Issue 91: November 24, 2009

In this issue:

Call for Papers

Call for URPE Panels at the 2010 Left Forum

Pace University, NYC -- March 19-21
www.leftforum.org


The 2010 Left Forum will take place at Pace University (NYC) for the second year in a row. Pace has lots of room for panels, so it will be easier to have panels accepted than it had been for a number of years previous to last year.

The Left Forum deadline for panel submissions will be Dec. 1. This does not mean the entire panel has to be completely organized -- they are expecting an outline -- but the closer to being complete your panel is, the more likely it is to be accepted. See more info on what LF is looking for here (diversity, different opinions in the same panel, etc.):
http://www.leftforum.org/panelsubmission2010

URPE members can submit panels to the LF either independently or with URPE sponsorship. The advantage of URPE sponsorship is that you will get more publicity within URPE and you will get help with organizing your panel. The LF may or may not list the sponsoring organizations in its brochure and on its website (it did in the past, but did not last year). And URPE sponsorship may help your panel get accepted by the LF.

The URPE deadline for submissions of URPE-sponsored panels is Thursday, November 19. That is because the fall steering committee meeting is the weekend of November 21-22, and a committee of the SC will review URPE at LF submissions that weekend, and make a decision on which panels will be sponsored by URPE. (Again, you can still submit panels independently, in which case you don't need to go through URPE.)

Costs: In the past each panel paid $125 to the Forum. Usually this fee was raised by dividing the cost of the panel among the panelists and chair (usually 3-5 people); once this panel fee was paid, however, all members of the panel were entitled to attend the entire conference without paying individual registration fees. SEE LF WEBSITE -- PAYMENT HAS NOT BEEN DECIDED FOR THIS YEAR.

People who attend the LF are well-informed but most are not economists. Panels should be on topics of general interest. Please be prepared to make a major contribution toward organizing your panel, but be open to the possibility of accepting additional suggestions of panelists from URPE or from the 2010 LF organizers.

The factors involved in determining which panels will be sponsored by URPE include: how many panels apply; whether your panel is of general interest; whether a panel on the same topic has already been accepted by the 2010 Left Forum; whether URPE decides to co-sponsor panels with other organizations; how much effort you are able to contribute toward organizing your panel; whether it is possible to form a complete panel from your suggestion; and whether you have been in an URPE panel recently.

The organizers of the conference work closely with URPE panel organizers, and may have some voice in which panels are accepted. Last year they said that they would try to honor URPE's choice of one or two panels, but they also said that they will have final say.

It is possible, but not likely, that individual papers will find a place on another panel in the LF.

Please e-mail panel suggestions to soapbox@urpe.org  by November 19.

The URPE Steering Committee will try to find a place in another conference for panels that are left out. People in or near NYC might consider participating in a panel at the Brecht Forum, which is eager to have URPE panels.

STOREP 2010

Il VII Convegno Annuale dell’Associazione Italiana per la Storia dell’Economia Politica (STOREP) sarà ospitato dal Dipartimento di Sociologia e Ricerca Sociale e dal Dipartimento di Economia dell’Università di Trento dal 30 maggio al 1 giugno 2010. Il tema centrale della conferenza è: Pubblico e privato in economia: i confini sfuggenti. Come nei precedenti convegni STOREP, proposte di paper o di sessioni su tutti gli altri aspetti della storia del pensiero economico sono benvenute.
Un abstract di non oltre 200 parole per i paper, e una breve descrizione di non oltre 400 parole del tema, della motivazione, degli autori e dei titoli delle relazioni per le sessioni, devono essere inviati prima del 31 gennaio 2010 a: segretario@storep.org.  L’accettazione del paper sarà comunicata entro il 20 febbraio 2010. La versione completa del paper dovrà essere inviata entro il 10 maggio 2010.
Il call for paper e ulteriori informazioni sono disponibili alla pagina web http://events.unitn.it/storep2010

STOREP 2010

The 7th Annual Conference of the Italian Association for the History of Political Economy (STOREP) will be hosted by the Department of Sociology and Social Research and the Department of Economics of the University of Trento from May 30th to June 1st 2010. The special theme of the conference is: The shifting boundaries between public and private in economics. As with past STOREP conferences, proposals of sessions or submissions of papers concerning any other aspect of the history of economic thought are also welcome. Paper abstracts of no more than 200 words or a brief ( 400 words) description of theme, motivation, authors and paper titles for a session should be submitted to: segretario@storep.org.  The deadline for submissions is January 31st, 2010. The Scientific Committee will send notice of acceptance or rejection within February 20th, 2010. Completed papers will be due by May 10th, 2010.
Call for paper and further information are available at http://events.unitn.it/storep2010

“Environment, Innovation and Sustainable development: Towards a new technoeconomic paradigm?”

Twenty years after the Brundtland report, the concept of sustainable development is still considered as innovative, even if it is subject to many criticisms. To be sustainable, development must integrate three dimensions: economic, social and environmental. The accomplishment of these three dimensions calls for radical technical and socio-economic innovations.

Communication proposals
Communication proposals of two pages should include an abstract explaining the problematic, the method used and a bibliography. Proposals must be sent with the completed enclosed “communication proposal form” (by email).

Sessions may also be proposed: a session includes four communication proposals. Please indicate the title of the session and include the four or five communication proposals germane to your proposal.

Send communication proposals to:
Conference Secretariat: Mrs Vozinaki Irini ceisd2010.conference@enveng.tuc.gr
Calendar
- Deadline for sending communication proposals: March 1, 2010
- Decision of the scientific committee: May 1, 2010
- Deadline for final papers: September 10, 2010.

Click here for detailed information.

The American Journal of Economics and Sociology

Submit your paper to The American Journal of Economics and Sociology
The American Journal of Economics and Sociology (AJES) was founded in 1941, with support from the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, to provide a forum for continuing discussion of issues raised and emphasized by the American political economist, social philosopher, and activist, Henry George (1839-1897).

The AJES welcomes any submission that critically investigates the social provisioning process utilizing different theoretical and methodological approaches; that engages in
critical analysis and empirical studies of current social-economic micro and macro policies affecting the social provisioning process; and that evaluates past and current
intellectual arguments and disciplinary developments primarily in economics and sociology (but also in the related disciplines of anthropology, political science, and law) which had or currently have an impact on understanding and investigating the social provisioning process.

Articles that offer an interdisciplinary perspective are encouraged. For policy-oriented articles, it is appropriate and encouraged to discuss the public policy implications (if any) of the findings.

The AJES also has a 'Comment and Analysis' feature that allows scholars to 'sound off' about events so long as the ideas are presented in a logical and coherent framework, references are provided, and the whole project amounts to an interesting essay in persuasion presented in a mature professional way.

Each year AJES issues a special supplementary issue to all subscribers containing an important and interesting monograph in an ongoing series entitled Studies in Social Reform and Economic Justice. In addition, each year there may be one issue is entirely devoted to an important thematic topic and scholars are invited to contribute from all around the world.

Submit your paper today!

Authors should e-mail their papers, with any artwork or illustrations, to:

Professor Frederic S. Lee
Department of Economics
University of Missouri-Kansas City
5100 Rockhill Road,
Kansas City, Missouri 64110
USA
E-mail: ajes@umkc.edu 

Submissions should be typed in English, double-spaced, with all notes at the end of the paper. A reference list with the full 'facts of publication' must be included as well. Authors should consult a recent copy of the AJES for examples of satisfactory reference pages.

SASE 2010 Mini-Conference

“Evolutionary Regulation: Rethinking the Role of Regulation in Economy and Society”
jointly convened by Reuven Avi-Yonah, Yuri Biondi and Shyam Sunder
Call for papers:
http://yuri.biondi.free.fr/downloads/SASE2010ConferenceRegulation.pdf

Conference web site: www.sase.org

Presentation:
Transformations driven by deregulation, technological change, financialisation, and globalization, international accounting convergence, and the ongoing financial crisis have challenged our settled modes of regulation. They have provoked the development of disparate and even rival modes of regulation, and raised questions about the received perspectives on the role of the State and of the Law. In regulatory evolution, intentional design, unintended consequences, learning, and dynamic adjustments interact, and every global or local regulator must settle the delicate balance between principles, norms and rules in this evolutionary context. This special session aims to contribute to the current debate by convening scholars from different perspectives and disciplines to address this evolutionary process of regulation and its implications for economy and society.
Agenda:
*Submissions should comply with the rules of the SASE 2010 Annual Meeting, and include a short biographic note and research summary foreach Author;
*Deadline for submissions: 31 January 2010, through the SASE website
*Notification of acceptances to authors by 1 April 2010;
*Submission of conference papers by 1 June 2010.

A Century of May Days: Labor and Social Struggles

International Conference

In Chicago during May Day weekend 2010, there will be a conference to discuss, debate and analyze labor and social struggles B both past and present.
Call for Papers, workshop and panel proposals*
We hope to cover an array of important historical and political topics. In addition to purely academic pursuits, conference participants will have the opportunity to participate in the May Day rally organized by the Chicago Federation of Labor and the Illinois Labor History Society. If there is sufficient interest, we will set up a Chicago labor history tour.

Initial list of participants and endorsers: Illinois Labor History Society; James Thindwa, In These Times; Suzie Weissman, Saint Mary’s College of California; Bryan Palmer, Labour/Le Travail (Canada); Ronald van Raak, M.P. (The Netherlands); Kim Bobo, Interfaith Worker Justice; Michael McIntyre, DePaul University; Peter Hudis, Loyola University; Sungur Savran, Author (Turkey); Lea Haro, University of Glasgow (Scotland); George Gonos, SUNY-
Potsdam; Janine Hatman, University of Cincinnati; Lauren Langman, Loyola University; Alexander Pantsov, Capital University; Francis King, Secretary–Socialist History Society (London); Mark Lause, University of
Cincinnati; Eric A. Schuster, Truman College; Knud Jensen, DPU Aarhus University (Copenhagen); Axel Fair-Schulz, SUNY- Potsdam; JP Page, CGT (France); Dianne Feeley, Against the Current; Kevin Anderson, UC – Santa Barbara; Fritz Weber (Vienna); Jerry Harris, DeVry University; Joe Berry,
University of Illinois; Theo Bergmann, (Stuttgart); Dan LaBotz, Author (Cincinnati); Sobhanlal Datta Gupta,. Surendra Nath Banerjee Professor, Calcutta University. (India); Spectre Magazine (Belgium); Steven McGiffen,
American Graduate School of International Relations (Paris); Len Kaufmann (Wisconsin); William A. Pelz, Institute of Working Class History (Chicago) Further details:
mayday1890.2010@gmail.com or write:
Institute of Working Class History
2335 W. Altgeld Street
Chicago, IL. 60647-2001 U.S.A.A
www.mayday2010.info  *by December 15th

SABE 2010

Meetings of SABE, the Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics, in San Diego, 2-5 August 2010

Conference Themes: (1) unifying the social sciences through behavioral economics, (2) behavioral economics and the family, and (3) behavioral economics and neuroscience.

We are especially interested in papers on Hayek as a forerunner of behavioral and neuroeconomics. Topics include but certainly not limited to Hayek's theory of mind; the relevance of his Sensory Order on his economic philosophy; his views on human psychology, human rationality, and decision making.

Participants may submit extended abstracts of papers or proposals for an entire session about one of the topics of the three mini conferences, or any other topic relevant to behavioral economics.

Please submit papers via Conferencemaker at https://editorialexpress.com/cgi-bin/conference/conference.cgi?action=login&db_name=SABE2010
The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2010. For proposed sessions: please ask all participants to submit their papers and email the organizer about your proposed session.

You will be notified by April 20, 2010, whether or not your submission has been accepted for presentation. Please register at http://sabe2010.org/

Hotel rates as low as $89 a night are available.

For further information please contact either Roger Frantz ( rfrantz@mail.sdsu.edu  ) or Shoshana Grossbard ( sgrossba@mail.sdsu.edu ).

L'entrepreneur, entre autonomie et incertitude

Appel à articles pour la Revue française de socio-économie.

On assiste depuis une vingtaine d'années à un renouvellement des recherches sur les entrepreneurs. Nous entendons par entrepreneur un acteur recherchant un profit personnel par la direction d'une entreprise, par l'indépendance professionnelle ou par la conduite d'activités salariales présentant un degré élevé d'autonomie. Cette définition, certes large, a le mérite de mettre en relief l'autonomie de ces acteurs et la spécificité des activités entrepreneuriales, consistant à rechercher et à identifier des opportunités de profit en contexte d'incertitude.

Dans la lignée de Schumpeter, une première vague de recherches s'était centrée sur les conditions d'émergence d'un entrepreneur considéré comme héroïque et doté de qualités exceptionnelles d'innovation, de volonté, d'énergie... Ces travaux ont été fortement critiqués en particulier pour leur tendance individualisante. Le regard s'est depuis déplacé vers l'environnement, les réseaux relationnels et les différents dispositifs institutionnels et équipements techniques des entrepreneurs. Contrairement au précédent, ce courant de recherche envisage l'entrepreneur comme le produit d'un collectif. Il est alimenté par des enquêtes sur des terrains variés : les créateurs d'entreprises, l'économie informelle, les districts industriels, les jeunes entreprises innovantes, les artisans... Des recherches ont par exemple mis au jour le poids de la position des entrepreneurs dans les réseaux sociaux sur leurs marges bénéficiaires ou l'impact des réseaux ou des dispositifs (juridiques, organisationnels, cognitifs) sur la création d'entreprises. Les carrières et trajectoires de cadres dirigeants constituent un autre objet de recherche de ce champ, éclairant les processus de couplage et de découplage, d'encastrement et d'autonomisation.

Il s'agit d'un thème de recherche particulièrement propice aux fertilisations croisées entre la sociologie, de l'histoire, de l'économie, des sciences politiques, de l'anthropologie et des sciences de gestion. Cet appel est ouvert aux contributions de ces différentes disciplines des sciences sociales.

Date limite d'envoi des articles : 4 janvier 2010.

Les articles d'une longueur maximale de 60 000 signes espaces comprises, doivent parvenir par voie électronique à l'adresse électronique suivante : rf-socioeconomie@univ-lille1.fr.  Ils doivent impérativement être présentés selon les normes formelles de la revue.
Celles-ci peuvent être téléchargées sur le site de la Revue française de socio-économie : http://rfse.univ-lille1.fr.

Pour tout complément d'information, contacter rf-socioeconomie@univ-lille1.fr

Strikes and Social Conflicts in the 20th Century

Call for Papers
International Conference
Strikes and Social Conflicts in the Twentieth Century Lisbon, 17, 18, 19 March, 2011

The Institute of Contemporary History (New University of Lisbon), the International Institute of Social History (Amsterdam), The Archive Edgard Leuenroth (Unicamp/Brasil), the Centre for the Study of Spain under Franco and Democracy (Autonomous University of Barcelona) and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (France) start the call for papers for the International Conference on Strikes and Social Conflicts in the Twentieth Century that will take place in Lisbon between 17 and 19 March 2011.

The twentieth century has been confirmed as the century when the capital-labour conflict was most severe. The International Conference on Strikes and Social Conflicts in the Twentieth Century will host submissions on the strikes and social conflicts in the twentieth century and works on the theoretical discussion on the role of unions and political organizations. We also invite researchers to submit papers on methodology and the historiography of labour.

We welcome submissions on labour conflicts that occurred in factories, universities or public services, on rural and urban conflicts and also on conflicts that developed into civil wars or revolutions. National and international comparisons are also welcome.

After the Russian revolution the relative strengths of capital and labour were never again the same, with a period of revolution and counter-revolution that ended with World War II. Protagonist of the victory over fascism, the labour movement found itself neglected in the core countries under the impact of economic growth in the 1950s and the 1960s. But May 1968 quickly reversed the situation, with a following boom of labour studies during the 1970s. Nevertheless once the crisis of the 1970s was over, capital has regained the initiative, with the deterioration of labour laws, the crisis of trade unions and the subsequent despise in the academy for the study of social conflicts. The recent crisis, however, shows that workers, the ones who create value, are not obsolete. The social movements regain, in the last decade, a central role in the world.

The intensification of social conflicts in the last decade promoted a comeback to the academia of the studies on labour and the social movements. This conference aims to be part of this process: to retrieve, promote and disseminate the history of social conflicts during the twentieth century. Calendar
Papers submission: January 2010 - 30th June 2010
Notification of acceptance: July 30th, 2010
Papers: December 15th, 2010
Conference: March, 17-19, 2011

Important: The deadline for delivery of completed papers/articles is 15th December 2010. For reasons of translation no papers will be accepted after this date. The paper should be no longer than 4000 words (including spaces) in times new roman, 12, line space 1,5. For Registration Form see below.

Conference languages are Portuguese, English, French and Spanish (simultaneous translation Portuguese/English).

more info http://labourhistory.net/news/i0910_16.php

2010 Economic & Business Historical Society Conference

BRAGA, PORTUGAL
(MAY 27 - 29)
The Economic & Business Historical Society welcomes proposals for presentations on all aspects of business and economic history at its 35th annual conference at Braga, Portugal, May 27-29, 2010. Composed of more than one hundred North American and international members, the Economic & Business Historical Society offers its members and conference participants an opportunity for intellectual interchange within a collegial interdisciplinary group. The Society holds its annual convention in locations of historical significance. Both the annual membership (regular: $30; graduate student: $20) and conference registration fee ($135) are modest. We also offer special conference rates for graduate students ($8) and early researchers (first 4 years after doctorate has been earned; $90). Papers presented at the conference may be submitted for publication in the Society's peer reviewed journal, Essays in Economic and Business History, edited by Janice Traflet, Bucknell University.
The Society seeks proposals for both individual papers and panel sessions. Proposals for individual papers should include an abstract of no more than 500 words, a brief CV, postal and email addresses, and telephone and fax numbers. Panel proposals should also suggest a title and a panel chair. Graduate students and non-academic affiliates are welcome. Submissions imply that at least one author will register for the conference and be present at the time designated in the conference program. To be included in the proceedings and to be eligible for publication in the Essays in Economic and Business History, the paper must be presented by one of the authors at the conference.
EBHS can not guarantee that an applicant will be granted entry into Portugal. Attendees need to check the requirements for nationals from their respective country for entry into the European Union. U.S. citizens generally do not require visas for short duration stays in most European countries. Submissions by scholars from countries requiring an entry visa into Portugal must apply early and make the necessary arrangements with the local Portuguese Consulate.
The deadline for submission is December 15th, 2009.
- Formal letter of acceptance of abstracts will be send on or before l January 8th, 2010 .
- Earlier submissions will receive letter within 2 months of submission
Conference registration should be completed on before March 31st, 2010.
- Completed papers must be submitted to the panel chair and other panel members no later than March 31st, 2010.
- To receive the conference rate, rooms must be reserved by March 24th, 2010. Please note each hotel has a limited number of rooms, so make your reservation early.
Proposals may be submitted
- on line: http://www.ebhsoc.org/papers.html
- by email to: Neil Forbes, 2010 Program Chair at 2010ebhs@gmail.com
- or by Mail to:

Neil Forbes
Director of Postgraduate Research
Coventry University
GE Building
Priory Street
Coventry CV1 5FB
United Kingdom
For more information: http://www.ebhsoc.org/index.htm

Industrial Relations

Submit Your Paper to the Industrial Relations Special Issue
Special Issue on alternative ways of understanding the role of institutions in the employment relationship

Whilst there is a general consensus across much of the industrial relations literature that institutions matter, there is rather more debate as to what exactly institutions are, how they operate, and their long-term effects on work and employment relations. Institutions have variously been conceived in a rational hierarchical way, in terms of the structuralist tradition, as centers of webs of relationships, or as dynamic and evolving structures temporarily stabilizing accumulation regimes. Recent work has focused on the nature of internal diversity within specific institutional settings, and the experimental and contested nature of systemic change.

The special issue seeks to bring together perspectives from alternative theoretical traditions, enriched by empirical work focusing on the consequences for understanding work and employment relations in different national contexts.
Industrial Relations articles as they publish
It is hoped that the special issue will consolidate and extend the existing literature and showcase the latest thinking in the area, help map out potential directions for the development and extension of existing paradigms, and promote the more rigorous use of theory. We believe that given its timing, the symposium is likely to become a standard reference on the subject for years to come.

We invite papers that provide high-quality research to extend our knowledge of the institution’s role in work and employment. Papers can be from different theoretical perspectives and use different methods, but must constitute fresh work, which genuinely advances existing debates.

The deadline for submissions is 31 March 2010.
The guest editors of the special issue are very happy to discuss initial ideas for papers, and can be contacted directly:

ADRIAN WILKINSON
Adrian.Wilkinson@griffith.edu.au

GEOFF WOOD
g.t.wood@sheffield.ac.uk

About Industrial Relations
Corporate restructuring and downsizing, the changing employment relationship in union and nonunion settings, high performance work systems, the demographics of the workplace, and the impact of globalization on national labor markets - these are just some of the major issues covered in Industrial Relations. The journal offers an invaluable international perspective on economic, sociological, psychological, political, historical, and legal developments in labor and employment.

Managing Financial Instability in Capitalist Economies

Economics ejournal
Special issue on "Managing Financial Instability in Capitalist Economies"
Editors: Thomas Lux, University of Kiel, and Marco Raberto, Reykjavik University

http://www.economics-ejournal.org/special-areas/special-issues/managing-financial-instability-in-capitalist-economies

Abstract:
We invite authors to submit papers for the Special Issue on “Managing Financial Instability in Capitalistic Economies”. This special issue follows the MAFIN09 workshop on the same topic held in Reykjavik, September 3rd-5th 2009, but is open also to contributions not presented in it.

Special Issue Purpose
The special issue aims to present new modeling paradigms in financial economics able to understand the causes and the dynamics of financial and economic crises and to devise proper economic policies for recovering a capitalist economy from a deep recession due to a credit crunch or a collapse in assets values.

Background
The current financial and banking crisis and the subsequent severe economic recession have dramatically demonstrated the importance of financial and credit markets in modern economies. According to mainstream approaches to economics, the structure of financial liabilities only has limited influence on aggregate economic activity. Capitalist economies are viewed as essentially stable and tending towards steady growth; and the investment-finance linkage is considered at the most as an amplifying mechanism of shocks exogenous to the economy. A different, unduly neglected strand of research emphasizes the role of the investment-finance link not just as a propagator of exogenous shocks but as the main source of financial instability and business cycles. In this tradition, endogenous boom-and-bust cycles might be due to excessive risk taking and overinvestment during good times. While this approach has long been dormant because of its abandonment of complete rationality of agents, the crisis has brought to the fore the importance of such explanations for ongoing events. On the theoretical side, recent developments in statistical equilibrium approaches to economics, alongside with the emergence of behavioral and agent-based models, have indicated the way to overcome the limitation of traditional equilibrium-based analytical models characterized by fully rational representative agents.

Topics
The aim of the special issue is to solicit and publish papers that provide a new and fresh perspective in financial and economic modelling. We therefore encourage submissions on topics of relevance for this special issue from following areas:

* Agent-based computational economics
* Behavioural finance and economics
* Economics of heterogeneous and interacting agents
* Evolutionary economics
* Financial Keynesianism and financial fragility
* Financial engineering and regulation
* Econophysics
* Management of endogenous and systemic risk
* Non-linear financial econometrics
* Statistical equilibrium in economics

Deadline for Paper Submissions : November 30, 2009

The Effect of Crises on Distribution

Economists and the public discussion have so far failed to focus on what the recent global crisis may spell for the distributional consequences. It is with this in mind, that the Economic Student Union at The New School for Social Research would like to invite you to present abstracts for a conference on “The Effect of Crises on Distribution.”

The conference is to be held on March 5, 2010 at The New School University, New York and is co-sponsored by the Economic Student Union, the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA), and the Department of Economics.

Major themes of the conference include the effects of historical and current economic crises on the distribution of income and wealth, labor, capital and finance, gender, global power relations, and the policies used and required to address these issues.

Speakers at the conference will include scholars from academia and multilateral organizations. We look forward to papers from a variety of backgrounds to stimulate debate and improve our understanding of distributional issues

Selected papers from the conference proceedings and from the submitted papers will be published as a special issue of the New School Economic Review. Please submit abstracts via e-mail to nssreconconference@gmail.com  on or before December 15, 2009.
Abstracts should include: Paper Title, Full Name, Affiliation (Institution), Current Position, and an email address. Submissions will go through a double blind review process. Space is limited so early submission is suggested.

Conference Organizer:
Lacey Keller
kelll921@newschool.edu

Where to Implement Innovative Economic Policies for Climate Change Mitigation

Seriously concerned with global climate change but optimist that mitigation is still possible, the Economics Web Institute has solicited heterodox economists to devise innovative economic policies to be integrated in effective and fair climate change mitigation efforts at every geographical and industry level.

Scholars from such a wide range of countries as Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Denmark, France, Kenya, Hungary, India, Italy, Iran, Mauritius, The Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Slovakia, United Kingdom have accepted this challenge, providing a unique international and multi-polar perspective, expressed in a newly published book.

Read it for free, select the policies that better fit a context you know well, and write a paper on the subject.

The best three papers will receive a money prize and all deserving papers will be summarized and quoted in the updated version of the book foreseen for early 2010. They will also qualify for participation in a conference in Sept. 2010.

The deadline, the rules of the call and the way to get the book are here:

http://www.economicswebinstitute.org/innopolicymitigation.htm

where you can also download a synthesis of the policies.

Valentino Piana
Director of the Economics Web Institute
http://www.economicswebinstitute.org

14th Annual International Conference on Economics and Security

17th-18th June 2010
Izmir, Turkey
Hosted by:
Ekolider, Izmir University of Economics and Economics Department, Middle East Technical University (METU).

Venue:
Izmir University of Economics, Izmir, TURKEY

Background and conference topic:
EKOLIDER of the Izmir University of Economics and Middle East Technical University are honoured to host the 14th Annual International Conference on Economics and Security.

Click here for detailed information.

1st IIPPE Conference

I am pleased to send you the call for papers for the 1st IIPPE conference to be held in Rethymnon, Crete, 10-12 September 2010. The deadline for submission of paper summaries is 31 March 2010, although earlier submission is advised. For all relevant information, please see the attached document. In case of any questions, you can contact us at iippe@soas.ac.uk.

International Conference of the Charles Gide

Call for papers (Deadline: November 27, 2009) Organised by PHARE (Pôle d’Histoire de l’Analyse et des Représentations Economiques) — Paris – May 27 to 29, 2010
PHARE (University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne) organizes in Paris from May 27 to 29, 2010 the 13th Biennial International Conference of the Charles Gide Association for the Study of Economic Thought (ACGEPE). The theme of the conference is “Institutions in Economic Thought”, but communications in history of economic thought on other issues are also welcomed.

Click here for detailed information.

12th Conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics

The Economy of Tomorrow
7-10 July, 2010
University of Bordeaux, France

The Economy of Tomorrow.

- Social aspects, i.e., labour markets, pensions, work-time, systems of social security, income distribution, poverty, human development, etc.
- Financial aspects: financialization, capital mobility, corporate governance, credit crunch, taxes on international monetary transactions, financial innovations, etc.
- Environmental aspects: productive and consumption models, eco-innovations, environmental regulations and governance, alleviation or adaptation to global warming, new cities, etc.
- North-South relations: trajectories of emerging countries, new world order, international trade, development aid, development cooperation
- Economics: pluralism in research and teaching, research evaluation, economists/decision-makers relationships, etc. Click here for guidelines.

THEME
Proposal of ADEK (Association for the development of Keynesian Studies)
MODELING THE FUTURE

The Future of Post Keynesian Economics

Organiser: ADEK, Edwin Le Heron, President of the ADEK, IEP de Bordeaux

The general idea is to deal with issues that make post Keynesians relevant to address the main challenges of the 21st century, namely:
- How to integrate radical uncertainty, the place of psychological variables, of the conventions, of power, etc.?
- Alternative approaches to financialization and finance-led capitalism.
- How to integrate the ecological constraint? How to deal with Sustainable development? How to conciliate the place of money or growth theory with a sustainability-based approach?
- Alternative strategies of development and North-South relationships.
- Modeling the future: stock-flow consistent models.

Proposal for themes:
Please send a short title for the theme as well as a short description of the papers that are requested and the name of panel organisers or organiser. Please send these by email only to the local organiser Ali Douai ( ali.douai@u-bordeaux4.fr ), AND the AHE coordinator, Alan Freeman ( afreeman@iwgvt.org ). Text, HTML, Word and PDF format attachments are acceptable.

"Beyond the Crisis"

INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVE FOR PROMOTING POLITICAL ECONOMY (IIPPE)
and
GREEK SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION OF POLITICAL ECONOMY FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN POLITICAL ECONOMY RETHYMNON, CRETE, SEPTEMBER 10-12, 2010

“BEYOND THE CRISIS”

Pre-amble: Following its three previous highly successful international research workshops for students in Crete, Naples and Ankara, the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy (IIPPE) is now holding its FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, co-organised with the Greek Scientific Association of Political Economy, and open to application from all engaged in political economy. Summaries of papers for consideration for inclusion (maximum 1000 words) should be submitted by 31st of March 2010 to iippe@soas.ac.uk  with subject heading IIPPE
CONFERENCE 2010. Full papers are required to be made available by 30 June 2010 for pre-circulation to Conference participants. It will be possible to attend the Conference without submitting a paper but numbers will be limited. There will be some funding available forthose who are unable to rely upon institutional support for participation, with special provision for research students.

Thirteenth World Congress of Social Economics

Social Economics, the Social Economy, and Wellbeing
June 28 – July 1, 2010
Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy
Concordia University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
The conference will take place on the downtown campus of Concordia University in the heart of multilingual, multiethnic Montreal, in the midst of a multitude of cafes, bookstores, restaurants, boutiques, museums, art galleries, B&Bs, and hotels. Concordia is also not far removed Montreal's three other universities: McGill, Montreal, and UQAM (University of Quebec in Montreal). It is also walking distance or a short metro or bus ride to the Old City, the well-restored centre of Canada second oldest cities and one of the oldest urban centers in North America.
Sessions begins on Friday, June 29th with the opening reception the evening of June 28th.
Click here for detailed information.

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Conferences, Seminars and Lectures

Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE)

Annual Program
January 2-5, 2010, Atlanta, GA
All sessions will be held at the Hilton Atlanta
Download the program here.

The Legacy of Joan Robinson

Geoff Harcourt will speak on "The Legacy of Joan Robinson" at 5 pm on Thursday 26 November in the Nihon Room at Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Modern Economic and Social History Seminar. Affiliated with the History and Policy network, www.historyandpolicy.org 
All are welcome to attend and to join the speakers and convenors for local hospitality afterwards. Further details at http://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/seminars_events/seminars/modern-economic-social-history.pdf

The recent developments in Post-Keynesian modelling

The task group “Post-Keynesian analyses and modeling” of the CEPN is
happy to announce its first conference on
The recent developments in Post-Keynesian modelling
November 20th and 21st 2009 in Paris 13
During the past few years, a significant renewal and development of dynamic Post- Keynesian modeling has taken place. This symposium is aimed at presenting and exploring further the most recent advances associated with this trend. The main fields of contemporary Post-Keynesian modeling will be explored, with special focus on stock-flow consistent models a la Godley- Lavoie; Kaleckian models of growth and income distribution; Kaldorian models with path dependency and cumulative causation; disequilibrium models of the business cycle a la Chiarella and Flaschel. In this framework the main issues taken up will be the relation between inequality and growth, the nature of the finance-led growth regime and its crisis, international disequilibrium and its persistency, and the links with political economy.

Click here for detailed information.

FORUM DE LA RÉGULATION 2009

1-2 décembre 2009, Paris
P R O G R A M M E (version du 15/11/2009) mardi 1 décembre
lieu : Ecole normale supérieure (salle Dussane), 29 rue dʼUlm 75005 Paris
9h accueil des participants
9h30 > 12h séance plénière n°1
lieu : Maison des Sciences Economiques (Université Paris-Sorbonne), 106-112 bd de lʼHôpital 75013 Paris (M° Campo-Formio).
14h > 18h30 ateliers en séances parallèles (sessions A et B)
mercredi 2 décembre
lieu : Maison des Sciences Economiques (Université Paris-Sorbonne), 106-112 bd de lʼHôpital 75013 Paris (M° Campo-Formio).
9h >12h30 ateliers en séances parallèles (sessions C et D)
14h > 17h séance plénière n°2 et n°3
 

KEYNES SEMINAR LIVE

On Tuesday 24 November, Giuseppe Fontana will speak about his new book “Money, Uncertainty and Time” and Alberto Feduzi will respond.

The seminar will take place at 4 pm in the Judge Business School Auditorium Lounge, Robinson College, Cambridge and will finish no later than 5.30 pm. Further details can be found at http://www.postkeynesian.net/keynes.htm 

Research Unit in Politics & Ethics Events

The Libertarian Impulse: Theories, Histories, Comparison
Seminar series 2009-2010 academic year
From October 2009 until March 2010 RUPE will hold a series of seminars on the theme of libertarian politics and theory. With the collapse of state socialism, the unseemly decline of social democracy, and with the devolving of liberalism into a narrow politics of security, we believe it is high time to turn to political heresies like anarchism, left-libertarianism and autonomist Marxism, which have existed until now on the margins of more recognized political traditions. With the unprecedented deployment and expansion of state power and surveillance post-9/11, and with the symptomatic crisis of legitimacy experienced by representative party politics, we think it is important and timely to investigate alternative sites of the political – the autonomous and anti-systemic social movements and activist networks which have proliferated across the global horizon in recent years. The series will focus on different ways of thinking about individual and collective liberty, difference and equality, as well as political identities, practices, modes of organization, action and democracy outside the state order.
This seminar series will explore related themes of: anarchist theory, utopian thought, cosmopolitanism, the politics of direct action, new social movements, social liberty, autonomous politics, piracy and biopolitics, and continental radical political philosophy. It will bring together a series of experts and thinkers from different disciplines – Politics, Sociology, Anthropology, Philosophy and Social Policy – who are all moved in some way by the libertarian impulse.
The seminars will be held on Tuesday evenings 6-8pm in the Senior Common Room (Level 2 RHB). Drinks will be provided, and everyone is invited. The program is as follows:
Autumn Term
24 November - Dr. David Graeber (Anthropology, Goldsmiths): ‘We are all already communists (reconsidered)’
1 December – Professor Gianni Vattimo (Philosophy, Turin): ‘Philosophy and Emancipation’
8 December – Dr. Geoffrey Pleyers (FNRS Researcher, University of Louvain) (RHB 308): ‘Autonomy in the alterglobalization movement: theories, cultures, and practices’
Spring Term
19 January – Dr. Alberto Toscano (Sociology, Goldsmiths): ‘Freedom, Claustrophobia and Colonisation: Lessons from the Anarchist Geography of Elisee Reclus’
2 February – Dr. Ruth Kinna (Politics, Loughborough): ‘William Morris: Time & Utopia’
9 February – Dr. Nicola Montagna (Criminology, Middlesex): Title TBC
2 March – Amedeo Policante (Politics, Goldsmiths): Title TBC
16 March – Dr. Saul Newman (Politics, Goldsmiths): Booklaunch: ‘The Politics of Postanarchism’
*Please direct any enquiries to Saul Newman: s.newman (@gold.ac.uk) / Tel: 0207 919 7747

King's College London Reading Capital Society

http://www.kclreadingcapital.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49539959005
- - -
1) Next session: 'Money'

Following a fascinating session discussing the fetishism of commodites, the Reading Capital group asks...
What is money? Where does it come from? What makes certain commodities suitable as money? Could we live without it?
Joseph Choonara, former deputy-editor of International Socialism Journal ( www.isj.org.uk ), will introduce a discussion on

'Money or the Circulation of Commodities’.
Monday 23rd November '09 (NOTE CHANGE OF DATE)
6pm F-WB Room 2.43
Waterloo Campus
King's College London

"It is not money that renders commodities commensurable. Just the contrary. It is because all commodities, as values, are realised human labour, and therefore commensurable, that their values can be measured by one and the same special commodity, and the latter be converted into the common measure of their values, i.e., into money. Money as a measure of value, is the phenomenal form that must of necessity be assumed by that measure of value which is immanent in commodities: labour-time.”

All welcome - whether you have been reading Capital or just want to drop in for the talk - we aim to be accessible to all.
(Those wishing to read in advance should make their way to Chapter 3!)

2) Martin Wolf & Alex Callinicos Debate:
If you haven't already, you can watch the event:
Alex Callinicos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6CZAQvAMaY
Martin Wolf:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXKqqgwAIeI
Questions & Answers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYpHLnlUrFg
or download the audio from:
http://rapidshare.com/files/302959451/Wolf_Callinicos_Full_Audio.wav
and a Palantypist's transcript:
http://rapidshare.com/files/305646664/CallinicosWolf021009wholedebate.rtf
3) Chris Harman - 1942-2009
The Reading Group was deeply saddened to learn of the death of Chris Harman. Only two weeks ago, Chris gave a brilliantly accessible introduction to the first chapter of Capital for the Reading Group. That he was able to make the most abstract and difficult part of Capital so unfailingly concrete is a testament to the power and clarity of his thought. He will be greatly missed.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/nov/09/chris-harman-obituary
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=19504
Chris's session for the Reading Group:
http://rapidshare.com/files/299965681/Chris_Harman_27Oct2009.mp3

Saints or Sinners: the role of the media in the financial crisis

Book a place http://www.city.ac.uk/whatson/forms-2009/021209-media-financial-crisis-booking.html
Invite friends

Event Type: Panel Discussion
Speaker(s): Gillian Tett, Assistant Editor, Financial Times
Hugh Pym, Chief Economics Correspondent, BBC News
Larry Elliott, Economics Editor, The Guardian
Professor Charles Goodhart, London School of Economics
Alistair Milne, Cass Business School
Damian Tambini, London School of Economics
Chaired by Prof. Steve Schifferes, Graduate School of Journalism, City University London

Date: Wednesday 2 December 2009
Time: 6:30 PM
Location: Oliver Thompson Lecture Theatre, City University London, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB
http://www.city.ac.uk/whatson/forms-2009/021209-media-financial-crisis-booking.html
Note: Registration from 6pm. Debate starts at 6.30pm.
Contact: Contact journalism@city.ac.uk  for more information, or follow #citysaints on Twitter.
http://www.city.ac.uk/whatson/2009/12_dec/021209-media-financial-crisis.html

A Green Economics Conference/ Symposium

Greening the Economy

Green Economics solutions to the climate crisis, economics crisis and ecological crisis:
An economics of sharing and poverty prevention
Saving Kyoto and Planning for Copenhagen COP 15

28 November 2009
Oxford University Club, Oxford, UK

for The Green Economics Institute Conference
28 November 2008 10:00 – 23:30

Click here for detailed information.

Economics Department Seminar Series

The Value of Art: Two events on the Economics of Art

Two upcoming events to discuss ‘Measuring Intrinsic Value’ by Hasan Bakhshi, Alan Freeman, and Graham Hitchen, which you can find at: www.MissionModelsMoney.org.uk
with some background papers at:
http://ideas.repec.org/e/pfr102.html


Thursday 12 November 2009, 6:00-8:00pm at Club Row, Arnold Circus, London E2 7ES with c&binet (Creativity and Business International Network) and the A Foundation, the debate will consider questions of value in relation to the visual arts. The panel will be chaired by Alan Yentob, and includes artists Susan Hiller, Paul Graham and Michael Landy, and economist Alan Freeman. RSVP: rsvp@dacs.org.uk
Wednesday 25th November At City University at 5pm, in room C339
(see http://www.city.ac.uk/economics/seminars.html for details)

Overschooled but Undereducated: How the crisis in education is jeopardizing our adolescents

The Institute of Economic Affairs invites you to attend a book launch
'Overschooled but Undereducated: How the crisis in education is jeopardizing our adolescents'
(published by Continuum International)

by John Abbott

Wednesday 2nd December 2009
6.30pm – 8.00pm
(with brief remarks by the Author at 7.00pm)
2 Lord North Street, Westminster, SW1
(door on Great Peter Street)

Click To Buy - 'Overschooled but Undereducated' 
'This remarkable work... is at the same time profoundly scholarly and eminently accessible. It is nothing less than a tour de force, and it is a privilege to recommend it unreservedly’. Sir Gustav Nossal, former President of the Australian Academy of Science

'I read this book with great interest and almost entire agreement.' Dr Eric Anderson, former Headmaster and Provost of Eton College
England once led the world into the industrial age through merging the genius of the few with the applied creativity of countless self-taught apprentices/craftsmen. We now seem to have forgotten adolescents' instinctive need “to grow up” by learning to do things for themselves so that they emerge as responsible, skilful and thoughtful adults. Instead of fostering this innate creativity, formal schooling has sought to neutralise the impact of adolescence thereby depriving youngsters of the strength to take difficult decisions and pick up the pieces if things go wrong. Properly supported adolescence is an invaluable opportunity, not a threat to social stability. Understand that and it changes everything.

The Institute of Economic Affairs
2 Lord North Street
London SW1P 3LB

Tel: (020) 7799 8900
Fax: (020) 7799 2137

ANTHROPOLOGIES OF THE PRESENT

Two Talks in the Series ANTHROPOLOGIES OF THE PRESENT Tate Britain, London SW1

Tuesday, 17 November 2009, 18.30-20.00
Kristin Ross, 'Democracy for Sale'
Setting out from the controversy over Ireland's 'no' vote to the European constitution, this talk will consider the current global stakes of the more radical form of democracy associated with the Paris Commune. Kristin Ross is Professor of Comparative Literature, New York University. Her books include The Emergence of Social Space (1988) and May '68 and its Afterlives (2002).

Tuesday, 8 December 2009, 18.30-20.00
Kojin Karatani, 'The End of Capitalism?'
Capitalism may be on the verge of extinction, but it will not end by itself, because states do everything possible to prolong its life.
This talk will consider the role of the state in this context and the counter-politics it provokes. Kojin Karatani is the author of Architecture as Metaphor (1995) and Transcritique: On Kant and Marx
(2003) and a founder of the New Associationist Movement in Japan.

Peter Osborne, an editor of the journal Radical Philosophy, will act as Chair and Respondent.

The Auditorium, Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1
£8 each talk (£6 concessions) - price includes drink reception afterwards www.Tate.org.uk/tickets  or tel. 020-7887-8888

"On Alain Badiou’s Theory of the Subject and Logics of Worlds"

Workshop Announcement
CENTRE FOR RESEARCH IN MODERN EUROPEAN PHILOSOPHY
MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY
Subject and Appearance
On Alain Badiou’s Theory of the Subject and Logics of Worlds
Friday 20 November 2009
Bolivar Hall, 54 Grafton way, London WC1 5DL
Confirmed speakers include:
Ali Alizadeh (CRMEP, Middlesex)
Bruno Bosteels (Cornell)
Peter Hallward (CRMEP, Middlesex).
Nina Power (Roehampton)
Kristin Ross (NYU)
Alberto Toscano (Goldsmiths)
Continuum has kindly provided access to the following extracts from the books, to which we plan to pay particular attention:
Theory of the Subject
http://www.continuumbooks.com/download/Theory_of_the_Subject_Extract.pdf 
- preface, pp. xxxviii-xlii (following the translator's introduction)
- pp. 98-110 (Mallarmé)
- pp. 259-274 (the inexistent)

Logics of Worlds
http://www.continuumbooks.com/download/Logics_of_Worlds_Extract.pdf 
- pp. 141-152 (Hegel)
- 217-221 (postulate of materialism)
- 277-289 (retroaction)
- 321-324 (the inexistent)
- 363-380 (Commune, and in particular pp. 376-380)
The event is free but reservation is essential. Contact Tom Eyers on: TE122@live.mdx.ac.uk.
The event has been organised with the generous support of the Bolivarian Government of Venezuela, and with funding from the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy.
Further details and the schedule are posted at
http://www.mdx.ac.uk/www/CRMEP/EVENTS/Subject&Appearance.htm

Economie politique et macroéconomie appliquée

CEPN THEME 2 : « Economie politique et macroéconomie appliquée »
LUNCH SEMINAR
Jeudi 19 Novembre 2009
de 12h30 à 14h
Salle K 301
Mark Setterfield (Trinity College, USA)

The International Institute for Research and Education (IIRE) Reading Group

Dear friends,

The International Institute for Research and Education (IIRE) in Amsterdam organises a reading group of Marx's Capital Volume II. After the success of last year's reading group of Capital Volume I, we want to continue a critical engagement with Marx's opus magnum by attempting a collective reading of it in its entirety. Marx's Capital not only provides the most lucid and still relevant analysis of capitalist contradictions, but it is also the still unsurpassed means by which to understand the economic
crisis and to lay the foundations for the transformation of this world.

We would like to invite you to take part in our reading group, the first meeting of which will take place on Wednesday the 18th of November at 8pm.

Address is: IIRE, Lombokstraat 40.

For info please write to: capital.volume2@gmail.com
Comradely,

Amsterdam Capital Reading Group

DISTINGUISHING "RELIGIOUS" FROM "ECONOMIC"

Academic workshop at the British Academy, London

9.45 am – 5.15 pm
Thursday 26th November, 2009

Register at http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2009/religious-economic/

Academic convenor: Trevor Stack ( t.stack@abdn.ac.uk )

Sponsored by CINEFOGO Network of Excellence
Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law, University of Aberdeen

Administered by British Academy events staff ( events@britac.ac.uk )

How does “religious” get distinguished from “economic” in historical and contemporary contexts, and to what effect? The distinction is far from obvious. It could be argued, for example, that capital itself is a ‘god’: an invisible, transcendental entity signified by the Bull, whose workings are mysterious, bringing prosperity but also famine, and sustained by collective acts of faith and a sacrificial cult at its heart. However, economists, businesses, workers, consumers, politicians and lawyers all continually distinguish “economic” issues from “religious” ones (just as from other spheres such as “politics” and “civil society”). How and why do they do that, and with what consequences? It was proposed in a previous conference, for example, that the category of “religion” understood as other-worldly faith has served historically to set in relief the “secular” rationality of individual self-interest, commodity exchange and capital accumulation. “Religion” is often expected to be charitable, concerned with building credit in heaven, shunning this-worldly economic gain, and if it is felt to seek its own economic gain then it is considered a perversion (and sometimes repressed). But different people make different religious-economic distinctions in different contexts and to different effects. The panel will examine a range of contexts in which “economics” gets marked off from “religion” (including in the history of the discipline of Economics).

Please register for the workshop at http://www.britac.ac.uk/events/2009/religious-economic/

The workshop is to prepare for the Religious-Economics panel of a major conference on 14-16 January, also at the British Academy. Please sign up to http://religioussecular.ning.com  to receive information about the January conference.

Dr Trevor Stack
Department of Hispanic Studies
University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen AB24 3UB.
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/spanish/staff/details.php?id=t.stack The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.

THE GLOBALISATION LECTURES

Organised by the Department of Development Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
University of London
Convenor: Prof. Gilbert Achcar
2009-2010
This event is cosponsored by Historical Materialism Conference 2009
(27-29 November)

THE AMERICAN EMPIRE IN LIGHT OF THE GLOBAL CRISIS
A DEBATE BETWEEN PROF. ALEX CALLINICOS AND PROF. LEO PANITCH
Wednesday 25 November, 6:30pm
SOAS, Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre

Alex Callinicos was born in Zimbabwe. After teaching political philosophy for many years at the University of York, he is now Professor of European Studies at King's College London. His most recent books are The Resources of Critique and Imperialism and Global Political Economy. His next book Bonfire of Illusions: The Twin Crises of the Liberal World will appear early next year.

Leo Panitch is the Senior Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto, and the co-editor of The Socialist Register. His most recent books are American Empire and the Political Economy of Global Finance, and Renewing Socialism:Transforming Democracy, Strategy and Imagination.

UNAM- La crisis financiera actual y sus secuelas

24, 25 y 26 de noviembre
Aula Magna “Jesús Silva Herzog”
Facultad de Economía, Edif. “B” 1er. piso

Martes 24 de noviembre

11:30 a 13:00 hrs.
Randall Wray (University of Missouri-Kansas City, EUA)
El capitalismo manejado por el dinero, de Hyman Minsky y la crisis financiera global

Inauguración: Roberto Escalante
Moderador: Adolfo Orive
Comentarista: Clemente Ruiz
Miércoles 25 de noviembre

10:00 a 11:30 hrs.
Eric Tymoigne (Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon, EUA)
Una visión miskiniana de la crisis financiera: culpando al sistema en vez de a los mercados e individuos “imperfectos”

11:30 a 13:00 hrs.
Yan Liang (Willamette University, Salem, Oregon, EUA)
China y la crisis financiera global

Moderador: Gerardo Fujii
Jueves 26 de noviembre

10:00 a 11:30 hrs.
Eric Tymoigne
Una nueva fundación para la regulación financiera: las operaciones de toma de posición y la hipótesis de inestabilidad financiera

11:30 a 13:00 hrs.
Yan Liang
Financiamiento para el desarrollo: lecciones de China

Moderador: Arturo Huerta

Modern Economic and Social History Seminar

Affiliated with the History and Policy network, www.historyandpolicy.org
Programme 2009-10
All seminar meetings at 5 pm in the Nihon Room Pembroke College, except 5th Nov in the Graham Storey Room, Trinity Hall; and 28th Jan in the Bateman Auditorium, Gonville and Caius College.
All are welcome to attend and to join the speakers and convenors for local hospitality afterwards.
Click here for detailed information.

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Job Postings for Heterodox Economists

Marymount Manhattan College

The Department of International Studies at Marymount Manhattan College invites applications for a tenure track appointment to the position of Assistant Professor of International Studies, beginning September 2010, pending budget approval.

*Assistant Professor of International Studies - TenureTrack*

*Description:* Responsibilities include continued scholarly activity, working closely with students, college-level teaching experience, and participation in college-wide activities such as academic advisement and committee service.

*Requirements:* Ph.D. in Economics or Ph.D. in International Studies with a specialization in economics. A commitment to an interdisciplinary approach is required. Research field is open but preference will be given to candidates whose research and teaching interests include one or more of the following: development economics, international political economy, economic geography, economics of gender, international migration and economic development, and human rights. Area focus and field research experience in Latin America or Africa is preferred.

*Application Materials:* Application materials must include: a cover letter, curriculum vita, samples of scholarship, syllabi, and three letters of recommendation. Electronic submission is preferred. Please send to: mbackus@mmm.edu
*Search Chair: *
If materials cannot be sent electronically, please mail to: Dr. Yu-Yin Cheng, Search Committee Chair, International Studies Department, Division of Social Sciences, Marymount Manhattan College, 221 East 71st Street, New York, NY 10021
*Submission Deadline:* For full consideration, all application materials should be received by January 8, 2010.
Marymount Manhattan College is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

Franklin & Marshall College

The Department of Economics at Franklin & Marshall College invites applications for a three-year position at the Visiting Instructor or Visiting Assistant Professor level, beginning Fall 2010 and pending administrative approval. Teaching experience is required. Teaching load is 3/2 and may include participation in the College's general education program. The teaching responsibilities will include teaching Introduction to Economic Principles and/or the Introduction to Economic Perspectives, statistics, and an elective course chosen in consultation with the Department. We especially welcome applicants who can offer a data rich course on the US economy and the global economy, covering a broad range of areas. We strongly recommend visiting our web site at http://www.fandm.edu/economics.xml  for more information about our department. Salary and benefits are competitive and commensurate with qualifications.

Franklin & Marshall College is a highly selective liberal arts college with a demonstrated commitment to cultural pluralism. EOE

Candidates should send a letter of application, curriculum vitae, graduate transcript, three letters of recommendation, a teaching statement, a research statement, and teaching evaluations to Tami Lantz, Department Coordinator, Department of Economics, Franklin & Marshall College, P.O. Box 3003, Lancaster, PA 17604. Applications may be submitted electronically by email to tami.lantz@fandm.edu.  Please reference three-year visitor position in your letter of application.

Email for Applications: tami.lantz@fandm.edu
FAX for Applications: 717-291-4369
For more information, phone: 717-291-3916

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, Middletown, CT

E0 Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics: General

The Department of Economics invites applications for a tenure-track position in macroeconomics, to begin July 1, 2010. Candidates should be prepared to teach
upper-level electives in macroeconomics and at least one other field, and to contribute to the Department’s introductory and core programs. The teaching load is four courses per year.

Wesleyan has a strong and diverse undergraduate student body and offers a generous sabbatical program as well as competitive salaries and benefits. Wesleyan University is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and welcomes applications from women and historically underrepresented minority groups and all applicants who support diversity. Wesleyan prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, national origin, ancestry, learning disability, physical or mental disability, veteran status and any other category protected by federal or Connecticut state law.

Each applicant should send a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, three letters of recommendation, and a sample of scholarly writing. Complete application files must be received by December 13, 2009 to be assured of full consideration. Send materials to: Economics Search Committee, Department of Economics, Wesleyan University, 238 Church Street, Middletown CT 06459. Contact Gilbert Skillman, Department chair, with questions (econsearch09@wesleyan.edu ).


O540 – Economy-wide Country Studies: Latin America; Caribbean
O110 - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
O100 – Economic Development: General

The Department of Economics invites applications for a tenure-track position to begin July 1, 2010 from scholars with primary research interests in one or more of the Latin American and Caribbean economies. Candidates should be prepared to contribute to the introductory, core, and elective programs in the Economics Department, and to participate and offer one course per year that is crosslisted in the Latin American Studies Program. The teaching load is four courses per year. Applicants should be committed to excellence in undergraduate teaching and scholarly research.

Wesleyan has a strong and diverse undergraduate student body and offers a generous sabbatical program as well as competitive salaries and benefits. Wesleyan prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, national origin, ancestry, learning disability, physical or mental disability, veteran status and any other category protected by federal or Connecticut state law.

Each applicant should send a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, three letters of recommendation, and a sample of scholarly writing. Complete application files must be received by December 13, 2009 to be assured of full consideration. Send materials to: Economics Search Committee, Department of Economics, Wesleyan University, 238 Church Street, Middletown CT 06459. Contact Gilbert Skillman, Department chair, with questions ( econsearch09@wesleyan.edu )

Ashcroft International Business School

Based in Cambridge
£29,704 - £43,622 p.a.

Join us as we enter an exciting new phase of our development. Our ambition is to be recognised as a truly 21st century university, fully relevant to the changing needs of students, staff and employers. With our energy, enthusiasm and ambition matched by our friendliness and approachability, Anglia Ruskin University is a great place to be.

Inspired by the challenge of helping create one of the UK’s leading practice based, international business schools?

Ashcroft International Business School (AIBS) is a full service business school with around 2,500 students studying on a diverse portfolio of undergraduate, postgraduate and corporate education programmes. In the Cambridge-based department we work closely with international students and partner institutions, as well as with businesses and employers. We are a research active Department, covering a wide range of business and management themes.

We are now seeking to appoint to the following posts:

Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in International Finance Ref: 6409

Working closely with the Head of Department, you will be involved in delivering and developing a wide range of accounting and finance-related modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. There will be extensive opportunities to engage in research and consultancy activities in the UK and internationally. Current research within the Department covers different aspects of accounting standards and International Finance.

Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in International Business Economics Ref: 6410

You will be primarily responsible for teaching, learning and related research activity in the Cambridge Department. The ability to contribute to teaching across a range of modules associated with economics and international business provision will be an advantage, with one or more areas of specialism offered for postgraduate teaching and research. Opportunities exist to be actively involved in research relating to economic methodologies and business modelling.

For all vacancies you will hold a PhD or be nearing completion of a PhD. You will also be expected to contribute to the teaching, research and consultancy activity of the Department and engage with the income generation, knowledge transfer and collaborative provision of the Department with a range of organisational and educational clients/partners.

Closing date 25 November 2009 (12 noon)
For more info on the jobs, please email Marion Cobby - marion.cobby@anglia.ac.uk;  and Stuart Wall - stuart.wall@anglia.ac.uk  or go to the website: www.anglia.ac.uk

Verso London

Job opportunity at Verso London: MARKETING EXECUTIVE AND OFFICE MANAGER
An opportunity has arisen for an efficient, highly organised person to join the world’s pre-eminent radical publisher, Verso, at our offices in Soho, London. Responsibilities include marketing our humanities and social science academic titles, managing the day to day running of our busy office and assisting Verso staff. You will be balancing reception duties, marketing work and general office management as well as dealing with authors, suppliers, press and academics on a daily basis, so good communication skills and a willing attitude are essential. Experience in book publishing is preferable, though not required. Graduates welcome. Please apply by sending a CV and short covering letter by 30th November to:
Rowan Wilson, rowan AT verso.co.uk 

Roosevelt University

Assistant Professor of Economics/APE-IL
Full-Time Faculty
Economics
Chicago
Posting Date: 11-16-2009
Job Type: Full Time
Job Summary: The Assistant Professor of Economics is responsible for teaching six courses a year including a three semester international economics sequence in econometrics and macroeconomics at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He/she will provide student advising as defined by the academic unit, maintain a minimum of three clock hours of office hours per week distributed over several days during the academic term, develop new courses as requested and/or approved, conduct scholarly, professional and creative activity within faculty member's academic disciplines including peer reviewed research, maintain and demonstrate a contemporary knowledge and understanding of the subject matter within neoclassical and heterodox schools of economic thought, provide service to the Roosevelt University community which may include but is not limited to appointment, election and participation in University committees, provide service to the larger metropolitan and academic community which may include but is not limited to appointment, election, and participation in learned societies and professional organizations. Participation in academic conferences and networks help raise the profile of Roosevelt University's heterodox focus.40 hrs/wk.
Minimum Qualifications: The minimum requirement for this position is a Ph.D. or its foreign equivalent, in Economics or related field. Additionally, the applicant must have: experience analyzing large data sets using STATA, SAS or SPSS; experience teaching undergraduate and graduate quantitative research methods courses in Statistics and Econometrics utilizing STATA, SAS or SPSS; experience teaching Macroeconomics and Heterodox economics; and evidence of an active research agenda in International Economics.
Departmental Minimum Qualifications:
Preferred Qualifications
Required Applicant Documents
Optional Applicant Documents
Special Instructions to Applicants:
Please indicate the document(s) you wish an applicant to attach if you check any of the "Other" document options. To apply, please send resumes w/cover letter to JLapidus@roosevelt.edu.  Must reference job code [APE-IL] in subject line.

Portland State University

Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning
Assistant or Associate Professor
The Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning in the College of Urban and Public Affairs at Portland State University seeks applications for a tenure-track assistant professor or associate professor beginning Fall 2010. Candidates must have an earned doctorate (or be in the final stages of their degree) in city and regional planning, urban studies, economics, geography, public policy, sociology, or a related discipline, and a scholarly commitment to the fields of urban planning, urban studies, community development, regional development, and/or sustainable development.
School priorities include research, outreach, and practice interests in the areas of: the sustainability dimensions of urban and regional planning and community development; community economic and workforce development; regional development; international applications; and/or affordable housing and neighborhood development. The successful candidate will be expected to teach a combination of undergraduate and graduate courses in areas that may include urban economics, sustainable urban development, economic development, real estate development, or urban studies methods. Familiarity with both quantitative and qualitative methods and action research is desirable. A desire to seek externally funded research and/or service will be expected.
Associate-level candidates must have a clearly defined scholarly agenda focused on issues related to the themes outlined above, teaching experience at both undergraduate and graduate levels, proven ability to secure external funding, a record of research and publication, and experience in community engagement, community-based learning, and/or community service.
The Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning (www.pdx.edu/usp) offers one of the only undergraduate majors in Community Development in the United States, a professional Master of Urban and Regional Planning, a pre-doctoral Master of Urban Studies, and a PhD in Urban Studies. Community Development is an available specialization in all of the graduate degree programs. A proposed Master of Real Estate Development, offered in collaboration with the School of Business Administration and the PSU Center for Real Estate, is currently under review. The School currently offers graduate certificates in Urban Design, Real Estate Development, and Transportation.
The School also houses the Population Research Center, the Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies, the Center for Urban Studies, and the Center for Transportation Studies. The College of Urban and Public Affairs has approximately 70 full-time faculty members. Other Schools in the College are the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government, which includes Criminology and Criminal Justice, Political Science, and Public Administration, and the School of Community Health. Collaborative efforts across schools are encouraged.
The starting annual salary for this position will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. There is an excellent benefits package that includes fully paid healthcare; fully employer paid retirement contributions; and significantly reduced tuition rates for employee, spouse or dependents at any of the Oregon University System schools.
Applicants should submit a letter of application containing a brief background statement outlining research and teaching interests, the names and contact information for four references (name, title, email, telephone, and mailing address), and a curriculum vitae to: Dr. Karen Gibson, Search Committee Chair, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207-0751. Review of applications will begin January 4, 2010, and continue until finalists are identified. This is a nine-month appointment; the anticipated start date is September 16, 2010. For further information, please email School Director Connie Ozawa, ozawac@pdx.edu.
Portland State University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution and welcomes applications from diverse candidates and candidates who support diversity.

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Heterodox Conference Papers and Reports and Articles

Justice Denied: Dispute Settlement in Latin America's Trade and Investment Agreements

The Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE) is releasing a new discussion paper from the GDAE-sponsored Working Group on Development and Environment in the Americas. Building on previous work on foreign investment in Latin America, the new report highlights the limited benefits of foreign direct investment and investment liberalization in the region:

“Justice Denied: Dispute Settlement in Latin America's Trade and Investment Agreements,” Michael Mortimore, Leonardo Stanley. Working Group Discussion Paper DP27, October 2009.

This report analyses the arbitration schemes under investor-state dispute provisions in Latin America’s numerous trade and investment agreements. The authors find that such provisions are biased toward international investors. Such a bias can skew legal systems in the region and threaten the ability of foreign investment to spur much-needed economic development in the Americas.
http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae/Pubs/rp/DP27Mortimore_StanleyOct09.pdf

Why Has Domestic Revenue Stagnated in Low-Income Countries?

by Terry McKinley, Director, Centre for Development Policy and Research*
There has been miserably slow progress in increasing domestic revenue in low-income countries since the 1990s. In order to find out why, this Development Viewpoint draws on an extensive analysis of disaggregated revenue data for low-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and Central Asia. See the background CDPR Discussion Paper 27/09 (McKinley and Kyrili 2009).

Click here to download the paper.

The Centre for Development Policy and Research

The Centre for Development Policy and Research is pleased to announce the publication of Development Viewpoint #40, “Targeting Inequalities in Child Mortality.” Based on research for Save the Children United Kingdom, the authors, Hannah Bargawi, CDPR Research Officer, and Terry McKinley, CDPR Director, document stark inequalities between the rich and poor in Under Five Mortality Rates in many developing countries. Their findings derive from an analysis of data from 95 Demographic and Health Surveys and the ranking of households by a composite wealth index. They find that when the reduction in the Under Five Mortality Rate is as rapid among the poor as among the rich (namely, there is at least equitable progress across the whole population), a country is much more likely to reach the MDG 2015 target of reducing the average rate of child mortality by two-thirds.

Click here to download.
CDPR’s other thought-provoking, diversified Development Viewpoints are available on http://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/dv/.

The Centre for Development Policy and Research is pleased to announce the publication of Development Viewpoint #41, “Why Has Domestic Revenue Stagnated in Low-Income Countries?”. Based on CDPR Discussion Paper 27/09, the author, Terry McKinley, Director of CDPR, documents the miserably slow progress since the early 1990s in mobilising domestic revenue in low-income countries in much of Africa and Asia. He attributes this problem, to a significant extent, to systematically faulty policy advice and advocates a re-evaluation of the working assumptions underpinning what he calls the current reigning ‘tax consensus’.

Click here to download: http://www.soas.ac.uk/cdpr/publications/dv/file55026.pdf
See also CDPR Discussion Paper 27/09.
The Centre for Development Policy and Research draws on the broad range of development expertise at the School of Oriental and African Studies to engage in innovative policy-oriented research and training on crucial development issues.

PKSG Workshop on the Current Crisis

SOAS, University of London, 23rd October 2009

Important: read the Guide to Downloading first!
Carlos J. Rodriguez-Fuentes (University of La Laguna):
From the long (global) boom to the severe current (local) recession. The Spanish economy from 1994 to 2008

Rorita Canale (University of Naples):
The Recessive Attitude of EMU Policies and the Remedies for the Crises: Reflections on the Italian Experience Within the Last Ten Years

Lino Sau (University of Turin):
Instability and Crisis in Financial Complex Systems

Victoria Chick (University College, London):
The current banking crisis: an evolutionary view

Geoff Harcourt (Cambridge; University of New South Wales):
Finance, speculation and stability: Post-Keynesian policies for modern capitalism

more info http://www.postkeynesian.net/SOAS%2009.htm

Socialism in One Country

"Socialism in One Country" Before Stalin, and the Origins of Reactionary "Anti-Imperialism": The Case of Turkey, 1917-1925 (2009).
By Loren Goldner.
Article on the origins of Turkish communism and of the reactionary ideology of "anti-imperialism" in the 1917-1925 period (Nov 2009)
http://home.earthlink.net/~lrgoldner/turkey.html

General Perspectives on the Capitalist Development State and Class Struggle in East Asia

Loren Goldner

We begin with a rather complex historical elaboration of the context in which a socialist and later specifically Marxist left arose in Japan, China and Korea, first of all to show the importance of the entire region (including Siberia) for the early Korean left, especially after colonization by Japan in 1910 made most legal socialist activity in Korea itself impossible. More importantly, this East Asian left, it will be argued, was as statist as the German-influenced modernizers building the region’s capitalism. There was nothing specifically Asian about this, as it characterized mainstream currents of the international left everywhere. Nevertheless, because East Asia (in contrast to e.g. Britain, France, or the U.S.) was a “late developing capitalism”, this statism pervaded the “Marxism” in the region well after World War II, and in Korea in reality until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, if not beyond. This century of statist “Marxism” was to have profound consequences for the Korean working class movement when it revived in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

For entire article: http://home.earthlink.net/~lrgoldner/asiamarx.html  
 

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Heterodox Journals and Newsletters

American Journal of Economics and Sociology

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Volume 68 Issue 4 , Pages 829 - 1039 (October 2009)

Frontispiece Portrait of Mason Gaffney (p xi-xi)

Editor's Introduction (p 829-854)
Clifford W. Cobb

ORIGINAL ARTICLES
1. The Role of Land Markets in Economic Crises (p 855-888)
Mason Gaffney

2. A New Framework for Macroeconomics : Achieving Full Employment by Increasing Capital Turnover (p 889-982)
Mason Gaffney

3. Money, Credit, and Crisis (p 983-1038)
Mason Gaffney

American Journal of Economics and Sociology

Volume 68 Issue 5 (November 2009)

ORIGINAL ARTICLES
The Market, the Firm, and the Economics Profession (p 1041-1061)
Daniel Sutter

Smith and Living Wages: Arguments in Support of a Mandated Living Wage (p 1063-1084)
Betsy Jane Clary

Paradigms and Novelty in Economics: The History of Economic Thought as a Source of Enlightenment (p 1085-1106)
Wilfred Dolfsma, Patrick J. Welch
Published Online: Oct 20 2009 10:03AM
DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2009.00648.x
Abstract | References | Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 104K)
Save Article

Too Much Competition in Higher Education? Some Conceptual Remarks on the Excessive-Signaling Hypothesis (p 1107-1133)
Karsten Mause

Corruption's Effect on Business Venturing Within the United States (p 1135-1152)
David T. Mitchell, Noel D. Campbell

COMMENTS
Henry George Under the Microscope: Comments on "Henry George's Political Critics" (p 1153-1167)
Richard Giles

The Journal of Philosophical Economics

Volume III Issue 1 (Autumn 2009)
Editor: Valentin Cojanu

ISSN: 1843-2298
EISSN: 1844-8208
Frequency: 2 issues per year, in May and November
Publication date: 2009-11-20
Paper format: 16.5x23.5 cm
Number of pages: 136
Copyright note: No part of these works may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism.

Click here for detailed information.

New Political Economy

Volume 14 Issue 4  is now available online at informaworld ( http://www.informaworld.com ).

This new issue contains the following articles:

Articles

Seeking Alpha or Creating Beta? Charting the Rise of Hedge Fund-Based Financial Ecosystems
Author: Christopher Holmes

Recasting the Sovereign Wealth Fund Debate: Trust, Legitimacy, and Governance
Author: Ashby Monk

Ethics and Climate Change Cost-Benefit Analysis: Stern and After
Author: Jonathan Aldred

Care, Social (Re)production and Global Labour Migration: Japan's ‘Special Gift’ toward ‘Innately Gifted’ Filipino Workers
Author: Hironori Onuki

Resource Nationalism, Bargaining and International Oil Companies: Challenges and Change in the New Millennium
Author: Vlado Vivoda

Commentary

Time for Sympathy: Some Thoughts on the 250th Anniversary of Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments
Author: Duncan Kelly

Global Monitor

Private Equity Funds, Pages 545 - 555
Author: Justin Robertson

Feature Review

India: The Emerging Giant: Arvind Panagariya (Oxford University Press, 2008)
Author: Kunal Sen

Notes on Contributors

Levy News

Policy Note 2009 / 10
Fiscal Stimulus, Job Creation, and the Economy: What Are the Lessons of the New Deal?
Greg Hannsgen and Dimitri B. Papadimitriou
A group of academics disputes the notion that President Roosevelt’s fiscal and job creation programs helped end the Great Depression. On the contrary, Research Scholar Greg Hannsgen and President Dimitri B. Papadimitriou believe that the New Deal era strengthens the case for the effectiveness of fiscal policies and job programs. They recommend a permanent employer-of-last-resort program, as proposed by Hyman P. Minsky, to mitigate the effects of the current Great Recession.
The persistence of mass unemployment throughout the 1930s should be blamed on the enormity of the task at hand and Roosevelt’s reluctance to run deficits, say the authors. And the number of jobs created by the Works Progress Administration and other federal agencies was perhaps more important than the size of the fiscal stimulus.
http://www.levy.org/pubs/pn_09_10.pdf

Policy Note 2009 / 9
Banks Running Wild: The Subversion of Insurance by “Life Settlements” and Credit Default Swaps
Marshall Auerback and L. Randall Wray
Through the credit-default-swap (CDS) “insurance” market, it is possible to take on the risk of a mortgage-backed security without purchasing or holding the security itself. Since the market for these products is moribund, Wall Street is looking for the next asset bubble by securitizing life insurance policies—that is, by making bets on the death of human beings.
Marshall Auerback and Senior Scholar L. Randall Wray argue that CDSs give the participants a vested interest in financial instability by creating perverse incentives. They believe that most of the problems created in the securitized mortgage business will be re-created in the market for securitized life insurance policies (e.g., indiscriminate sales without normal underwriting, and defrauding of policyholders). The authors call for the banning of CDSs and life settlement securities, which operate against the public interest. In essence, they say, this is financial engineering run amok.
http://www.levy.org/pubs/pn_09_09.pdf

Working Paper No. 578, September 2009
Money Manager Capitalism and the Global Financial Crisis
L. Randall Wray
According to L. Randall Wray, the economic crisis cannot be explained within the context of a “Minsky moment” because it represents a slow transformation of the financial system and economy toward fragility. Basing his arguments on Hyman P. Minsky’s financial instability hypothesis, Wray blames “money manager capitalism,” which is an economic system characterized by highly leveraged funds seeking maximum returns in an environment that systematically underprices risk. He suggests that the money manager phase of capitalism may be ending.
Wray notes that the trend has been toward more severe and frequent crises. He proposes policy responses such as regulatory constraints and new standards to prevent boom/bust cycles; massive fiscal stimulus to allow growth without relying on private sector debt; mortgage relief; higher wages; greater employment; and revised monetary policy. We must return to a model with enhanced oversight of financial institutions and a financial structure that promotes stability rather than speculation, Wray says.
http://www.levy.org/pubs/wp_578.pdf

Working Paper No. 577, September 2009
Explaining the Gender Wage Gap in Georgia
Tamar Khitarishvili
Gender equality was lauded as one of the greatest achievements of the Soviet Union and the former socialist-bloc countries. Using the Georgian household budget survey for the period 2000–04, the author assesses the economic dimension of gender inequality in Georgia. The study aims at establishing a baseline for the analysis of the impact of recent gender-targeted policies by the Georgian government.
The paper focuses on the gender wage gap, which was found to be substantial as a result of factors such as occupational differences. Female employment is concentrated in industries with the lowest mean wages—education, health care, and culture—but there are indications that women are increasingly engaged in high-skilled sectors such as finance, manufacturing, and energy. The irony is that the difficult economic environment, together with caretaking responsibilities, has shielded women from experiencing more significant discrimination in the labor market.
http://www.levy.org/pubs/wp_577.pdf

Working Paper No. 576, September 2009
A Financial Sector Balance Approach and the Cyclical Dynamics of the U.S. Economy
Paolo Casadio and Antonio Paradiso
Authors Paolo Casadio and Antonio Paradiso develop a small-scale econometric model of the U.S. economy based on a financial balances model by Goldman Sachs (2003) that was inspired by the works of Distinguished Scholar Wynne Godley. Their analysis includes the private and external sectors of the economy, and introduces the idea of financial fragility in capitalist economies that was originally developed by Hyman P. Minsky.
Casadio and Paradiso find that the financing gap—the difference between internal funds and business investments of nonfinancial firms—is a leading indicator of business cycles, while business investment is a lagging indicator. They also find that all sector balances depend on asset market variables, and that discrepancies from equilibrium affect the growth in output (e.g., a negative financial balance has a negative effect on GDP, while a negative household balance has a positive effect).
http://www.levy.org/pubs/wp_576.pdf 

Challenge

Volume 52 Number 6 / November-December 2009 of Challenge is now available  at http://mesharpe.metapress.com.
This issue contains:
Letter from the Editor
Jeff Madrick

Alternative Explanations of the Operation of a Capitalist Economy
Paul Davidson

Free Trade, Fair Prices, and Sustainable Deficits
John Hansen

How Would Adam Smith Fix the Financial Crisis?
David Bholat

Antipoverty Policy for the Excluded Poor
Herbert J. Gans

The Wealth of the Nation's Young
Andrew Sum, Ishwar Khatiwada

Structural and Institutional Divergence in the European Union
Theodore Pelagidis

Dissatisfaction Guaranteed: An Account of Two Bubbles by Dean Baker
Mike Sharpe

Index to Volume 52 (January-December 2009)

economic sociology - the European electronic newsletter

Vol. 11, No. 1 - November 2009
http://econsoc.mpifg.de/newsletter/newsletter_current.asp
Note from the Editor
Dear reader,

As the new editor it is a great pleasure to present you with this issue. I would like to thank my predecessor, Andrea Mennicken, for the magnificent job that she and her team have done, as well as for her very helpful advice and support during the editorial transition. I will try to follow her good example by directing the attention of economic sociologists to new fields of interest, and by providing a lively platform for debate. I would also like to thank the Editorial Board for their confidence in my appointment.

This issue of the Newsletter is mainly concerned with the commodification of the body. This is not an entirely new topic. Some years ago, Nancy Scheper Hugues and Loïc Wacquant edited a special issue of Body and Society (Commodifying Bodies, 2001, vol.7, nos. 2-3) dedicated to this topic. More recently, Kieran Healy (Last Best Gift. Altruism and the Market for Human Blood and Organs. Chicago University Press, 2006) has published a study of the situation in the US and in Europe, focusing on the tension between the rhetoric of gift-giving and the organizational settings in which human body parts move from one person to another.
Many aspects of the commodification of the body lie in the future. In this issue, the reader will find two papers endorsing completely different positions on the sensitive issue of the market for human body parts. Mark Cherry claims a moral imperative for the market, whereas Nancy Scheper Hugues presents evidence of morally outrageous forms of exchange from her international fieldwork. The reader should however bear in mind that this issue is no longer limited to the academic world, or at least the academic world of social scientists, since it is now the subject of discussion, pro and contra, among transplant surgeons who are directly involved with the issue. The commodification of the body is also raised with respect to the difficult problem that organizations face where the production and the distribution of blood is involved. In some respects there is an important role here for the economic sociologist, as is demonstrated by Sophie Chauveau in a history of the French blood system. Here tariffs play a critical part within the rhetoric of gift giving when the management of a complex system of blood collection, production and distribution is at stake. Nevertheless, this issue does not capture the whole of the story. Lea Karpel explains how the gift-giving process functions in the case of infertile couples and how the gift of oocytes is organized in France, focusing on the social relations between donors, parents and child. Finally, Michel Anteby considers the case of a “market” for cadavers in the US. Here we are no longer in the domain of organ transplant or blood transfusion, but enter the domain of the professional training of surgeons, a process for which human remains are absolutely necessary and which entails forms of exchanges that repay study.
Further to the excellent issue on the financial crisis (March 2009), we seek to go deeper into this question with two new contributions. Horacio Ortiz investigates the imaginary figures of investment management, focusing on the pervasive practical role played by the figure of the "investor" routinely acting within "efficient markets". Secondly, there is an interview with Neil Fligstein, one of world's most prominent economic sociologists. He gives a critical view of sociologists' shortcomings in foreseeing the crisis, and scrutinizes the situation in the light of his model of market architecture, underlining the crucial role of the state.
Philippe Steiner
Philippe.Steiner@paris-sorbonne.fr

economic sociology - the european electronic newsletter: http://econsoc.mpifg.de/newsletter/newsletter_current.asp

eInsight

Welcome to the eInsight Economics Update Bulletin. Our key experts summarise some of the most interesting developments and economic indicators below, providing you with useful and timely reflections on the economy as it continues to evolve and respond to circumstances. We hope you find it interesting and welcome your comments.
http://www.volterra.co.uk/custompage/einsight-1109.php#Section1
In This Issue »

+ UK last economy still in recession
+ Mortgage Lending
+ Unemployment flattened
+ Pound under pressure again
+ Low Inflation

Local Economy

Volume 24 Issue 6 & 7  is now available online at informaworld ( http://www.informaworld.com ).

This new issue contains the following articles:

Viewpoints

Local Sufficiency and Environmental Recovery
Author: Steven Schofield

Contemporary Approaches to Economic Development: The Special Economic Zone Programme
Author: D. Gopinath

Features

Governance Arrangements from a Regulationist Perspective: The Case of Liverpool
Author: Matthew Cocks

A People-centred Approach to Economic Development (PCED): Brokering Economic Inclusion as a Route Way to Improving Competitiveness
Authors: Mandy Crawford-Lee; Phillip Hunter

Getting Disadvantaged Parents into Employment: The Working for Families Fund in Scotland
Authors: Sue Bond; Ronald Mcquaid; Vanesa Fuertes

Spatial Layout, Entrepreneurship and Economic Prosperity
Author: Gareth Sumner

Local Economic Development in Area-based Urban Regeneration in Germany
Author: Sabine Weck

Constructing Neoliberal Urban Democracy in the American Inner-city
Author: Jean-Paul D. Addie

The Benefits of an Ageing Population: Case Studies from Rural Hokkaido, Japan
Authors: Kayo Murakami; Rose Gilroy; Jane Atterton

A Critical Review of Public Borrowing by Turkish Municipalities: 1960–2006
Author: Aysegul Yakar-Onal

In Perspective

Getting the Levels Right: The Unique Value of Regional Economic Development
Author: Richard Ellis

Rewriting the Rule Book
Author: Lee Pugalis

Economic Development in the UK: Challenges During and After the Recession
Author: Glenn Athey

Is There a Future for Start-Up Support in London?
Author: John Spindler

Smaller Firms, the Equity Gap, Regional Policy and Growth: Will We Ever Learn?
Authors: Christian Saublens; David Walburn

Ageing of the Population: Good News for Cities
Authors: Peter Karl Kresl; Daniele Ietri 

I N T E R V E N T I O N

Current relevance and perspectives of Keynesian Economics Special Issue of "Intervention. European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies"
Edited by Eckhard Hein, Torsten Niechoj and Achim Truger

The firm belief in the stability of a free market monetary production economy is not only theoretically unconvincing, as Keynes, Kalecki, Robinson and other post-Keynesians have claimed for many decades. It is now - again - obvious that economic policy programmes based on this view might lead into disaster. The question then is: Where do we go from here? In the first place, this is a question of how economic policies should deal with the financial crisis and economic recession in the short run, and which should be the regulations and institutions to be established in order to reduce the probability of such a crisis to occur again in the medium to long run. In the second place, however, the questions are: What are the consequences for economic theory? Will the mainstream view on the economy survive - with only minor revisions? Is there any potential within mainstream economics which will transform the 'free market view' and the economic policy implications? Since the present situation obviously is an opportunity for (post-)Keynesian and other heterodox approaches, are these schools well equipped and ready to tackle these problems?

The special issue on "Current relevance and perspectives of Keynesian Economics" deals with some of these questions.

Contents of the special issue:

Hans-Michael Trautwein, Abdallah Zouache:
Natural rates in the New Synthesis: Same old trouble?

Engelbert Stockhammer, Paul Ramskogler:
Post-Keynesian economics - How to move forward

Matthieu Charpe, Peter Flaschel, Christian Proano, Willi Semmler:
Overconsumption, credit rationing and bailout monetary policy:
A Minskyan perspective

Jerry Courvisanos, Anthony J. Laramie and Douglas Mair:
Tax policy and innovation: A search for common ground

Gennaro Zezza:
Fiscal policy and the economics of financial balances

Apart from this special issue, further contributions by Philip Arestis, Robert A. Blecker, Barbara R. Bergmann, Leonhard Dobusch/Jakob Kapeller, Marica Frangakis, Eckhard Hein/Jan Priewe, Marc Lavoie, and Herbert Walther complete the issue.

Contents of the whole issue:
http://www.metropolis-verlag.de/buchbeigaben/963/963_inhalt.pdf

More information at the website of the journal:
http://www.journal-intervention.org/go/2_09

More information on the journal at Metropolis Publishers:
http://www.metropolis-publisher.com/Periodika/Zeitschrift-Intervention/catalog.do

Friends of Associative Economics Bulletin

November 2009
1) The Question of Price
2) Upcoming Events
3) Associate! November 2009 - Beyond The Efficient Markets Hypothesis
4) Finance at The Threshold
5) Links

http://www.cfae.biz/publications/associate/#c203

Click here for detailed information.

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Heterodox Books and Book Series

Joan Robinson

Great Thinkers in Economics
Geoffrey Harcourt and Prue Kerr
Palgrave Macmillan
Joan Robinson is widely considered to be amongst the greatest economists of the 20th Century. This book provides a comprehensive study of her life and work, examining her role in the making of The General Theory, her critical interest in Marxian economics, her contributions to Labour Party policy and her writings on development, especially China.
GEOFFREY HARCOURT was born in 1931 in Melbourne, Australia. He was a graduate of the Universities of Melbourne and Cambridge. He has taught mainly at Adelaide and Cambridge Universities. He is author and editor of 25 books including seven volumes of selected essays and 230 papers in learned journals and edited volumes. his books include Some Cambridge Controversies in the Theory of Capital, Post-Keynesian Essays in Biography, 50 Years a Keynesian and other Essays, Selected Essays on Economic Policy and The Structure of Post-Keynesian Economics. PRUE KERR was a friend and associate of Joan Robinson in Cambridge. She edited, with Geoffrey Harcourt, the five volume: Joan Robinson: Critical Assessments of Leading Economists. She was supported by the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Bologna and the CPEST. She now works on post-Keynesian economic theory.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Figures
Introduction
The Economics of Imperfect Competition
Joan Robinson and her circle in the run up to, and the aftermath of The General Theory
Marx in Joan Robinsons Argument
Joan Robinson and socialist planning in the years of high theory
The Making of The Accumulation of Capital
The Choice of Technique in the Economy as a Whole and the Cambridge Debates in the Theory of Capital:Joan Robinsons Role.
After The Accumulation of Capital: Defence and Development
Joan Robinsons Contributions to Development Economics as Political Economy
An Introduction to Modern Economics: a Light that Failed?
A Concerned Intellectuals Task: Joan Robinsons Three Popular Books
Conclusion: Joan Robinsons Legacy
References

For more information: http://us.macmillan.com/joanrobinson

PUT TO WORK

The WPA and Public Employment in the Great Depression

Second Edition
Including a New Introduction and Afterword
by Nancy E. Rose
"This is a must read for anyone concerned about today's mass unemployment and the chronic unemployment that persists between recessions. Rose carefully describes, analyzes, and evaluates the New Deal job programs--their shortcomings and contradictions as well as their very great accomplishments."--Helen Lachs Ginsburg, Professor Emerita of Economics, Brooklyn College, City University of New York; co-founder of the National Jobs for All Coalition and co-chair of the Columbia University Seminar on Full Employment, Social Welfare and Equity
praise for the first edition: "Rose offers an important perspective on how past nation-saving programs can be useful in solving current unemployment and homeless problems."--Publishers Weekly
Put To Work tells the story of the massive government job-creation programs of the 1930s--not only the Works Progress Administration (WPA), but also the lesser known Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) and Civil Works Administration (CWA), which set the framework for the ideological and policy battles that followed. Nancy E. Rose details the development of these programs, the pressures that surrounded them, and the resulting constraints. She analyzes both their unique contributions and their shortcomings, especially in their treatment of women and African-Americans. In the process, she carefully reevaluates the charges that these were inefficient "make-work" programs, or "boondoggles," charges that continue to characterize job-creation programs to this day.
In her new introduction, Rose places the Obama administration's economic stimulus package in historical perspective as part of this tradition of government job creation programs. In her new Conclusion, she explores lessons from the New Deal work programs for the current era.

Greed, Lust and Gender

A History of Economic Ideas
Nancy Folbre

http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Economics/History/?view=usa&ci=9780199238422 
Description
When does the pursuit of self-interest go too far, lapsing into morally unacceptable behaviour? Until the unprecedented events of the recent global financial crisis economists often seemed unconcerned with this question, even suggesting that "greed is good." A closer look, however, suggests that greed and lust are generally considered good only for men, and then only outside the realm of family life. The history of Western economic ideas shows that men have given themselves more cultural permission than women for the pursuit of both economic and sexual self-interest. Feminists have long contested the boundaries of this permission, demanding more than mere freedom to act more like men. Women have gradually gained the power to revise our conceptual and moral maps and to insist on a better-and less gendered-balance between self interest and care for others.

This book brings women's work, their sexuality, and their ideas into the center of the dialectic between economic history and the history of economic ideas. It describes a spiralling process of economic and cultural change in Great Britain, France, and the United States since the 18th century that shaped the evolution of patriarchal capitalism and the larger relationship between production and reproduction. This feminist reinterpretation of our past holds profound implications for today's efforts to develop a more humane and sustainable form of capitalism.
Features
Explains the historical relationship between economic and moral ideas
Explores the hidden history of feminist economics
Show the relevance of intellectual history to contemporary policy debates
Product Details
304 pages; ISBN13: 978-0-19-923842-2ISBN10: 0-19-923842-1

Here's a link to a short and interesting review that appeared in London's Times Higher Education Supplement:
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=408740&c=2

Money and Macrodynamics: Alfred Eichner and Post-Keynesian Economics

Edited by: Marc Lavoie; Louis-Philippe Rochon; Mario Seccareccia
Nov 2009 M.E. Sharp

Description: Alfred Eichner's pioneering contributions to post-Keynesian economics offered significant insights on the way modern economies and institutions actually work. Published in 1987, his Macrodynamics of Advanced Market Economies contains rich chapters on dynamics and growth, investment, finance and income distribution, a timely chapter on the State and fiscal policy, and two analytical chapters on endogenous money that are years ahead of their time.
Featuring chapters by many of Eichner's disciples, this book celebrates his rich contributions to post-Keynesian economics, and demonstrates that his work is in many ways as valid today as it was over two decades ago.
Heterodox Newsletter subscribers can save 20% - Use the discount form or click here and enter discount code DM924.

Selected Contents:
Introduction: Alfred Eicher and the State of Post-Keynesian Economics
Part I. The Link Between Micro and Macro
1. Was Alfred Eichner a System Dynamicist?, Michael Radzicki
2. Alfred Eichner's Missing 'Complete Model': A Heterodox Micro-Macro Model of a Monetary Production Economy, Fred Lee
3. Macro Effects of Investment Decisions, Debt Management and the Corporate Levy, Elettra Agliardi
4. Pricing and the Financing of Investment:Is There a Macroeconomic Basis for Eichnerian Microeconomic Analysis?, Mario Seccareccia
Part II. Competition and the Globalized World
5. The Macroeconomics of Competition : Stability and Growth Questions, Malcolm Sawyer and Nina Shapiro
6. The Megacorp in a Global Economy, Matthew Fung
7. Pricing and Profits Under Globalized Competition: A Post Keynesian Perspective on U.S. Economic Hegemony, William Milberg
Part III. Credit, Money and Central Banking
8. Eichner's Theory of Endogenous Credit-Money, Robert P. Guttmann
9. Eichner's Monetary Economics: Ahead of its Time, Marc Lavoie
10. Alfred Eichner, Post-Keynesians, and Money's Endogeneity: Filling in the Horizontalist Black Box, Louis-Philippe Rochon
About the Editors and Contributors
Index
Comment(s): "At a time when events have all-too clearly exposed the shortcomings of mainstream representative agent models, it is refreshing to find a book that takes another look at the relationships between firm behaviour, money and macroeconomic outcomes. And what better place to start than the economics of Alfred Eichner, whose theory of the megacorp provides a hub for modern post-Keynesian theories of pricing, investment, finance and growth. The contributions to this volume do full justice to Eichner's emphasis on realism, and his passion for making post-Keynesian economics both accessible to and a source of inspiration for students and young scholars." -- Mark Setterfield, Trinity College

click the link for purchase: 

Rethinking Imperialism: A Study of Capitalist Rule

By John Milios, and Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos
Palgrave Macmillan

For over a century “imperialism” has been a key concept in Left theory and politics, connoting both the aggressiveness and the characteristics of modern capitalism. This book aims at presenting and assessing imperialism as a theoretical concept. Since a variety of different definitions are assigned to the concept of imperialism, it is necessary to put to the test the rigour of these definitions. The authors of this volume provide a comprehensive evaluation, focusing especially on the tension between Marx’s theoretical system of the Critique of Political Economy and the theories of capitalist expansion and domination that emerge out of the various discourses on imperialism.
The book critically reviews all major (classical and contemporary) theories of imperialism. The authors embark on a critical interrogation of all innovations introduced into theoretical Marxism by theories of imperialism (for example those concerning the stages of historical evolution of capitalism, the capitalist state, internationalization of capital, crises etc.). They show that most of these theories deviate from the theoretical system formulated by Marx, especially in Capital and his other mature economic writings.
Furthermore, these theories seem to poorly interpret historical development. Is there a theory of the capitalist state to justify the thesis that the collapse of colonialism after World War II is so insignificant to the periodization of international capitalist relations (or “global capitalism”) that the “final stage” of capitalism commencing in the last decades of the 19th century is arguably still continuing? To pose the same question differently: on what theoretical grounds can the “early” colonialism, as opposed to the late colonial era (from the late 19th century to World War II), be bracketed off as a distinct period in the history of capitalism?
On grounds of Marx’s theory of the CMP this period now has to be revisited. Why does the second colonial period have more affinities with the present-day non-colonial post-World War II era than with the era of early colonialism? Last but not least, is there a tendency towards expansionism that is innate in every form of capitalist domination, i.e. also in the less developed capitalist states that are not to be classified as being in the supposedly “ripe” or “monopoly capitalist” stage?
The authors propose a conceptualization of the international level which comes into a striking contrast with the majority of contemporary approaches of globalization or “new imperialism”. Their interpretation perceives the international level as a complex interlinkage of different (national-state) economic and social structures, each of which evolves at a different and unequal rate as a result primarily of the different class and political correlation of forces that have crystallized within it.
The book addresses the contemporary contradictions and trends of development of the “international capitalist system” and the evolving global economic crisis, formulating a fundamental reinterpretation of imperialism. Important in this line of reasoning remains the notion of imperialist chain, which is formulated in accordance with Marx’s concept of social capital and his theory of the capitalist mode of production. It thus defends the thesis that internal-national relationships and processes always have priority over international relations.
It is precisely the fundamental discovery of Marxism that the class struggle
(which is at the same time economic, political and ideological and is thus consummated within each national-state entity) is the driving force of history. It is through these class correlations and relations of domination that international relations, with all the concomitant interdependence on other social formations, take effect. If imperialism is a permanent possibility emerging out of the structures of the capitalist mode of production, the historical form it will ultimately acquire for a particular social formation depends on the way in which the “external” situation (that is to say the international correlation of forces) over-determines but also constrains the practices that emerge out of the evolution of the internal class correlations.

for purchase: http://us.macmillan.com/rethinkingimperialism

The Trouble With Capitalism

An Enquiry into the Causes of Global Economic Failure
Harry Shutt

''Offers no easy answers, but suggests the West is going to have to face the fact that profit-maximising capitalism has run its course.' - Tribune

'Shutt [has] a message for every saver and investor: a crash of 1929 proportions is almost inevitable' - Dan Atkinson in The Guardian (commenting on the First Edition)

ISBN: 9781848134225 16.99
www.zedbooks.co.uk/the_trouble_with_capitalism

Climate Change in Africa

Camilla Toulmin

'Camilla Toulmin combines a deep and nuanced knowledge of African society with a profound grasp of the impact of climate change on that continent. Covering both threats and opportunities, she shows how, for good or ill, climate change will be a new and critical driver in the next phase of African development. In the run up to the Copenhagen climate summit, this book should be required reading for anyone wishing to get to grips with the multiple interconnections between climate change and development in the world's poorest continent.' - Duncan Green, Head of Research, Oxfam

ISBN: 9781848130159 12.99
www.zedbooks.co.uk/climate_change_in_africa

Science and Technology for Development
James Smith

'This is one of the rare books I have read which brings out the complex web of relationships among science, technology and development with great clarity and originality.' - Prof M S Swaminathan, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha), Chairman, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation

ISBN: 9781848132016 14.99
www.zedbooks.co.uk/science_and_technology_for_development

The Social Economy

International Perspectives on Economic Solidarity
Edited by Ash Amin

'At a time of deep global economic crisis, there is a pressing need to explore alternatives to the mainstream capitalist economy in the search for sustainable futures, This is therefore a timely and important book. The contributors, a mix of leading academic researchers and activists, explore the achievements and potential of the social economy in a diverse range of places. They demonstrate that the social economy can provide socially useful work and goods and services of a quality that compares favourably with that of the state and private sector and discuss the policy challenges posed by seeking to develop the social economy.' - Professor Ray Hudson, Durham University

ISBN: 9781848132825 19.99
www.zedbooks.co.uk/the_social_economy

The Priest of Paraguay

Fernando Lugo and the Making of a Nation
Hugh O'Shaughnessy and Edgar Venerando Ruiz Daz

'Paraguay has been a disgrace even by the ugly standards of US domination of Latin America. The election of Fernando Lugo offers a promising opportunity for it to break the chains ... There could be no one better placed to bring these events to the general public than Hugh O'Shaughnessy. His work on Latin America has been outstanding in its historical depth, subtle insight and sympathetic understanding of the travails of the population, and the intricacies of the domestic structures and international environment.' - Noam Chomsky

ISBN: 9781848133136 16.99
www.zedbooks.co.uk/the_priest_of_paraguay

The Audacity of Races and Genders

A personal and global story of the Obama election
Zillah Eisenstein
'Zillah Eisenstein is no armchair analyst. She is a street activist with a globality of vision that sculpts a third dimension in our understanding of things. She writes with Jane Austen's pen, Angela Davis' heart, and Hannah Arendt's mind. From streets of Philadelphia to the campaign headquarters of Florida, from South Africa to Sweden, Zillah Eisenstein's sisterhood to noble causes is the bone marrow of her convictions and insights. Her Audacity of Races and Genders is the thick description, a people's history, of a presidential election that will mark our generation for generations to come.' - Hamid Dabashi, Columbia University in New York
ISBN: 9781848134201 16.99
www.zedbooks.co.uk/the_audacity_of_races_and_genders

Egypt
The Moment of Change
Edited by Rabab El-Mahdi and Philip Marfleet

'Combines passion, scholarship and vision - a focused snapshot of this troubled moment in Egypt's history with a competent resum of how we got here. Its passion, clarity of thought and its vision should be an important contribution to the change we Egyptians know we have to make happen.' - Ahdaf Soueif

ISBN: 9781842779354 16.99
www.zedbooks.co.uk/egypt

Women and War in the Middle East

Transnational Perspectives
Edited by Nadje Al-Ali and Nicola Pratt
'Nadje Al-Ali and Nicola Pratt bring together here some of the smartest feminist analysts of war and militarism in the Middle East. Together they show not only the profound effects of war and militarism on women's lives, but how asking feminist questions can make us all smarter about what causes and perpetuates both.' - Cynthia Enloe, author of "The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in the New Age of Empire"

ISBN 9781848131866 17.99
www.zedbooks.co.uk/women_and_war_in_the_middle_east

Free Trade Doesn’t Work: Why America Needs a Tariff

(This book will be $14.95 when it goes on sale on Amazon.com in a few weeks.)

The table of contents is below:

Foreword by Edward Luttwak
Introduction: Why We Can't Trust the Economists

PART I: THE PROBLEM
Chapter 1: The Bad Arguments for Free Trade
Chapter 2: Deficits, Time Horizons, and Perverse Efficiency
Chapter 3: Trade Solutions That Won't Work
Chapter 4: Critiques of Free Trade to Avoid

PART II: THE REAL ECONOMICS OF TRADE
Chapter 5: Ye Olde Theory of Comparative Advantage
Chapter 6: The Deliberately Forgotten History of Trade
Chapter 7: The Negligible Benefits of Free Trade
Chapter 8: The Disengenuous Law and Diplomacy of Free Trade

PART III: THE SOLUTION
Chapter 9: Where Does Growth Really Come From?
Chapter 10: The Multiple-Equilibrium Revolution
Chapter 11: The Natural Strategic Tariff
Chapter 12: The End of the Free-Trade Coalition

MORBID SYMPTOMS

Health Under Capitalism
http://www.monthlyreview.org/books/sr2010.php
Socialist Register 2010
edited by Leo Panitch and Colin Leys

Morbid Symptoms sees health as a major field of political economy, one that focuses on the struggle between commercial forces seeking to make it into a field of profit, and popular forces fighting to keep it -- or make it -- a public service with equal access for all.
Central to this volume is an analysis of the global health industry -- the pharmaceutical, insurance, medical technology, and healthcare provider corporations. Essays by leading authorities in the field include Vicente Navarro on the impact of globalization on health services, Julian Tudor Hart on mental health in sick societies, Meri Koivusalo on international organizations and capitalist health policies, Sanjay Basu on HIV/AIDS and the resurrection of comprehensive primary care in the "south," and Julie Feinsilver on Cuba's healthcare system and its role in Cuba's foreign policy. Separate essays review the state of healthcare around the world, while others deal with a variety of key issues such as obesity, the "fitness" industry, and the significance of ever-popular hospital-based television programs.
Contributors: Robert Albritton, Julian Ammirante, Kalman Applbaum, Pat and Hugh Armstrong, Sanjay Basu, David Coburn, Hans Ulrich Deppe, Julie Feinsilver, Marie Gottschalk, Julian Tudor Hart, Lesley Henderson, Christoph Herman, Meri Koivusalo, Colin Leys, Roddy Loeppky, Maureen Mackintosh, Vicente Navarro, Mohan Rao, Thomas Seibert, and Wang Shaoguang.

Reflexivity and Development Economics

Daniel Gay
Reflexivity and Development Economics outlines an alternative to the prevailing view of economic development, currently dominated by the revised Washington Consensus. Using an open-ended view of economic knowledge which moves away from one-size-fits-all blueprints, Daniel Gay argues that economic analysis should vary according to country context. He examines the approach in the case of one of the world's poorest countries, Vanuatu; and a development success-story, Singapore, showing that listening to the poor improves policy, and that examining the biases held by development economists helps tailor policy more closely to local conditions. This book is essential reading for those interested in development studies, international political economy, development economics and economic methodology.

The Global Environment of Business

by Frederick Guy
Oxford University Press

Description
The globalization of business activity: whether you love it or hate it, it affects you. What causes it, how different countries deal with it, and what the future might hold for it are all key questions which The Global Environment of Business answers. It traces the growth of big business, the comings and goings of economic globalization over two centuries, and compares the institutional environments and track records of business in a selection of countries on every continent today. It examines the role of local and regional clusters of small and medium-sized companies, and the obstacles which both oil wealth, and concentrated land ownership, pose for poor countries trying to develop. The final chapter assesses the sustainability of global business in the context of climate change and growth of regional blocs. Changing forms of business organization; changing technology; who wins and who loses; all are kept in sight throughout the book.

Frederick Guy pulls together all these various themes. Employing clear, vivid examples, narrative structures, and stories, it is not a dry textbook. Economic, political, and sociological theories are used, explained, evaluated; and employed to knit together a collection of vivid examples and cases.
Features
- Employs clear, vivid examples
- Narrative structures, stories, and thematic links are traced throughout the book
- Theoretical tools and concepts introduced include transaction costs, collective action problems, comparative advantage, increasing returns, distributional conflict, and sources of trust
- Boxes deal with longer expositions of key theories
Product Details

256 pages; ISBN13: 978-0-19-920662-9ISBN10: 0-19-920662-7

For purchase, click here.

Curbing Bailouts

Bank Crises and Democratic Accountability in Comparative Perspective
Guillermo Rosas

About the Book
Banking crises threaten the stability and growth of economies around the world. In response, politicians restore banks to solvency by redistributing losses from bank shareholders and depositors to taxpayers, and the burden the citizenry must bear varies from case to case. Whereas some governments stay close to the prescriptions espoused by Sir Walter Bagehot in the nineteenth century that limit the costs shouldered by taxpayers, others engage in generous bank bailouts at great cost to society. What factors determine a government's response?
In this comparative analysis of late-twentieth-century banking crises, Guillermo Rosas identifies political regime type as the determining factor. During a crisis, powerful financial players demand protection of their assets. Rosas maintains that in authoritarian regimes, government officials have little to shield them from such demands and little incentive for rebuffing them, while in democratic regimes, elected officials must weigh these demands against the interests of the voters—that is, the taxpayers. As a result, compared with authoritarian regimes, democratic regimes show a lower propensity toward dramatic, costly bailouts.
http://press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=1050729

Research Confidential

Solutions to Problems Most Social Scientists Pretend They Never Have
Eszter Hargittai, editor
A new guide for a new generation of social science researchers

About the Book
This collection of essays aims to fill a notable gap in the existing literature on research methods in the social sciences. While the methods literature is extensive, rarely do authors discuss the practical issues and challenges they routinely confront in the course of their research projects. As a result, editor Eszter Hargittai argues, each new cohort is forced to reinvent the wheel, making mistakes that previous generations have already confronted and resolved. Research Confidential seeks to address this failing by supplying new researchers with the kind of detailed practical information that can make or break a given project. Written in an informal, accessible, and engaging manner by a group of prominent young scholars, many of whom are involved in groundbreaking research in online contexts, this collection promises to be a valuable tool for graduate students and educators across the social sciences.

http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=268873

Striving to Save

Creating Policies for Financial Security of Low-Income Families
Margaret Sherrard Sherraden and Amanda Moore McBride
With Sondra G. Beverly
The struggles of low-income families trying to build savings accounts

About the Book
In Striving to Save, Margaret Sherrard Sherraden and Amanda Moore McBride examine savings in eighty-four working families with low incomes, including fifty-nine families who participated in a groundbreaking program of matched savings and financial education. In-depth interviews with these families, along with savings and survey data, shed light on saving in low-income households.
The book concludes with recommended public policy approaches for increasing savings in households that are striving to save.
http://press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=231248

ZED BOOKS IN DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Click here to download a list of ZED Books published recently.

No Rich, No Poor

It's a sloganeering title - No Rich, No Poor - but the book develops a deep new analysis of the historical limits of capitalism.

No Rich, No Poor draws lessons from the differences and similarities between capitalism and previous economic orders such as feudalism. Focusing primarily on the modern era, however, it shows why the high point of capitalist progress is long past. For several decades the working people of the United States have been ground down relentlessly. The U.S. is becoming a country of rich and very rich in one camp and common people struggling with distress in the other. No Rich, No Poor documents what is happening and explains why.

"Every page is packed with common sense, well researched information and undeniable truth. It's the most accessible book I have ever read regarding how we got where we are, where we are, and what we must do. No hysteria. No hyperbole. Just useful and actionable truth." (Joe Bageant)

Are you working to turn around the abject "health reform" going on in Washington; the disappearance of relatively stable jobs; the herding of children and teachers into a regime of standardized tests; or the wipeout of secure retirement? Long after the details of financial thievery have sunk into obscurity, long after the ins and outs of political maneuvering around the new Administration have been forgotten, you will find fresh uses for the analysis in No Rich, No Poor.

You can order No Rich, No Poor through your local bookstore and all major book outlets.

Contents
Preface
1. Thirty-five years of decline
2. The major turning points of history
3. How the hard-fought gains stopped
4. The program for common prosperity
5. Conservatives, reformists, and the common people
Appendix
Notes
ISBN 096799053X / $11.95 / distributed through Ingram
Irving Pelham
Needle Press
Oakland, CA

Rethinking Imperialism: A Study of Capitalist Rule

Palgrave-Macmillan 2009
By John Milios and Dimitris P. Sotiropoulos
Click here for detailed information.

Routledge International Studies in Business History

Recent years have seen an explosion of research in business history. Business history is now seen variously as: a key to understanding a vital aspect of the past, a source of parallels and insights into modern business practice, and a way of understanding the evolution of modern business practice. This series is not limited to any single approach, and explores a wide range of issues and industries.

Forthcoming!
Trade Marks, Brands and Competitiveness
Edited by Teresa da Silva Lopes and Paul Duguid
December 2009 | Hardback: 978-0-415-77693-6
This book examines trademarks and brands, and their historical role in national competitive and comparative advantage and in overall economic growth. The contributors provide an…Read More

Innovation and Entrepreneurial Networks in Europe
Edited by Paloma Fernández Pérez and Mary Rose
August 2009 | Hardback: 978-0-415-45451-3
The entrepreneur is involved in the dance of two questions – what is needed and what is possible. The interplay of these two questions is…Read More

The Origins of Globalization
By Karl Moore and David Charles Lewis
April 2009 | Paperback: 978-0-415-80598-8
Origins of Globalization draws widely on ancient sources and modern economic theory to detail the concept of “known world” globalization, arguing that a mixed economy--similar… Read More

The Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship
Enterprise, Home and Household in London, c. 1800-1870
By Alison Kay
April 2009 | Hardback: 978-0-415-43174-3
The Foundations of Female Entrepreneurship explores the relationship between home, household headship and enterprise in Victorian London. It examines the notions of duty, honor and… Read More

Women and Their Money 1700-1950
Essays on Women and Finance
Edited by Anne Laurence, Josephine Maltby and Janette Rutterford
2008 | Hardback: 978-0-415-41976-5
This book examines women's financial activity from the early days of the stock market in eighteenth century England and the South Sea Bubble to the… Read More
To view a full list of titles in the Routledge International Studies in Business History Series please visit the series web page http://www.routledge.com/books/series/Routledge_International_Studies_in_Business_History

After the Crash

Designing a Depression-Free Economy
Selected works of MASON GAFFNEY
Edited and with an Introduction By
CLIFFORD W. COBB
After the Crash: Designing a Depression-Free Economy is the latest book in the series Studies in Economic Reform and Social Justice from The American Journal of Economics and Sociology. The book analyzes in a unique way the causes of the current crash by showing how such events derive from real estate bubbles and their interactions with banks and other lenders. Mason Gaffney, explains the current economic crisis, by developing a general theory of capital. His theory draws on the previous findings of Knut Wicksell, and demonstrates for readers how excessive investing in durable capital of slow payback can destabilize and then freeze our modern economy, which requires constant circulation and renewal of capital to function properly. Combining that analysis with observed cycles of land speculation, Gaffney shows how a “perfect storm” formed and now has overwhelmed the economy.

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Heterodox Book Reviews

Money, Markets, and Sovereignty


Benn Steil and Manuel Hinds, _Money, Markets, and Sovereignty_. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. xi + 304 pp. $30 (hardcover), ISBN: 978-0-300-14924-1.

Reviewed for EH.NET by George Selgin, Professor of Economics, University of Georgia.
Click here to download the review.

CHINA’S THREE DECADES OF ECONOMIC REFORMS

Ed. Xiaohui Liu and Wei Zhang, Routledge, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-415-49600-1; 301 pages.

Reviewed by Sara Hsu, St. Edward’s University
Click here to download the review.

Socialist Standart- Book Reviews

- Che in Power
- Conspiraloons
- Boom and bust
- Ya Basta!
Click here to download the reviews.

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Heterodox Graduate Program and PhD Scholarships/Research Fellowships

Graduate programs offering study in feminist economics

A small, but growing number of graduate programs around the world offer courses and concentrations in feminist economics. (Unless otherwise noted below, these offerings are in departments of economics.)
- American University
- Wright State University
- School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University
- Colorado State University
- Institute of Social Studies
- Gender Institute of the London School of Economics
- University of Massachusetts-Amherst
- The Public Policy program at the University of Massachusetts-Boston
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- The New School for Social Research
- University of Reading
- Roosevelt University
- Department of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University
- Discipline of Political Economy at the University of Sydney
- University of Utah

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Heterodox Web Sites and Associations

Real-World Economics Review Blog

The real-world economics review now has a blog at http://rwer.wordpress.com/  It will feature contributors, past and current, to the review. Frank Ackerman, Paul Davidson, Paul Ormerod, Kevin Gallagher, Mark Weisbrot, Steve Keen and Dean Baker have already posted. Check it out, add it to your web reader and post your comments.   
 

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For Your Information

I wanna be an Economist




Economic Crisis Hits States and Municipalities

Rick Wolff

Crises expose the system's irrationalities and wasteful resource allocations. For example, Madoff and his many, smaller imitators reveal the tips of corruption icebergs. More important, the crisis-induced fiscal emergencies looming in most of the 50 states demonstrate several absurdities in our economic system.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) in Washington, DC monitors and calculates the gap between the fifty states' tax revenues and expenditures. The following recent CBPP chart compares the total state budget shortfalls in both the last recession and the current one. Today's record shortfalls measure how many billions states will need to raise in additional taxes or cut their expenditures (or combinations of both) in this and coming years.

At a time of crisis, while the federal government injects unprecedented stimulus (tax cuts and expenditure increases) into the U.S. economy, the fifty states are doing the opposite. State tax hikes and expenditure reductions will continue to undermine or slow any recovery. Moreover, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Obama's stimulus program) has offset only modest portions of the states' fiscal budget shortfalls for
2009 and 2010. The CBPP estimates that the worst of the budget crisis will hit states in 2011 and 2012. The carnage will total a huge net $260-billion even after allowing for the federal stimulus funds still available then to flow to states. Another way of putting this is to note that the just released third quarter (Q3) of 2009 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) number was lower than it would have been without the depressing effect of the fifty states' tax hikes and expenditure cuts. We saw states and municipalities spend 1.1% less in Q3 than they had in Q2, despite rising need.

State taxes are generally more regressive than the federal income tax and so fall relatively harder on middle and lower income groups. Likewise, state expenditures tend more immediately to impact those same groups since they include major supports for public education and myriad social programs. The negative economic effect of the states' fiscal crises will heavily impact the mass of U.S. citizens already angered by high unemployment and foreclosure rates as they observe trillions of bailout dollars flowing to banks and corporations ‘too big to fail.’

Continue reading:
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/268.php#continue

Big Tobacco Strikes Back at Historian in Court

He has criticized colleagues who aid companies' legal defense.
Historians, like Stanford U.'s Robert N. Proctor, have played a key role in tobacco trials, both as expert witnesses and as consultants. Tobacco companies facing lawsuits want to prevent his appearing in court on behalf of plaintiffs.
By Peter Schmidt
Click here to read the paper.

An Old Master, Back in Fashion

By DEVIN LEONARD
Published: October 31, 2009
BY the time he died in 1946, the economist John Maynard Keynes had become that rarest of creatures in his profession: a celebrity. The most powerful leaders in the free world subscribed to his theory that markets were driven by emotions and that in moments of crisis, governments could calm investors by doling out stimulus money.

Associated Press
New books re-examine the life and theories of John Maynard Keynes.
Related
Times Topics: John Maynard Keynes
When Keynes and his wife, Lydia, arrived in New York aboard the Queen Mary in 1943, they were mobbed by photographers. Even the paparazzi seemed to understand that his prescription had helped countries on both sides of the Atlantic recover from the Depression.
Three decades later, though, the same ideas were consigned to the dustbin when world leaders swooned over Milton Friedman and his disciples at the University of Chicago. They preached that markets were inherently self-regulating and that government intervention would only muck things up. Their laissez-faire views were more suitable for the rise of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
Now the old master is once again in vogue. After the financial markets blew up last year, governments around the world swiftly enacted Keynesian stimulus packages. Almost as rapidly, three longtime Keynes chroniclers have produced books that try to explain who he was and what he believed.
The British historian Peter Clarke has written the liveliest of the three, called “Keynes: The Rise, Fall, and Return of the 20th Century’s Most Influential Economist” (Bloomsbury Press, 211 pages). Mr. Clarke, a former history professor at Cambridge and the author of two previous books about his subject, serves up a gossipy account of Keynes’s personal life.
There is rich material here. Even if Keynes had not altered the course of economic thinking with his path-breaking “General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money” in 1936, he would still be remembered for the company he kept. He belonged to the Bloomsbury group, the London literary set whose members included Virginia Woolf and E. M. Forster.
Keynes shared their passion for dazzling prose and their predilection for sexual experimentation. Mr. Clarke writes that Keynes had numerous dalliances with other men and kept a list of his many conquests. Later, however, he married the glamorous Russian ballerina Lydia Lopokova.
Mr. Clarke says their union was happy.
“Its manifest success owed much to Lydia’s uninhibited sensuality, not least in removing Maynard’s feelings of sexual insecurity,” Mr. Clarke explains. “Their failure of have children was not for want of trying.”
The historian’s prose sparkles, and his book is the place to begin if you want to understand the economist’s personality and charisma. But Mr. Clarke’s focus on Keynes the man means that his account of Keynes the economist suffers. You finish this slim volume without knowing what he stood for and why he remains so significant.
Paul Davidson, an economics professor at the University of Tennessee and editor of the Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, does a better job of this in “The Keynes Solution: The Path to Global Economic Prosperity” (Palgrave Macmillan, 196 pages). A true believer, Mr. Davidson lays out Keynesianism in easy-to-understand language and makes a strong case that it is just as relevant today.
There are some doubters who fear that Keynesian spending is dangerous because it produces unbalanced budgets. Mr. Davidson responds that deficits in times of crisis lead to prosperity when the economy recovers.
“As a child of the Depression and a young teenager during World War II, I have never felt burdened by huge government deficits,” he writes. “The great generation who were adults during those years left their children a legacy of abundance and prosperity.”
Mr. Davidson argues that the Chicago gang’s belief that investors can calculate future risk by using prophetic mathematic models is more frightening. Who can argue with that after last year’s debacle?
The most tantalizing part of the “The Keynes Solution,” however, is the appendix, entitled “Why Keynes’s Ideas Were Never Taught in American Universities.” Mr. Davidson writes about how the work of one of his fellow Keynesians was attacked by William F. Buckley Jr. in the 1950s and how other peers watered down Keynes’s teachings to avoid similar controversy.
Robert Skidelsky, Keynes’s pre-eminent biographer, has produced the most satisfying post-crash analysis of the economist in “Keynes: The Return of the Master” (PublicAffairs, 220 pages).
An emeritus professor of political economics at the University of Warwick in England, Mr. Skidelsky is scornful of economists who, he believes, practice a “fundamentally regressive discipline.” He argues that Keynes was different because he was a moralist who believed the field could be used to improved people lives.
What’s more, the biographer says Keynes was hardly the quasi-socialist that right-wing critics would have us believe even today.
The author says that Keynes would have been troubled by the United States’ longstanding policy of running deficits even in prosperous times and that he opposed tax rates higher than 25 percent. The book adds that Keynes shared the Friedman view that governments could stabilize prices by limiting the money supply.
Mr. Skidelsky is pessimistic about the financial industry reforms that are taking shape in the United States and England. He fears that regulators and banks will continue to use “mathematical financial models for measuring and continue risk which promise more than they can deliver.”
If that’s true, the recent wave of Keynesian stimulus spending could be for naught. But then, it’s too much to expect Keynes to save us now. What the world really needs are more farsighted economists who can capture the public’s attention as he did in his day. Where is the next John Maynard Keynes? 

Mathematicians Against Free Trade

BACKGROUND

In 1999, more than 40,000 loosely affiliated protesters gathered in Seattle beneath a banner reading “Fair Trade Not Free Trade.” The resulting “Battle in Seattle” was front-page news for more than a week, and forced the mainstream media to concede—however briefly and reluctantly—that free trade inflicts severe hardship on both people and nations.

The free trade lobby responds that, however much harm the policy may do, the benefits exceed the costs. Unable to support that dubious claim with credible estimates, the lobby substitutes “expert testimony” to the effect that the asserted inequality has been be “proven mathematically,” and is therefore as indisputable as Hölder’s or Jensen’s. Blinded by such erudition, policy and opinion makers no longer deem tried and true alternatives to free trade worthy of consideration by Congress and/or the World Trade Organization. Hence the need for mathematical input to the next round of policy debates about globalization and trade. Who better to explain how utterly irrelevant is mathematical proof in situations devoid of self-evident—or even carefully chosen—hypotheses to argue from, and of hard data against which to test the eventual conclusions?

We at Mathematicians Against Free Trade urge our colleagues to acquaint themselves with the cases both for and against free trade, before deciding which if either cause deserves support in the coming debates. To get them started, a brief tutorial is posted on this web site, along with a reading list for further study.
www.FreeTradeMath.org.

Online Petition for Tougher Financial Regulation in Europe:

The global financial crisis is affecting every aspect of our lives, threatening jobs, savings, pensions and public services everywhere.
Today’s crisis is not just another economic downturn. We are living through a systemic crisis, which has had devastating consequences across the globe: a crisis in the unregulated global financial market system that sacrificed long-term investment, jobs, wages, environment and the well being of the planet and its people, for the benefit of a minority. This crisis must be the trigger for a wholesale reform of the global economic order. We have an opportunity to transform the financial status quo. A new paradigm is needed which privileges sustainable development and social justice, not profit for profit’s sake.
Financial reform: Europe is not on the right track!
The financial reforms which have recently been undertaken in Europe are fragmented and have limited scope. EU proposals so far are limited and fall short of what is needed to shape a sound financial system. There is an obvious lack of political will, and some recent short term improvements on financial markets are being used by certain European leaders to avoid legislation, and go back to “business as usual”. That will only lead to increased job losses and new crises. It is simply unacceptable to put citizens at further risk. We must stop this.
Let’s take action!
It’s time for citizens around Europe to raise our voices and demand that the fundamental causes of this crisis be addressed -- we need tough rules to stop the financiers’ folly, and a new framework that better serves the public interest. The unregulated global financial market and economy must be subject to fair and transparent global governance. EU governments and the European institutions must put social justice and a new respect for the planet at the forefront of the debate on financial reform. That’s why it’s so important for Europeans to join forces for financial reform.

Europeans for financial reform

Europeans for financial reform is a coalition of progressive forces, ranging from NGOs to Trade Unions, citizens, academics and progressive politicians, that have come together to spearhead a campaign for real reform in our banking and financial system. The campaign was launched on September 21st 2009, and the coalition is growing, with new members joining our campaign every day (http://europeansforfinancialreform.org/en/user/register).
We are committed to a common goal: reforming the financial markets, so that they serve the real economy and jobs. The crisis has shown how the financial sector became divorced from the needs of the real economy and real value creation. Radical reform of the financial sector is now of fundamental importance if we want to re-establish its proper role at the service of citizens and businesses and prevent such a crisis ever happening again.
http://europeansforfinancialreform.org/en/about

Lending must support the real economy

By Dirk Bezemer
Published: November 4 2009 22:21 | Last updated: November 4 2009 22:21
Economists have been mulling over the shape financial reforms should take. Robert Shiller wrote on these pages in defence of “financial democracy”, arguing that a wide range of financial products allows everyone to access liquidity and insure against risk. A week earlier in The New York Times, Paul Krugman pinpointed the way bankers are paid as the focal point of reforms. The problem with these discussions is that they introduce red herrings. Dear top economists, the problem is debt. Any solution that sidesteps this is a non-starter.
As I wrote in the FT last month, the crisis and recession were not all that difficult to predict once you started to look at the flow of funds – at credit and debt – and at the financial sector as separate from the real economy. Following the same logic, it should now be fairly uncontroversial what our long-term aim in financial reform is. It is to redirect lending away from bloating the financial sector and towards supporting the real economy, rather than loading it down with debt.
In the 1980-2007 era of cheap credit and deregulation, banks had every incentive to move from real-economy projects, yielding a profit, towards lending against rising asset prices, yielding a capital gain. In the 1990s and 2000s, loan volumes rose to unprecedented levels, supporting global assets booms in property, derivatives and the carry trade. The share of lending by US banks to the US financial sector – instead of to the real economy – went from 60 per cent of the outstanding loan stock in 1980 (up from 50 per cent in the 1950s) to more than 80 per cent in 2007.
But the price was growing indebtedness. Profit and capital gains may look much the same to the individual bank – a stream of revenues – but they have different macroeconomic consequences. Lending to the real sector is self-amortising: it creates a debt, but also the value-added to repay principal and interest. Such loans enlarge the economy in proportion to the debts created and are financially sustainable. By contrast, loans to create or buy financial assets and instruments are not, by themselves, self-amortizing. In a credit boom, successive owners may sell the asset at a profit, but their buyers will have to shoulder proportionally more debt in order to acquire the asset, balanced (for the time being) by the asset’s value. Asset trading may be individually profitable; but it is a zero sum game, sustainable only if the real economy furnishes enough money to support the rising debt burden. Beyond a point, the lure of capital gains diverts funds from real-sector investment, and households’ rising debt-service cuts demand for real-sector output. In both ways, excessive growth of financial asset markets is self-defeating.
This logic may be traced in the statistics (all figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis). The US stock of loans to the real sector (as a proportion of gross domestic product) has remained roughly constant since the 1980s. In contrast, loans by US banks to other US banks have grown from 2.5 times GDP in 1980 to a factor of 5.8 in 2007 – all attributable to growth in loans to the financial sector. The US financial sector was over three times larger in 2007 compared with 1980.
Credit flowing into asset markets created a debt overhead while the real economy’s capacity to pay the debt declined. Demand for the real sector’s output also suffered as US households by 2007 were paying over a fifth of their after-tax, disposable income to the financial sector in debt servicing and financial fees. The US had become an economy trying to drive with the brakes on. The real-sector recession, after the 2007 financial crisis, occurred because the real economy had become overly dependent on continued lending against rising asset values. Those are the trends that financial reforms must curb.
A promising policy avenue is tax reform. During the asset boom of the last decades, taxes on capital gains in the US, UK and most other OECD economies have fallen sharply relative to value added tax and labour taxes. When the banks have recovered, they need a regulatory and policy climate that discourages the pursuit of capital gains for their own sake, and which favours growth of the real economy. Finance should be the economy’s handmaiden, not the other way round.
In this perspective, it is beside the point to focus on exorbitant bonuses or financial democracy. In fact, Mr Shiller’s proposal risks boosting yet again the volume of financial instruments and the debts they generate. Didn’t we once welcome credit derivatives for extending mortgage finance to the financially unreached? We forgot that such instruments need to have a basis in the real economy. Likewise, enthusiasm about the rally in asset markets (even as the real economy continued to contract) shows how widespread the confusion between the financial sector and the real economy is. The priority now is not to revitalise asset markets, but to transform a bloated and dysfunctional financial sector towards one that supports the real economy in a sustainable and cost-efficient way.
The earlier piece is at

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/452dc484-9bdc-11de-b214-00144feabdc0.html
The writer is a fellow at the Research School of the Economics and Business Department, University of Groningen 

Steelworkers Seek Job Creation via Worker-Owned Factories

‘One Worker, One Vote:’
US Steelworkers to Experiment
with Factory Ownership,
Mondragon Style
By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue
Oct. 27, 2009–The United Steel Workers Union, North America’s largest industrial trade union, announced a new collaboration with the world’s largest worker-owned cooperative, Mondragon International, based in the Basque region of Spain.
News of the announcement spread rapidly throughout the communities of global justice activists, trade union militants, economic democracy and socialist organizers, green entrepreneurs and cooperative practitioners of all sorts. More than a few raised an eyebrow, but the overwhelming response was, “Terrific! How can we help?”

Click here to read the paper.

Ssangyong Motors Strike in South Korea Ends in Defeat and Heavy Repression

Loren Goldner

The Ssangyong Motor Company strike and plant occupation in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, ended after 77 days on Aug. 5. For the 976 workers who seized the small auto plant on May 22 and held it against repeated quasi-military assault, the settlement signed by Ssangyong court receivership manager Park Young-tae and local union president Han Sang-kyun represented a near-total defeat. Worse still, the surrender was followed by detention and interrogation of dozens of strikers by police, possibly to be followed by felony charges, as well by a massive ($45 million) lawsuit against the Korean Metal Workers' Union and probable further lawsuits against individual strikers for damages incurred during the strike. The hard-right Korean government of Lee Myong Bak is signaling with these measures-its latest and most dramatic "take no prisoners" victory over popular protest in the past year and a half-- its intention to steamroller any potential future resistance to its unabashed rule on behalf of big capital.

Click here to read the paper.

Warren Samuels Prize

The Association for Social Economics (ASE), one of the founding member organizations of the Allied Social Science Associations, together with the Review of Social Economy, would like to invite submissions for the 2010 Warren Samuels Prize

This prize is awarded to a paper, presented at the January ASSA meetings, that best exemplifies scholarly work that:

• Is of high quality,
• Is important to the project of social economics,
• Has broad appeal across disciplines.

It is preferable, but not required, that the paper is presented at one of the ASSA sessions sponsored by the Association for Social Economics. Papers will not normally exceed 6,500 words (inclusive of references, notes), and should follow the style guidelines for the Review of Social Economy.

The winner of the prize will be announced during the ASE presidential breakfast, to which the winner is invited. The winning paper may, subject to peer review, be published in the subsequent September issue of the Review of Social Economy.
The winner of the Warren Samuels Prize receives a $500 stipend.

The selection committee consists of:
A Past-President of ASE;
A Co-editor of the Review of Social Economy (Chair);
A member of the Editorial Board, Review of Social Economy.

Papers presented at the 2010 ASSA meetings in Atlanta, GA, in sessions not restricted to sessions in the ASE programme, may be send electronically, as a word or pdf attachment, to Wilfred Dolfsma, Corresponding Editor, Review of Social Economy, before December 5th, 2009 at w.a.dolfsma@rug.nl.

Réseau de Recherche sur l’Innovation

Chère Madame, cher Monsieur,

Nous avons le plaisir de vous informer que l’éditorial de novembre du Réseau de Recherche sur l’Innovation, « L’artisanat et la très petite entreprise : Un véritable enjeu pour la société ou une antienne bien commode en période de crise ? », est disponible ici :
http://rrifr.univ-littoral.fr/?p=165

Research Network of Innovation

Dear Madam, Dear Sir

We are pleased to inform you that the editorial for November from the Research Network of Innovation « The Crafts Industry and the Very Small Firm: A Real Challenge for the Society or a Very Convenient Antiphony in Times of Crisis ?» is available here :
http://rrien.univ-littoral.fr/?p=117

Building a Solidarity Economy

How can one small Brooklyn-based co-op help create an economy founded on teamwork, social justice, and democracy?
by Annie McShiras
posted Oct 15, 2009

Photo courtesy of Annie McShiras. Members of Beyond Care, a childcare cooperative based in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, advertise at a street fair.
Jackie Amezquita isn’t your typical nanny. During the workday, she cares for her clients’ young children, educating and nurturing them. But as president of Beyond Care, a 19-member childcare cooperative based in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, her reach extends far beyond those individual families.

Click here to read the paper.

Smith's 'invisible hand' was an ideal- not a reality

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