Berg, Chapter 8 - The Essence of Economics – Law, Participation and Institutional Choice (Two Ways), Neil Komesar, Chapter 9 - Is Law Facilitating or Inhibiting Transactions?, Claude Ménard, Chapter 10 - On Institutional Individualism as a Middle-way Mode of Explanation for Approaching Organizational Issues, Fernando Toboso, Chapter 11 - The Role of Attitudes in Action and Institutional Change – An Evolutionary Perspective, Uta-Maria Niederle, Chapter 12 - Post-Keynesian Institutionalism and the Anxious Society, Charles J. Whalen, Chapter 13 - Towards a Theory of Induced Institutional Change: Power, Labor Markets, and Institutional Change, Morris Altman, Chapter 14 - The Instituted Nature of Market Information: the Case of Induced Innovation and Environmental Regulation, Patricia E. Norris, David B. Schweikhardt, and Eric A. Scorsone, Chapter 15 - The Role of Culture and Social Norms in Theories of Institutional Change: The Case of Agricultural Cooperatives, Julie A. Hogeland, Chapter 16 - Payment for Environmental Services and Other Institutions for Protecting Drinking Water in Eastern Costa Rica, Michael D. Kaplowitz, Daniel V. Ortega-Pacheco, and Frank Lupi, Chapter 17 - A Dialogue on Institutions: Assessing the Evolution and Impact of Alternative Institutional Structures, edited by Nicholas Mercuro and Sandra S. Batie, Contributors, Index
About the Author(s)
Sandra S. Batie is Elton R. Smith Professor in Food and Agricultural Policy, Department of Agricultural Economics, Michigan State University and Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association
Nicholas Mercuro is Professor of Law in Residence at the Michigan State University College of Law and member of the faculty of MSU's James Madison College and founder and co-editor of The Economics of Legal Relationships series with Routledge.   

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Heterodox Book Reviews

JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES: HYMAN P. MINSKY’S INFLUENTIAL RE-INTERPRETATION OF THE KEYNESIAN REVOLUTION

by Hyman P. Minsky, McGraw-Hill Books, 2008; ISBN: 978-0-07-159301-4; 176 pages. Reviewed by Devin T. Rafferty, University of Missouri- Kansas City

Click here to download the review.

STABILIZING AN UNSTABLE ECONOMY

by Hyman P. Minsky, McGraw-Hill, 2008; ISBN: 978-0-07-159299-4; 395 pages. Reviewed by Devin T. Rafferty, University of Missouri- Kansas City

Click here to download the review.

THE CHURCH AND THE MARKET: A CATHOLIC DEFENSE OF THE FREE ECONOMY

by Thomas E. Woods, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005, ISBN: 0-7391-1036-5; 280 pages. Reviewed by Emil Berendt, Siena Heights University

Click here to download the review.

International Trade and Labor Standards: A Proposal for Linkage

Christian Barry and Sanjay G. Reddy (Columbia University Press, New York: 2008)

by Michael Pollak

Click here to download the review.

Union-Free America: Workers and Antiunion Culture

Lawrence Richards, _Union-Free America: Workers and Antiunion Culture_.
Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008. x + 245 pp. $40 (cloth), ISBN: 978-0-252-03271-4.

Reviewed for EH.NET by Gerald Friedman, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Click here to download the review.

A Buddhist Economic Approach to the Development of Community Enterprises

Prayukvong, W. (2005) "A Buddhist Economic Approach to the Development of Community Enterprises: a case study from southern Thailand," Cambridge Journal of Economics, 29(6): 1171-1185.
Reviewed by Ulas Basar Gezgin, PhD, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Click here to download the review.

Heterodox Websites and Associations

Foundation for European Economic Development

http://www.feed-charity.org/p1.htm   

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The HEN-IRE-FPH Project

The HEN-IRE-FPH Project for Developing Heterodox Economics and Rethinking the Economy Through Debate and Dialogue

The Heterodox Economics Newsletter, The International Initiative for Rethinking the Economy (IRE), and the Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation for the Progress of Humankind (FPH) ( www.fph.ch ) have undertaken a joint project to promote the development of heterodox economics. It involves publishing in the Newsletter reviews, analytical summaries, or commentary of articles, books, book chapters, theses, dissertations, government reports, etc. that relate to the following themes: diversity of economic approaches, regulation of goods and services, currency and finance, and trade regimes. These themes relate to heterodox economics and to the open and pluralistic intellectual debates in economics. For further information about the project and queries about reviewing, contact Fred Lee ( leefs@umkc.edu ).

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Queries from Heterodox Economists

Emma Allen

I would like to be in contact with colleagues who have an interest in cooperative financial and/or insurance institutions, in order to discuss how these institutions, in both developed and developing countries, are being affected by the financial crisis.
look forward to receiving your reply - please reply to g1coop@ilo.org
Many thanks
emma

Ms Emma Allen
ILO EMP/COOP, COOPAfrica
Tel: + 41.22 .799.6211
E-mail: g1coop@ilo.org 
http://www.ilo.org/coopafrica  

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For Your Information

Keynes

Keynes et les idées keynésiennes sont de retour et les médias toujours à la remorque du pouvoir nous donne à nouveau la parole. Que Nicolas Sarkozy devienne notre attaché de presse doit nous réjouir, non pas par la finesse de son keynésianisme, mais par l'indéniable influence qu'il peut exercer tant en France qu'en Europe et même dans le monde. Que l'ONU ait vu le thème du capitalisme de l'entrepreneur contre le capitalisme du spéculateur (Chap 12 de la TG) mis en première ligne par notre président, tant mieux. Qu'un nouveau Bretton Woods soit convoqué (certes trop vite et sur d'autres questions, mais avec une claire référence à Keynes) tant mieux. Que le PSC soit abandonné pour 2 ans par la Commission Européenne elle-même qui demande un plan de relance budgétaire coordonné suite aux efforts français, tant mieux. Pendant ce temps le parti socialiste...

Il faudrait que cet élan se maintienne et se traduise par des financements, des postes et un retour de Keynes à l'université, ce qui n'est par contre pas du tout gagné.

J'ai ainsi pu communiquer au nom de l'ADEK dans les supports écrits suivants et j'ai constaté que de nombreux membres de l'ADEK étaient également sollicité (L. Cordonnier, F. Vandevelde, S. Rossi,...), tant mieux.

1) Le Monde (2/10): La revanche de Keynes

2) Libération (14/10): Keynes et le temps des crises
< http://www.liberation.fr/tribune/0101124181-keynes-et-le-temps-des-crises  > 

3) Figaro magazine (18/10): On vient toujours chercher les keynésiens quand ça va mal

4) Sud Ouest dimanche (19/10): Sans État, pas de marché

5) AFP (21/10): Avec la crise, les théories keynésiennes sont remises au goût du jour J'ai retrouvé ce texte de l'AFP dans de très nombreux journaux, blogs et autres sites internet, en Amérique du sud et centrale (traduction en espagnol), au Brésil (traduction en portugais), aux E.U. et en Grande Bretagne (traduction en anglais). Sans doute ailleurs car les articles AFP sont traduit en de nombreuses langues.

6) Libération (1-2/11): La relance doit s'accompagner d'une redistribution des revenus

7) L'Expansion (21/11): Quelle politique de relance pour contrer la crise? (Livre cité)
<>
Le site de l'expansion permet de cliquer sur mon nom, ce qui renvoie directement à la présentation de l'ouvrage chez Prométhée

8) Le Mensuel (Maroc) Keynes et le temps des crises (version longue du rebonds de Libération)

9) Sud Ouest ( 27/11) 3 Questions sur le plan de relance européen

10-11-12) Capital (Nov), Le Point (2/12), Objectif Aquitaine (Déc) à venir

Je vous envoie ci-joint l'article publié dans les pages Rebonds de Libération dans sa version longue.
J'en profite pour remercier tous les membres de l'ADEK qui m'ont aidé dans ces publications.

R.I.P.: the Experts, 1929-2008

By SASAN FAYAZMANESH
A recent invitation to speak on the “cause or causes of the current financial crisis” made me reflect on another topic: “the cause or causes of the Great Depression.” To this day there is no consensus among economists as to what caused the severe depression that lasted from 1929 to 1939. Was it the stock market crash in 1929 that brought about the Great Depression? Was it the subsequent banking panics and monetary contraction? Perhaps it was the reduction in international lending and protectionist policies pursued by the US—such as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act—that caused the Great Depression. Or perhaps the “great contraction,” as Milton Friedman used to call it [1], was caused by the actions of the Federal Reserve, which allowed a decline in the money supply partly to preserve the gold standard. All such explanations are, of course, ad hoc. (cont.)


Keynes is innocent

Keynes is innocent: the toxic spawn of Bretton Woods was no plan of his: The economist's dream was blocked for an IMF serving the rich. Reforms proposed by G20 leaders are too little, too late

George Monbiot
18 November 2008
© Copyright 2008. The Guardian. All rights reserved.

Poor old Lord Keynes. The world's press has spent the past week blackening his name. Not intentionally: most of the dunderheads reporting the G20 summit that took place over the weekend really do believe that he proposed and founded the International Monetary Fund. It's one of those stories that passes unchecked from one journalist to another. (cont.)

Open letter to Economists

At a time when our nation faces an economic and financial crisis, unlike any other since the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
At a time when millions of American’s have lost their jobs and many more are in danger of losing theirs.
At a time of record home foreclosures, growing homelessness, and poverty.
At a time when our nation sinks deeper into debt with unsustainable trade deficits.
At a time when our world may be changed irreparably through global warming.
At a time when we are engaged in two wars draining us of $12 billion dollars every month.
At a time of unprecedented military budgets, greater than any since WWII.

We economists urge President-Elect Obama to address these urgent problems by:
Undertaking a massive federal/state/local government investment initiative to generate a green economy that will:
- Provide millions of new jobs and revitalize our economic base.
- Dramatically reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and reduce the danger of global warming.
- Reduce the trade gap by using greater efficiency and renewable energy to become energy independent.
To finance this initiative we urge a combination of budget deficits, tax increases for high income earners, a rapid end to interventionist wars and prudent cuts in military spending, recognizing that the US spends as much on the military as all other nations combined.

Those who agree with the content should contact Martin Melkonian at: ecomzm@hofstra.edu.
http://www.hofstra.edu/Home/News/UR/PressRoom/proom_melkonian.html 

Manifeste pour le plein emploi

Alain Parguez a écrit avec Daniel Pichoud en association avec son groupe "monnaie pour le plein emploi" un très bon manifeste pour la sortie de crise que je vous envoie ci-joint. Si vous souhaitez le soutenir, envoyez rapidement un mail à Alain Parguez à: alain.parguez@neties.com

Manifeste pour le plein emploi (Janvier 2008)

Nous souffrons particulièrement en France :

- D’un taux de chômage élevé et d’une situation diffuse de sous emploi (temps partiel subi, retraités qui souhaiteraient travailler, ceux qui touchent le RMI, tous ceux qui pourraient travailler mais ne le peuvent pas), si bien que 35% au moins des français en âge de travailler soit ne travaillent pas soit travaillent moins qu’ils ne le souhaiteraient.
- D’une politique commerciale et industrielle de long terme insuffisamment affirmée, face à une concurrence mondiale exacerbée, si bien que de nombreuses entreprises sont condamnées pour survivre à se délocaliser, à exporter les machines les plus perfectionnées et les secrets de fabrication qui sont à la base de la capacité européenne à produire des biens de haute technologie.
- En bref une situation plus que préoccupante qui met en danger tout à la fois notre niveau de vie, notre cohésion sociale et notre avenir économique.
Pour y remédier, des dépenses nouvelles sont absolument nécessaires pour répondre à des besoins et des projets essentiels, et pour réaliser les investissements indispensables au bien être de la population et à la préparation du futur. Sans être exhaustifs citons ceux de recherche et développement, de logement, d’éducation, de santé, de sécurité nationale, de transport, de systèmes spatiaux, de télécommunications, d’énergies nouvelles, de protection de l’environnement. …. Rappelons que l’emploi généré par ces investissements est un facteur de réduction du chômage, d’élévation du niveau de vie et de croissance des plus importants.
Notre incapacité actuelle à les réaliser provient-elle, comme on l’avance généralement, d’un excès de dépenses improductives ou somptuaires, de charges sociales trop élevées, de produits mal adaptés à l‘exportation ? Nous pensons plutôt que les causes sont à rechercher dans des politiques monétaire et commerciale inadaptées. En particulier :
- Une absence de politique monétaire et budgétaire harmonisée et dynamique au sein de la zone euro
- Une politique inadaptée de la BCE : d’une part elle privilégie la lutte contre l’inflation, tout en étant incapable de lutter contre la hausse effective du coût de la vie. D’autre part elle sait prêter à guichets ouverts pour sauver les banques mais ne fait rien pour financer les investissements nécessaires à la croissance et au plein emploi.
- Une ouverture sans discernement de l’Europe aux vents dévastateurs de la mondialisation. La préférence communautaire est lettre morte et les capitaux partent s’investir ailleurs pour produire à moindre coût ce que nous consommons.
- Le système des taux de change variable sans régulation aucune, qui permet à certaines monnaies d’être exagérément sous- ou sur-évaluées.
- Les responsables politiques donnent à l’opinion une image apocalyptique de la dette publique, alors que celle du Japon en % du PIB est presque le double de la nôtre et que notre Etat, fort bien coté par les organismes de notation, place ses emprunts sans aucune difficulté et sans majoration de taux sur les marchés financiers.
A partir de ces diagnostics, nous faisons les propositions suivantes :
- Donner à la BCE, comme aux USA, un objectif non seulement de stabilité des prix, mais aussi de plein emploi.
- Alléger les contraintes budgétaires (pacte de stabilité) et en particulier ne pas comptabiliser les dépenses d’investissement dans le déficit (comme pour une entreprise). Aucun des Etats dont la monnaie est l’Euro ne devrait être obligé de réduire son déficit budgétaire en toutes circonstances et notamment lorsqu’il est nécessaire comme moyen de financement des investissements en vue d’une relance efficace et durable pour atteindre le plein emploi.
- Les investissements de long terme utiles à la Nation et à rentabilité lente (qui de ce fait ne peuvent supporter les taux d’intérêt du marché) pourraient être financés par des emprunts auprès de la BCE ou cautionnés par elle et non plus par l’impôt et/ou tout aussi bien par le biais d’organismes parapublics pouvant se refinancer auprès de la BCE.
- Donner à la BCE ou à un organisme ad hoc le pouvoir d’intervenir pour réguler les taux de change. Cet organisme pourrait aussi proposer aux responsables politiques des projets de réformes pour obtenir de meilleures parités.
- Redonner vie à la préférence communautaire prévue par le traité de Rome en définissant les conditions d’une protection qui ne soit pas excessive mais protège des concurrences sauvages les activités, en particulier industrielles, que l’on veut conserver en Europe.
Pour préciser ces possibilités de programme et les activités à mener nous envisageons d’organiser des réunions de travail dans les mois à venir. Nous invitons tous ceux qui veulent lever le blocage financier et idéologique actuel à y participer.
Pour notre part, nous estimons que nous sommes face à une absence de stratégie commerciale et industrielle et à une politique monétaire désastreuse. Etant donné qu’il existe un sous-emploi, il y a la main-d’œuvre nécessaire à la croissance. La politique monétaire doit faciliter les investissements et la consommation, et la politique industrielle permettre d’optimiser l’emploi des ressources. La politique commerciale doit pour sa part empêcher que tous ces efforts soient ruinés par des concurrences débridées.

Les rédacteurs de http://www.neties.com 
L'association chômage et monnaie http://www.chomage-et-monnaie.org

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