From the Editor
Last week I attended the
annual conference of the Association for
Institutionalist Thought (AFIT). Many of the
sessions had papers dealing with the ongoing
economic crisis. While interesting and relevant,
the economy is more than finance and peoples
lives can be adversely affect by other kinds of
economic events. So it was nice to listen to
some presentations that dealt with a Post
Keynesian/heterodox approach to welfare, to the
role of cultural filters contributing to
discriminatory hiring practices, and to the role
of anti-chain stores laws in fighting against
the Wal-Mart hegemony. In the current climate,
these kinds of research and contributions to
heterodox economics are often downplayed as
unimportant and doctoral students are encouraged
to direct their interests crisis topics rather
than these kind of micro topics. If heterodox
economics is to advance, then contributions in
all research areas is necessary--not just a few
that are in the news.
Fred Lee
In
this issue:
|
Call for Papers |
|
- The Financial and
Monetary Crisis
- La Crise Financiere Et Monetaire
- The Egyptian Labour Movement
- A Green Economics Conference
- Society of Government Economists
- Gender and Global Economic Crisis
- Call for Essays: Workers Councils in Historical and
Comparative Perspective
- Sixth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural,
Economic and Social Sustainability
- The New and Old Institutionalisms in Development
- The impact of the global financial crisis on economic
reform processes in Africa
- Uncertain Crisis? Comparing institutional responses to
macroeconomic change
- The EAEPE Conference 2009
- 41st UK History of Economic Thought Conference |
|
Conferences, Seminars and Lectures |
|
- The Centre of
Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE)
- Training in Qualitative Comparative Analysis
- Association of Heterodox Economics
- The Financial Institutions and Economic Security
- Feelbad Britain: How to make it better
- The Green Economics Institute
- Conference on 21st Century Keynesian Economics
- The 2nd Mecpoc Symposium
- Seminar Series in Radical Political Thought
- The Ethical Critique of Capitalism
- Feelbad Britain: How to make it better
|
|
Job Postings for Heterodox Economists |
|
- University of Glasgow
|
|
Heterodox Conference Papers and
Reports and Articles |
|
- An agenda for social democracy
- SOAS Research on Money and Finance Discussion Papers
- Recent Rise in Federal Government and Federal Reserve
Liabilities: Antidote to a Speculative Hangover
- It’s That “Vision” Thing: Why the Bailouts Aren’t Working,
and Why a New Financial System Is Needed
- A “People First” Strategy: Credit Cannot Flow When There
Are No Creditworthy Borrowers or Profitable Projects
- What Role for Central Banks in View of the Current Crisis?
- New Estimates of Economic Inequality in America, 1959–2004
- Background Considerations to a Regulation of the U.S.
Financial System: Third Time a Charm? Or Strike Three?
- Feelbad Britain: How to make it better |
|
Heterodox Journals and Newsletters |
|
- Le N°3 de la Revue Française de Socio-Economie
sortira en librairie à la mi-avril
- The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought
- Ethical Economics Support
- Forum for Social Economics
- Journal of Post Keynesian Economics
- International Journal of Political Economy
|
|
Heterodox Books and Book Series |
|
- Introducing Macroeconomic Analysis:
Competing Views
- Let Them Eat Junk: How Capitalism Creates Hunger and
Obesity
- The Political Economy of Consumer Behavior: Contesting
Consumption
- Victorian Investments
- Two Bits
- Monetary Policy And Financial Stability
- The Food Wars
- Introduction to Marx’s Capital
- Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed by Paul Mason
- The Ecological Revolution
- Nature, Social Relations and Human Needs
- REVUE FRANÇAISE DE SOCIO-ÉCONOMIE
|
|
Heterodox Book Reviews |
|
- Money Uncertainty and Time |
|
Heterodox Web Sites and Associations |
|
- Initiative for Promoting Political
Economy (IIPPE) |
|
For
Your Information |
|
- Global Justice Website |
|
|
Call for Papers
The Financial and
Monetary Crisis
FINANCIAL AND MONETARY CRISIS: Rethinking Economic Policies and
Redefining the architecture and governance of international finance”
DECEMBER 10-12, 2009
Université de Bourgogne, Laboratoire Economie Gestion (Dijon,
France)
Deadline for Proposals : July 30th, 2009
Decision from the Committee: August 30th, 2009
Deadline for sending papers: November 15th, 2009
Organised by
Claude Gnos (Université de Bourgogne et Cemf-LEG, Dijon)
Louis-Philippe Rochon (Laurentian University and IEPI, Canada)
Click here
for detailed information.
La Crise Financiere Et Monetaire
LA CRISE FINANCIÈRE ET MONÉTAIRE: Repenser la politique
économique et redéfinir l’architecture et la gouvernance de la
finance internationale”
10-12 DECEMBRE 2009
Université de Bourgogne, Laboratoire Economie Gestion (Dijon,
France)
Date limite pour l’envoi de propositions : 30 Juillet 2009
Décisions du comité de selection : 30 Août 2009
Date limite pour l’envoi des papiers retenus: 15 Novembre 2009
Organisé par
Claude Gnos (Université de Bourgogne et Cemf-LEG, Dijon)
Louis-Philippe Rochon (Laurentian University and IEPI, Canada)
The Egyptian Labour Movement
Workshop: The Egyptian Labour Movement: Possibilities and
Constraints School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Russell
Square Campus 7 July 2009 The massive strike in the Egyptian public
sector textile mill in Mahalla al-Kubra in late December 2006 marked
the beginning of the strongest and largest wave of workers protest
to engulf the country since the 1940s. The strike wave has
progressively spread from its initial hub in the public-sector
textile mills to include other industrial sectors, such as food
production, transport etc., as well as to firms in the private
sector. Significant elements of the ‘professional classes’ have also
been drawn into the struggle.
Following a successful strike which ended in January 2008, Property
Tax Collectors, for example, set up an independent trade union,
breaking the fifty-year old monopoly of the government-backed
Egyptian Trade Union Federation on industrial organisation. The
eruption of workers’ collective action adds to the problems of the
current Egyptian regime, which faces the prospect of a difficult
transition when 80-year old president Husni Mubarak either dies or
leaves office. The strike wave threatens to undermine the political
role of the official unions, long used by the ruling party as a
vehicle for electoral mobilisation. Initiatives such as the
attempted general strike in April 2008 in support of textile
workers’ call for an increase in the national minimum wage also
raise the prospect of collaboration between opposition political
forces and workers’ organisations.
The workshop organisers invite papers addressing the following
themes:
- The relationship between the labour movement as a socio-political
force and the composition of the Egyptian working class: how have
recent changes in labour relations, the social divisions of labour
and the structure of capital affected the Egyptian labour movement?
- The dynamics of the strike movement: what factors have influenced
the timing of strikes and shaped patterns of collective action in
different sectors of the economy? Who are the strike leaders? What
role do the official unions play? What is the nature of the official
unions and their relationship to the government? What other forms of
workers organisation have emerged through strikes?
- The relationship between the workers’ movement and wider
opposition forces: what are the links between workers’ protests and
student activism, pro-democracy campaigns, and other recent
political protest movements? What is the attitude of the Muslim
Brotherhood towards the strike wave? What has the impact been of the
‘Mahalla Intifada’ and the attempted general strike of 6-7 April
2008?
Presenters already confirmed include: Hassanein Kishk (National
Centre for Sociological and Criminological Research, Cairo),
Fathallah Mahrus (Egyptian trade union activist), Mustafa Bassiouny
(Labour correspondent, Al-Dustur newspaper, Egypt)
Interested contributors are asked to submit abstracts of no more
than 300 words via email attachments (Microsoft Word). Abstracts
should include the paper’s title, full name of author(s),
professional affiliation, current email address and telephone
number.
Attendance at the workshop is free, but regrettably we do not have
funds available to support travel and accommodation costs for
participants. The workshop will provide for Arabic-English
translation.
Abstracts should be submitted to one of the workshop organisers
below no later than May 15 2009.
Selected presenters will be required to submit their papers to the
organising committee by June 23 2009
Professor Gilbert Achcar, Department of Development Studies, SOAS (
ga3@soas.ac.uk )
Dr. Anne Alexander, Department of Politics and International
Studies, SOAS ( aa107@soas.ac.uk
) Marten Pettersson (MPhil/PhD Candidate),Department of Development
Studies, SOAS (
marten.pettersson@soas.ac.uk )
The workshop is supported by the ESRC Non-Governmental Public Action
Research Programme. For more information about the programme
go to
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/NGPA/ or contact Anne
Alexander aa107@soas.ac.uk
A Green Economics Conference
The clash between Ecology and Economy
Greening the Economy,
Explanations, causes and answers to the current crises:
the climate, biodiversity, mass species extinction, commodity
fluctuations, poverty, and the credit crunch?
Intergenerational and intragenerational equity, pensions
Our women's unequal pay and poverty project stream, social justice,
long termism in economics
Systemic,practical and theory change in economics at
Mansfield College, Oxford University
4th Annual Green Economics Conference N
Friday 31 July to Saturday 1 August 2009
Including:
Green Procurement and the Greening of Business.
Other streams include:
Carbon Reduction and Climate Change, Women and Poverty, Lower Growth
Economics, Biodiversity and Species Loss and the Economics of saving
the rainforests. REDDs? Green Markets. How Kyoto works.
Philosophy of economics- What can Aristotle teach us now?
Finance, Food and Fuel?
Keynsianism Kick starts, or Greening, Growth as in nature, abundance
and Greater Equity?
Instruments, tools and Green Economics Methodology for radical
change and real progress in Economics
Click here for
detailed information.
Society of Government Economists
Call for Papers and Sessions
For the Allied Social Science Associations /
American Economic Association Annual Meetings
in Atlanta, Georgia, January 3-5, 2010
The Society of Government Economists will be organizing several
sessions at the Allied Social Science Associations / American
Economic Association (ASSA/AEA) annual meetings in Atlanta, Georgia
on January 3-5, 2010. The Society’s motivation for organizing these
sessions is to promote economic thought that will be beneficial to
government economists. Specifically, these sessions will be designed
to inform and educate economists, and to provide valuable
contributions to existing knowledge and understanding of economic
ideas, or potential improvements in how economics is practiced. Such
sessions should better enable economists to observe and understand
the nature and causes of economic factors and events, which will, in
turn, improve their ability to contribute to public decision making.
For this purpose, the Society of Government Economists is now
soliciting proposals for paper presentations and organized sessions
(typically involving 3-4 papers). These calls for papers and
organized sessions will be open to all individuals who share the
objectives mentioned above. In the case of proposed, individual
papers, the Society will organize selected papers into sessions and
invite other individuals to serve as discussants in those sessions.
We greatly encourage proposals for papers and sessions, which will
be evaluated under the following rules and conditions:
(1) Papers and sessions will be peer reviewed (in a double-blind
process) on the basis of scientific merit, importance of the topic,
insightfulness, uniqueness, and level of effort.
(2) Proposals will be evaluated and selected without regard for
whether the applicants are government economists or members of the
Society of Government Economists. (Note this reflects a change from
our previous selection criteria.) Similarly, the topics of the
papers need not specifically address governmental policies or
actions.
(3) There is no submission fee for proposing a paper or session.
(4) Proposals for individual papers are encouraged in addition to
proposals for organized sessions—the Society is prepared to organize
individual papers into sessions.
(5) The deadline for submitting the proposed paper or session is May
22, 2009. 2
How to Apply:
For a paper proposal, please send the following items:
1. Contact information: Name, Title, Affiliation, Address, Email
Address, Phone Number for all of the authors.
2. An abstract of not more than 500 words that describes the paper.
Because the application process will involve a double-blind review,
applicants are asked to exclude from the abstract any information
that reveals their identity.
2. A supplementary statement of not more than 300 words that argues
for why the paper is valuable in terms of scientific merit and
importance for economic analysis or decision making.
3. Optional: The names and contact information of two peer reviewers
who could serve as objective, qualified experts on the merits of the
proposal. (Those providing this information are encouraged to submit
their proposal as early as possible.)
4. Optional: References to no more than two published articles on
topics related to the paper, which contain names of individuals in
the reference section who could serve as peer reviewers. (Those
providing this are also encouraged to submit their proposal early.)
5. Optional: If any of the authors is interested in serving as a
discussant of another paper in a session, please let us know, and
include the possible topic areas. (This will have no bearing on our
assessment of the paper proposal.)
Do not send any other materials with your proposal, such as
preliminary drafts of a paper. In fairness to applicants who did not
send such materials, additional materials will not be considered.
For a session proposal, please send the following:
1. Contact information of the session organizer(s) and session
chair.
2. For each paper, all of the items that would be expected for a
proposal of an individual paper, as listed above. As also mentioned
above, do not send any extraneous materials.
3. Contact information on the discussants of the proposed papers.
Email all proposals to:
Mark Ledbetter, Application Coordinator for the Selection Committee
Society of Government Economists
mark.ledbetter@bea.gov
Gender and Global Economic Crisis
The current global crisis that has engulfed the world economy makes
it more urgent than ever to continue the work of generating and
sharing knowledge for the formulation of gender-equitable, and
broadly-shared prosperity responses, including in the areas of
macroeconomic and international trade policies and global finance.
With this purpose in mind:
1. a conference is being organized to take place on July 13-14, 2009
at Blithewood, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College,
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Should you wish to present papaer,
please submit a 500-word abstract to Rania Antonopoulos
rania@levy.org and Nilufer
Cagatay
cagatay@economics.utah.edu by May 10, 2009 (for details
see
attachment #1 ).
2. Please note: The conference is planned to take place immediately
following a 2-week intensive course (June 29-July 10, 2009) on the
same theme organized as a part of this year's acitvities by GEM (the
international working group on gender, macroeconomics and
international economics). Should you wish to attend, kindly visit
www.genderandmacro.org
for details, (or see
attachement
#2). The deadline for sending in an application is May 1, 2009.
Call for Essays: Workers Councils in
Historical and Comparative Perspective
The editors are seeking academically rigorous essays that also are
accessible to workers, trade unionists, and activists. We encourage
submissions that are free of jargon and rooted in historical
experience. The culmination of the essays will be a book on workers
councils published in many languages that embraces theory and action
and easily grasped by a wide range of readers seeking democratic and
socialist transformation through workers councils.
Proposals for essays are welcome and are due and will be accepted
through August 15, 2009. Manuscript submissions are due November 15,
2009, with anticipated publication in early 2010. Essays should
range from 5,000 to 7,500 words in length, although the editors will
consider shorter or longer manuscripts on a case by case basis.
Essays will be published in a volume to appear in several languages.
The editors have already secured publication agreements from
publishers for this work in several
Click here for
detailed information.
Sixth International Conference on
Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability
University of Cuenca, Ecuador
5-7 January 2010
http://www.SustainabilityConference.com
This Conference aims to develop a holistic view of sustainability,
in which environmental, cultural and economic issues are inseparably
interlinked. It will work in a multidisciplinary way, across diverse
fields and taking varied perspectives in order to address the
fundamentals of sustainability.
The Conference will include numerous paper, workshop and colloquium
presentations by practitioners, teachers and researchers. We would
particularly like to invite you to respond to the Conference
Call-for-Papers. Presenters may choose to submit written papers for
publication in the fully refereed International Journal of
Environmental, Cultural, Economic and social Sustainability. If you
are unable to attend the Conference in person, virtual registrations
are also available which allow you to submit a paper for refereeing
and possible publication, as well as access to the Journal.
Whether you are a virtual or in-person presenter at this Conference,
we also encourage you to present on the Conference YouTube Channel.
Please select the Online Sessions link on the Conference website for
further details.
The deadline for the next round in the call for papers (a title and
short abstract) is 14 May 2009. Future deadlines will be announced
on the Conference website after this date. Proposals are reviewed
within two weeks of submission. Full details of the Conference,
including an online proposal submission form, may be found at the
Conference website -
http://www.SustainabilityConference.com/
Click
here for detailed information.
The New and Old Institutionalisms in
Development
The Development Studies Assocation of UK and Ireland has accepted a
panel proposal which I put (with Ioana Negru) for their conference
2-4 Sept., 2009.
Abstracts are needed via email by 27 April 2009. The topic is
Institutionalisms in Development, and I am putting full details
below. Interested applicants can also use the web link to find out
more about DSA and its annual conference. Every other year it is 3
days, this year in Ulster, Northern Ireland. The alternate years it
is a one-day conference.
"The New and Old Institutionalisms in Development - Testing and
Expanding their Adequacy"
Convenors – Wendy Olsen And Ioana Negru
Contact Email:
wendy.olsen@manchester.ac.uk
General DSA Conference Theme Heading - "Clashing Values", see
http://www.devstud.org.uk/
for Conference 2009 details.
Click here
for detailed information.
The impact of the
global financial crisis on economic reform processes in Africa
Call for papers for an international workshop at Bremen University
of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Business and Economics, Bremen
(Germany)
The impact of the global financial crisis on economic reform
processes in Africa
Venue: October 2nd, 2009, House of Science (Bremen)
The impact of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on the African
economies is not only a concern to researchers in development
economics but also to the policy makers in the region who have been
engaged in economic reforms.
The workshop will provide a forum for leading scholars, experts, and
policy makers to present papers on the impact of the global
financial crisis on the socio-economic environment in sub-Saharan
countries and contribute to the development of coping strategies. Of
particular concern are the different consequences of the global
financial crisis on countries with varying approaches to economic
reforms.
The workshop will be organized around a number of themes on the
following broad issues:
(1) Is Africa at another political and economic crossroads? What are
the opportunities and dangers of policy reversals in the face of the
GFC?
(2) What has been the impact of different kinds of governance on
financial stability? Which macro-economic policies can be used to
overcome the crisis in Africa?
(3) What has been the impact of the GFC on Africa's external
economic relations in different types of African economies with
regard to their opening up to the world markets (esp. export
performance, capital imports, and migration)?
(4) How have economic reform processes affected social cohesion and
what are the respective social consequences of the GFC, especially
regarding poverty alleviation and the MDGs?
(5) Which has been the role of International Financial Institutions
during and after the crisis? What are the repercussions of an
aggravating financial, economic, and social crisis in Africa on the
world economy?
The workshop welcomes papers based on theory, applied research and
cases studies from all fields of economics and social sciences.
To submit a topic, please send an abstract of up to 300 words and a
bio note of up to 100 words by June, 30th 2009 to the organizers. We
will inform you immediately as to whether the proposed topic
cooresponds with the general framework of the workshop and in this
case would ask you to send a full paper of around 15 to 20 pages by
August 31, 2009. Presentation is scheduled for 15 to 20 minutes. No
participation costs for accepted presenters.
Organizers:
Dr. des. Joy Alemazung
Joy.Alemazung@hs-bremen.de Prof. Dr. Hans H. Bass
bass@fbn.hs-bremen.de
Dr. des. Osmund Uzor
uzor@uni-bremen.de (co-ordinator)
Uncertain Crisis? Comparing
institutional responses to macroeconomic change
By Research Area G – Macroeconomic Regulation and
Institutional Change
For EAEPE conference “Institutional Solutions for Economic Recovery”
Amsterdam, Friday November 6th to Sunday November 8th 2009
Despite its regular and broadly experienced failures, by the end of
the C20th capitalism had emerged as triumphant, extinguishing hopes
of a historical alternative and shaking off the democratic national
democratic structures that had controlled its excesses. The crisis
that we face today presents a fully integrated global economy with
the consequences of a collapsing financial syste. Regulation Theory
(RT) explains the persistence of capitalism through periods of
crisis. The distinction between structural and cyclical crises
demonstrates the normalising role of crisis periods and shows why
periods of relative stability tend towards decline. This session
invites theoretical, methodological and empirical discussions of the
current economic crisis with special reference to the following
questions.
What characteristics does this crisis share with previous ones? The
collapse of Fordism is closely associated with the decreased returns
on capital investments in auto industries in western economies.
Similarly the collapse of a financialisation regime of accumulation
followed decreased returns on high risk investments. So are regimes
of accumulation driven by key sectors? If so what are the factors
that contribute to paradigms of core sectoral growth? Or is failure
of the banks to deliver property rights a failure too great for
capitalism to sustain?
How can uncertainty in a structural crisis be differentiated from
risk under cyclical crisis? Risk management has become a core
element of contemporary governance, but how well will these
techniques apply in a period of dramatically decreased demand? Is
the experience of financial meltdown, now being felt in the core
economies, merely a characteristic of a stable regime of
accumulation that has already seen financial uncertainty in many
periphery and semi periphery economies?
To what degree does this period of dramatic failure present the
opportunity for radical reform? Government responses to date have
sought to prop up the existing financial system and debates calling
for alternative mechanisms and radical change have not been
effectively made. To what degree is this because existing
disciplinary spaces are repeating the failures of the past?
Finally given the opportunities for proposing new agendas that the
crisis presents, how can economic debates be re-politicised to
assert greater democratic control, more socially responsive
institutions and a more democratic socialism than has been seen in
recent time. Or do the ideologies of the C20th need to be refocused
and even redefined to match the world today?
The abstract (600-700 words) should clearly mention:
- research area G (see above)
- title of the paper
- name of the author(s)and full address of the corresponding author
(postal address, phone, fax and email)
- the aim of the study and methodology, (expected) results and/or
conclusion
- up to 5 keywords
Deadline for abstract submission: May 1, 2009
Notification for abstract acceptance: May 30, 2009
Deadline for paper submission: September 20, 2009
Any queries please contact
Pascal Petit (
pascal.petit@ens.fr ) and or Charlie Dannreuther (
c.dannreuther@leeds.ac.uk
)
For more details please see conference website:
http://eaepe.org/eaepe-conference-2008
The EAEPE Conference 2009
The EAEPE Conference 2009 will be organized in Amsterdam from Friday
6 until Sunday 8 November.
The deadline for uploading abstracts for the EAEPE Conference 2009
is on the 1st of May.
Please visit the eaepe website
www.eaepe.org.
41st UK History of Economic Thought
Conference
University of Manchester (Chancellors Hotel and Conference Centre),
2-4 September 2009.
FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS
Abstracts (not exceeding 500 words) should be submitted to the
conference organiser (details below) no later than 18 May. Accepted
papers will be required for posting on the (forthcoming) conference
website by 1 August. For those unfamiliar with the UK conference,
each paper is allotted approximately 45 minutes for presentation and
discussion. Contributions are welcome on all aspects of history of
economic thought (including methodology), from all perspectives.
Further details of the conference will be made available on the
conference website, scheduled to be online in early May.
Terry Peach
Conference Organiser
Terry.Peach@manchester.ac.uk
Top
Conferences, Seminars
and Lectures
The Centre of Full Employment and
Equity (CofFEE)
The Centre of Full Employment and Equity (CofFEE) will be holding a
series of FREE public policy lectures on the Global Financial Crisis
during May 2009, in Newcastle, Australia.
Click
here for detailed information.
Training in Qualitative Comparative
Analysis
On June 8th, 2009, Wendy Olsen will offer training in Qualitative
Comparative Analysis at Manchester. There is a fee for most
participants. The course helps with systematically organised
case-wise comparison of case-study material. NVIVO is the working
software for the course but no prior knowledge is required. You can
also do QCA with spreadsheet support and/or with semi-structured
interview material. All welcome. See details on Short Course link of
www.ccsr.ac.uk The
training is 10-4 pm.
Association of Heterodox Economics
funded post graduate workshop on advanced research methods
8th-9th July 2009
Kingston University
London, U.K.
There are funded places available for UK registered PhD students to
cover UK travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses for the
above event. The workshop covers topics in research not typically
covered in economics training.
Workshop topics include:
- Reorienting economics to match method with social material
- Open system methodology in Economics
- Grounded theory in Economics
- Mixing quantitative and qualitative data
- Qualitative data analysis
Speakers:
Dr Paul Downward- Loughborough University
Professor Fred Lee- University of Missouri – Kansas City
Dr Ioana Negru- Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
Dr Wendy Olsen- The Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey
Research, Manchester University
Further details (deadline for applications 18th May, 2009)
For information on how to apply, and for further details, please
contact
Dr Andrew Mearman Email.
Andrew.Mearman@uwe.ac.uk
Bristol Business School
University of the West of England
BS16 1QY U.K.
The Financial Institutions and
Economic Security
Regent's Park Conference Centre, London, UK
May 21-22, 2009
Conference Organizers:
William Lazonick, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Mariana Mazzucato, The Open University
OVERVIEW:
The purpose of the Financial Institutions and Economic Security
project is to delve into the role of financial institutions in
supporting or undermining economic security in the advanced nations
of the West, and the implications for industrial innovation and
economic performance. At a conference to be held in London on 21-22
May, 2009, we will consider the influence of financial institutions
on employment security, retirement security, and housing security,
as well as the interrelations among these forms of economic security
in North America and Europe. Besides creating a forum for debating
these issues, we expect that the conference will generate a
published volume as well as an agenda and working group for further
research.
The conference is being sponsored by the Centre for Innovation,
Knowledge and Development of The Open University.
FURTHER INFORMATION/REGISTRATION:
For details, including the conference programme, see the FI&ES
website at:
http://www.open.ac.uk/ikd/events/financial-institutions-and-economic-security/
There is no charge for registration, but the number of attendees is
limited. To register for the conference, or for further information,
please contact:
CONTACT: Lynda Lynn
Email: l.lynn@open.ac.uk
Feelbad Britain: How to make it
better
You are invited to a meeting to mark the publication of Feelbad
Britain: How to make it better
edited by Pat Devine, Andrew Pearmain and David Purdy
ISBN 9781905007936 250 pages £14.99 April 2009
Lawrence & Wishart
info@lwbooks.co.uk
www.lwbooks.co.uk
This book has been written as an attempt to apply the insights and
experience of several political lifetimes to the history of the past
thirty years – an era characterised, above all, by the ascendancy of
neoliberalism, both as a general world-view and as an approach to
public policy.
The central thesis of Feelbad Britain is that after the decades of
neoliberalism the institutions and social relations on which
solidarity, trust and citizenship depend have been undermined. This
has left contemporary British society in a troubled and
dysfunctional state, without the cohesion or confidence needed if we
are to escape from recession, combat climate change and restore
faith in government.
The authors put forward a theoretical framework for understanding
contemporary politics; and they consider what is to be done to
revitalise the British left, challenge neoliberal hegemony, and
develop a political project aimed at creating a greener, fairer,
happier, more democratic and less divided Britain.
Contributors
Patrick Ainley, Martin Allen, David Beetham, Noel Castree, Pat
Devine, Angela McRobbie, Linda Patterson, Andrew Pearmain, Michael
Prior, David Purdy, Kate Soper
Wednesday April 29
6.00-7.30
Blackwell’s Bookshop
The Precinct Centre
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9RN
Speakers
- Pat Devine (co-editor) Honorary Research Fellow, Social Science,
University of Manchester
- Jules Townshend (discussant) Professor of Politics, Manchester
Metropolitan University
The Green Economics Institute
The Green Economics Institute
is pleased to announce that it is running an introductory training
course in Green Economics on May 16th 2009 at The Old Music Hall in
Oxford.
Everyone is very welcome. No prior knowledge of economics is needed
to be able to enjoy this course- which has lecturers from and with
experience of several continents, including Europe and Asia with an
emphasis on Africa.
The course will explore green solutions to the economic downturn, to
climate change and to the current mass extinction of species. It
will also focus on prevention of poverty and also poverty as a
gendered issue especially in the context of Africa and will feedback
from the important women's unequal pay and poverty conference just
held in March by the Green Economics Institute.
The course is designed to introduce participants to some of the
major themes in economics and in the development of green economics
and some of the main theories and writers and practitioners. It is
designed to help them to share their own experiences and to be
confident in dealing with economics, and economists and economics
techniques in their future activities of all kinds.
It will appeal to government officials, business people, campaigners
and NGOs and academics in all sorts of fields. We take a wide
holistic and multidisciplinary approach to the practise and theory
and implementation of economics.
The course is participatory, and will include case studies, and
lectures and workshop. The material and course has been run in a
variety of countries and situations as varied as at Oxford
University, in Poland, in Germany, and also in the open air in
fields and tents.
If you would like to come along please pre register and fill in the
booking form attached.
Conference on 21st
Century Keynesian Economics
Date: 8 May 2009
Location : School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Room G3
Programme
10.45: Welcome and Introduction
11.00 – 12.30am
Mike Kitson: Keynesian Theory in the 21st Century
Amitava Dutt: Keynesian Growth Theory in the 21st Century
12.30 – 2.00pm: Lunch
2.00 - 3.30pm:
Ilene Grabel: Financial Systems and Economic Development in the 21st
Century: Are we all Keynesians Yet?
Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer: 21st Keynesian Economic Policy
3.30- 4.00pm Coffee
4.00 – 6.00pm
Costas Lapavitsas: Financial Regulation: Does Keynesian Economics
Offer Radical Alternatives?
Eckhard Hein: A Keynesian Perspective on Financialisation
Terry Barker: Endogenous Money in 21st Century Keynesian Economics
The 2nd Mecpoc Symposium
Franklin College Switzerland is hosting the 2nd Mecpoc Symposium
sponsored by the Mosler Economic Policy Center.
Lessons from the Global Crisis: A New Paradigm?
When: 14:30 Tuesday April 21, 2009
Where: Franklin Auditorium
http://www.mecpoc.org/2009/03/29/2nd-mecpoc-symposium/
Seminar Series in Radical Political
Thought
EUROPEAN STUDIES RESEARCH INSTITUTE (ESRI)
Centre for Contemporary History & Politics
Friday 24th April 2009
Migration Scenarios and State Theory, or: The State
of African Health and the Health of African States
Andrew Lawrence (University of Edinburgh)
Room 103, Crescent House 1-3pm
Friday 1st May 2009
The World Revolution of 20XX
(4th Annual May Day Lecture)
Christopher Chase-Dunn (University of California, Riverside)
Room 103, Crescent House 1-3pm
Wednesday 20th May 2009
Globalization and the Transnationalization
of the Higher Education Industry
Clyde W. Barrow (University of Massachusetts)
Room 103, Crescent House 4-6pm
The Ethical Critique of Capitalism
International Socialism journal seminar:
Paul Blackledge on The Ethical Critique of Capitalism
Paul Blackledge, author of Reflections on the Marxist Theory of
History and co-editor of a recent collection of writings by Alisdair
MacIntyre, will be presenting the latest in our series of seminars.
He will speak on “The Ethical Critique of Capitalism”. As background
to this talk, those planning to attend may wish to read Paul’s
recent article on Marxism and ethics, published in International
Socialism 120 and available online: www.isj.org.uk/?id=486
6.30pm, Friday 1 May. King’s College London, the Strand. Room 1B06
MAP
Room 1B06 is in the “first basement”. Enter via the main entrance on
The Strand and take either the stairs on your left of the lift to
level B1.
For more information phone 020 7819 1177 or email
isj@swp.org.uk
Joseph Choonara
[josephc@swp.org.uk]
Feelbad Britain:
How to make it better
edited by Pat Devine, Andrew Pearmain and David Purdy
published by Lawrence & Wishart (
www.lwbooks.co.uk )
This book has been written as an attempt to apply the insights and
experience of several political lifetimes to the history of the past
thirty years – an era characterised, above all, by the ascendancy of
neoliberalism, both as a general world-view and as an approach to
public policy.
The central thesis of Feelbad Britain is that after the decades of
neoliberalism the institutions and social relations on which
solidarity, trust and citizenship depend have been undermined. This
has left contemporary British society in a troubled and
dysfunctional state, without the cohesion or confidence needed if we
are to escape from recession, combat climate change and restore
faith in government.
The authors put forward a theoretical framework for understanding
contemporary politics; and they consider what is to be done to
revitalise the British left, challenge neoliberal hegemony, and
develop a political project aimed at creating a greener, fairer,
happier, more democratic and less divided Britain.
Contributors The editors, plus Patrick Ainley, Martin Allen, David
Beetham, Noel Castree, Angela McRobbie, Linda Patterson, Michael
Prior, Kate Soper
Wednesday May 6 6.45-9.00
Staff Café (Tower Building)
London Metropolitan University
166-220 Holloway Road
London N7 8DB
Refreshments will be available
Speakers
- Pat Devine (co-editor) Honorary Research Fellow, Social Science,
University of Manchester
- Angela McRobbie (author) Professor of Communications, Goldsmiths,
University of London
- Kate Soper (author) Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, Institute
for the Study of European Transformations, London Metropolitan
University
- Martin Jacques (commentator) Author, columnist for the Guardian
and New Statesman
Top
Job Postings for
Heterodox Economists
University of Glasgow
The Department of Economics invites applications for a Lectureship
in Development Economics
Ref: 00015-2
Salary: £31,513 - £44,930 p.a.
Candidates should have a proven research record and/or potential for
publication combined with enthusiasm for teaching.
The successful candidates will join a department with a highly-rated
international research profile and a large population of
undergraduate, postgraduate taught and research students. In the
Research Assessment Exercise, 25% of the research work of staff was
rated as ‘world leading’, 50% as ‘internationally excellent’ and 25%
as ‘recognised internationally’. The department attracts
approximately 160 Masters students each year and currently
supervises more than 40 PhD students.
Further information:
Prospective candidates seeking further information may contact the
Head of Department, Dr Alberto Paloni -
a.paloni@lbss.gla.ac.uk
; tel: +44 (0)141 330 4618.
Applications:
Applications for this position can be made on-line at
www.gla.ac.uk/jobs. If
you are unable to apply on-line, please contact Human Resources on
0141 330 3898 for an application pack.
Closing date for applications: Friday, 1 May 2009.
Top
Heterodox Conference Papers and Reports and Articles
An agenda for social democracy
Authored by:
Professor John Quiggin
Australian Research Council Federation Fellow
School of Economics and School of Political Science and
International Studies
University of Queensland
John Quiggin is a Federation Fellow in Economics and Political
Science at the University of Queensland. He is prominent both as a
research economist and as a commentator on Australian economic
policy. He has produced over 1000 publications, including five books
and over 300 journal articles and book chapters, in fields including
environmental economics, risk analysis, production economics, and
the theory of economic growth. He has also written on policy topics
including climate change, micro-economic reform, privatisation,
employment policy and the management of the Murray-Darling river
system.
Click
here to download the flyer.
SOAS Research on Money and Finance
Discussion Papers
We are pleased to announce the launch of the Research on Money and
Finance Discussion Papers series, available at
http://www.soas.ac.uk/rmf/papers/.
The series invites discussion papers that may be in political
economy, heterodox economics, and economic sociology. We welcome
theoretical and empirical analysis without preference for particular
topics. Our aim is to accumulate a body of work that provides
insight into the development of contemporary capitalism. We also
welcome literature reviews and critical analyses of mainstream
economics provided they have a bearing on economic and social
development. Submissions are refereed by a panel of three.
Publication in the RMF series does not preclude submission to
journals. However, authors are encouraged independently to check
journal policy.
Costas Lapavitsas [cl5@soas.ac.uk]
Recent Rise in Federal Government and
Federal Reserve Liabilities: Antidote to a Speculative Hangover
Dimitri B. Papadimitriou and Greg Hannsgen
Recent Federal Reserve (Fed) flow-of-funds data show a sharp rise in
federal government and Fed liabilities. President Dimitri B.
Papadimitriou and Research Scholar Greg Hannsgen examine the holders
of these new liabilities and outline the likely effects of these
debts on the U.S. economy. They dispel concerns that the surge in
government liabilities (especially money) will cause a large
increase in inflation, and focus on the badly needed improvement of
private sector balance sheets, which will take some time to rebuild.
And since default on debts that are backed by the full faith and
credit of the United States is virtually impossible, these assets
are safe (many U.S. sectors, as well as China, have been buying
Treasuries). Moreover, increased deficits and their impact on
balance sheets will eventually help stabilize the U.S. economy.
http://www.levy.org/vdoc.aspx?docid=1140
It’s That “Vision” Thing: Why the
Bailouts Aren’t Working, and Why a New Financial System Is Needed
Jan Kregel
The Federal Reserve’s response to the current financial crisis has
been praised because it introduced a zero interest rate policy more
rapidly than the Bank of Japan (during the Japanese crisis of the
1990s) and embraced massive “quantitative easing.” However, despite
vast capital injections, the banking system is not lending in
support of the private sector.
Senior Scholar Jan Kregel compares the situation today with the
1930s and finds an absence of “New Deal” measures and institutions
in the current rescue packages. The lessons of the Great Depression
suggest that any successful policy requires fundamental structural
reform, an understanding of how the financial system failed, and the
introduction of a new financial structure (in a short space of time)
that is designed to correct these failures. Today’s economic crisis
could have been avoided if increased household consumption had been
financed through wage increases, and if financial institutions had
used their earnings to augment bank capital rather than bonuses.
http://www.levy.org/vdoc.aspx?docid=1135
A “People First” Strategy: Credit
Cannot Flow When There Are No Creditworthy Borrowers or Profitable
Projects
James K. Galbraith
We are in the shadow of catastrophe and at the beginning of a long,
profound, painful, and irreversible process of change, says Senior
Scholar James K. Galbraith. We need to come to grips with the
crisis, fast, but two ingrained habits are leading to our failure to
do so: the assumption that economies will eventually return to
normal on their own, and the belief that recovery runs through the
banks rather than around them.
Galbraith suggests the following measures, all of which are needed
now: make economic forecasts realistic, audit banks more honestly,
introduce effective financial regulation, keep people in their
homes, and increase public retirement benefits.
http://www.levy.org/vdoc.aspx?docid=1129
What Role for Central Banks in View
of the Current Crisis?
Philip Arestis and Elias Karakitsos
Rather than bailing out speculators, careless investors, and banks,
the authors’ new policy initiative recommends that central banks
target the net wealth of the personal sector (net wealth is at the
heart of the transmission mechanism between asset prices and debt,
and consumption). A net wealth target would not impede the free
functioning of the financial system. Rather, it would help to
control liquidity and avoid future crises, without interfering with
the financial engineering of banks.
In an asset-led business cycle, a central bank is well advised to
have two targets: inflation and the output gap. In a highly
leveraged economy like the United States that is experiencing a
credit crisis, monetary policy should also include mild wealth
targeting in order to stabilize the economy around potential output.
http://www.levy.org/vdoc.aspx?docid=1127
New Estimates of Economic Inequality
in America, 1959–2004
Ajit Zacharias, Edward N. Wolff, and Thomas Masterson
In this report, the authors present new evidence on the pattern of
economic inequality in the United States. They find that the LIMEW
and two official measures of inequality indicate higher inequality
in 2004 than in 1959. According to the LIMEW, the surge in
inequality between 1989 and 2000 reflects the large increase in
income from wealth for the top rungs of the economic ladder. The
authors’ findings suggest a rather bleak picture for the lower and
middle classes in terms of sharing the economic pie.
According to all measures, base income and income from wealth
contributed positively to the increase in inequality, while net
government expenditures and taxes moderated that increase. The
principal reason for the decline in inequality during the latest
subperiod (2000-04) was the fall in income from nonhome wealth in
response to the bust of the financial markets rather than a
reduction in earnings inequality or changes in government
redistributive policies.
http://www.levy.org/vdoc.aspx?docid=1141
Background
Considerations to a Regulation of the U.S. Financial System: Third
Time a Charm? Or Strike Three?
Jan Kregel
Senior Scholar Jan Kregel reviews the history of U.S. financial
regulation and finds that prudential regulation no longer has a
direct impact on system liquidity, thus eliminating the traditional
transmission mechanism for monetary policy. The Financial
Modernization Act of 1999 resulted in the creation of new capital
market institutions such as hedge funds and private equity funds,
without appropriate regulation. There is no longer any precise
relation between financial institutions and functions, so the first
decision is whether to base reregulation on institutions, functions,
or products.
U.S. legislator and regulator responses to previous financial crises
have not led to sustainable financial stability. The United States
is now facing, for the third time, the choice between a segmented or
a unified banking system. Germany, for example, rejected separation
of commercial and investment banks, and maintained universal banking
without financial crisis.
http://www.levy.org/vdoc.aspx?docid=1125
New Policy Research
from PERI
In collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council, Robert
Pollin and PERI Research Assistant Ben Zipperer have entered into
the cap-and-trade debate. In a series of state fact sheets, they
have evaluated the economic forecasts generated by the American
Council on Capital Formation and the National Association of
Manufacturers (ACCF/NAM). In Pollin and Zipperer's assessment, even
under ACCF/NAM's worst case scenario, a cap-and-trade policy will
have only a minor impact on the performance of the U.S. economy over
time. They apply this scenario to the economies of 29 states, and
demonstrate the degree to which economic vitality and environmental
stewardship can coincide under cap-and trade policies.
There is much more to understand about the economic impacts of any
legislation which puts a price tag on carbon emissions. Watch PERI's
website over the next few months for additional research on this
topic.
Go to the cap-and-trade website to download state fact sheets or the
detailed technical appendix
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=5ERGx&m=1gY_zsAYgG2ETL&b=pYOiMntRnR2_Q_zGs4Bavw
Please join us in demonstrating support for the Employee Free Choice
Act, a potentially powerful tool to fight rising unemployment, wage
inequality and declining living standards for working families. The
PERI website currently hosts a statement by Scholars in Support of
the Employee Free Choice Act, as well as an EFCA resource page.
Since its inception in January, the Scholars' statement has been
signed by over 1,000 academics from around the world. Please add
your name as a signatory, and forward the link widely to colleagues.
Go to the Employee Free Choice Act resource page
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=5ERGx&m=1gY_zsAYgG2ETL&b=bJs0q05XDSUiea8gxLvyVg
Sign on as a Scholar for the Employee Free Choice
Act
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=5ERGx&m=1gY_zsAYgG2ETL&b=kZVhItDvoxmruq8qrW5wdg
For more information, please contact:
Debbie Zeidenberg
Political Economy Research Institute
peri@econs.umass.edu / 413.577.3147
Top
Heterodox Journals and
Newsletters
Le N°3 de la Revue Française de
Socio-Economie sortira en librairie à la mi-avril
Dossier :
Pensée économique et système capitaliste. Usages contemporains de
quelques grands auteurs en économie
Mobiliser les grands auteurs en sciences sociales, un point de vue
épistémologique Richard SOBEL et Bruno TINEL, p. 11
Le visiteur de Genève : Malthus, l'Organisation mondiale du commerce
et l'agriculture Thierry POUCH, p. 17
« Adam Smith Problem » ou problème des sciences sociales ? Détour
par l'anthropologie d'Adam Smith Jean-Daniel BOYER, p. 37
État social, employeur de dernier recours et théorie postkeynésienne
Marc LAVOIE, p. 55
Le mirage du libéralisme hayékien
Philippe LÉGÉ, p. 77
Quatre siècles et demi de New (New) Law & Economics :
du pragmatisme juridique dans le régime consulaire de contrôle
social des marchés Emmanuel LAZEGA, p. 97
Hors-dossier:
Le rôle des réseaux et du marché dans les recrutements.
Enquête auprès des entreprises
Christian BESSY et Emmanuelle MARCHAL, p. 121
La manipulation des documents publicitaires.
Contribution à une sociologie du travail marchand Roland CANU, p.
147
Les jeunes entreprises pionnières face à l'incertitude :
la construction sociale de l'échec
Gerhard KRAUSS, p. 169
Notes et synthèses de recherche p. 187
Revisiter les relations entre pauvreté et éducation Nolwen HENAFF,
Marie-France LANGE, Jean-Yves MARTIN, p. 187
Notes critiques p. 195
François Vatin et Nicole Edelman, Philippe Baudorre, Dominique
Rabaté et Dominique Viart
Usages de la littérature en sciences sociales par Claire PIGNOL, p.
195
Jean-Paul Fitoussi, Eloi Laurent
La nouvelle écologie politique. Économie et développement humain par
Florence JANY-CATRICE, p. 198
Comptes rendus d'ouvrages p. 202
Isabelle Bruno - À vos marques, prêts... cherchez ! La stratégie de
Lisbonne, vers un marché de la recherche ?
Hélène DUCOURANT, p. 202
Axel Honneth - La société du mépris. Vers une nouvelle théorie
critique Sandrine ROUSSEAU, p. 203
Marie-Claude Blais - La solidarité, histoire d'une idée Anne FRETEL,
p. 203
Cécile Caron et Gérald Gaglio - L'organisation à l'épreuve.
Autour du temps, de la sociabilité, de la rationalité et du métier
Olivier MAZADE, p. 205
Edwin Le Héron et Philippe Moutot -
Les banques centrales doivent-elles être indépendantes ?
Jordan MELMIÈS et Thomas DALLERY, p. 208
Serge Paugam, Nicolas Duvoux - La régulation des pauvres Jacques
RODRIGUEZ, p. 209
The European Journal of the History
of Economic Thought
Volume 16 Issue 1 is now available online at informaworld
( http://www.informaworld.com
).
This new issue contains the following articles:
The enigmatic Mr Graslin. A Rousseauist bedrock for classical
economics?
Author: Gilbert Faccarello
Adam Smith's theory of economic history and economic development
Author: Kwangsu Kim
Hunting a precursor: The limits of Mountifort Longfield on utility
and value
Author: Michael V. White
Work in utopia: Pro-work sentiments in the writings of four critics
of classical economics
Author: David A. Spencer
‘Our daily bread’: Maurice Potron, from Catholicism to mathematical
economics
Authors: Christian Bidard; Guido Erreygers; Wilfried Parys
On the origin and rise of central bank independence in West Germany
Author: Jörg Bibow
Book reviews
Authors: Hans-Jürgen Wagener; Monika Streissler; Loïc Charles; Ryuzo
Kuroki; Erich W. Streissler
Ethical Economics Support
The latest April 2009 issue of AIRLEAP's newsletter, Ethical
Economics Support, is now published on the Web - please check it out
at
http://www.airleap.org/NewsLetters/newsletter090410.pdf.
Forum for Social Economics
2009, Volume 38, Issue 1
Table of Contents
- The Social Economics of Neoliberal Globalization
James Stanfield & Michael Carroll
- Widening the Economic Approach to Hatred
Samuel Cameron
- Primitive and Modern Economics: Derivatives, Liquidity, Value,
Panic and Crises, A Uniformitarian View
Niccolo Caldararo
- Concordian Economics: Tools to Return Relevance to Economics
Carmine Gorga
- Comment on “What is Heterodox Economics? Conversations with
Historians of Economic Thought”
D. Meador
- Response to the Comment: “What is Heterodox Economics?
Conversations with Historians of Economic Thought”
Mary Wrenn
- Justifying Human Rights: Economics and the Individual
John Davis.
Journal of Post Keynesian Economics
Volume 31 Number 3 / Spring 2009 of Journal of Post Keynesian
Economics is now available at
http://mesharpe.metapress.com.
This issue contains:
- Where Bernanke is taking the Federal Reserve: a Post Keynesian and
institutionalist perspective
J. Patrick Raines, Heather R. Richardson, Charles G. Leathers
- A Post Keynesian theory of economic policy—filling a void
Arne Heise
- Convergence and efficiency: evidence from the EU-15
Evangelia Desli
- How bad is divergence in the euro zone? Lessons from the United
States and Germany
Sebastian Dullien, Ulrich Fritsche
- Is the composition of public expenditures converging in EMU
countries?
Jesus Ferreiro, M. Teresa Garcia-Del-Valle, Carmen Gomez
- Taylor and Keynesian monetary policy rules
H. Sonmez Atesoglu
- The two methods and the hard core of economics
Luiz Carlos Breser-Pereira
- Three difficulties with neo-chartalism
Eladio Febrero
International Journal of Political
Economy
Volume 37 Number 4 / Winter 2008-9 of International Journal of
Political Economy is now available at
http://mesharpe.metapress.com.
This issue contains:
- Editor's Introduction: Financial Flows and Exchange Rate Movement
in the Global Economy
Mario Seccareccia
- Insuring Against Private Capital Flows: Is It Worth the Premium?
What Are the Alternatives?
Jörg Bibow
- Has Capital Account Liberalization in Latin American Countries Led
to Higher and More Stable Capital Inflows?
Jesus Ferreiro, Eugenia Correa, Carmen Gomez
- The Decline of the Exchange Rate Pass-Through in Brazil:
Explaining the "Fear of Floating"
Carlos Eduardo Schönerwald da Silva, Matías Vernengo
- The Effects of External Capital Flows on Developing Countries:
Financial Instability or "Wrong" Prices?
Noemi Levy Orlik
- Author Index to International Journal of Political Economy Volume
37 (Spring 2008-Winter 2008-9)
Top
Heterodox
Books and Book Series
Introducing
Macroeconomic Analysis: Competing Views
Edited by Hassan Bougrine and Mario Seccareccia
In this very timely and affordable book, 13 central macroeconomic
questions are debated, in accessible language, by a line-up of
respected economists from Canada and beyond. This is an ideal
resource for courses at the introductory and intermediate levels.
Contributors: William Watson, Robert Prasch, David Andolfatto, John
Smithin, Ronald G. Bodkin, William Scarth, Jim Stanford, Pierre
Fortin, Marc Lavoie, Niels Veldhuis, Nick Rowe, Louis-Philippe
Rochon, Jack Galbraith, Edwin Le Heron, David Gray, L. Randall Wray,
Eugene Beaulieu, Ricardo Grinspun, Lawrence L. Schembri, Eric Santor,
Gerald Epstein, Thomas Courchene, Matias Vernengo, Dominick
Salvatore, Manfred Bienefeld.
Table of contents:
www.emp.ca/macro.
To view online page proofs or to order a review copy for your
course, please contact me at
mthompson@emp.ca or 416-975-3925 ext. 242 (toll free
1-888-837-0815)
Let Them Eat Junk: How Capitalism
Creates Hunger and Obesity
Arbeiter Ring Publishing is pleased to announce the release of
Let Them Eat Junk: How Capitalism Creates Hunger and Obesity by
Robert Albritton
Why are half the people in the world malnourished, while so many in
the West are over-fed? Capitalism may promise cheap, nutritious food
for all, but it has failed to deliver on that promise. This is the
first book to explore the economics of our food system, and to
explain why a quarter of the world's population go hungry despite
the fact that enough food is produced worldwide to feed us all.
Political economist Robert Albritton gives a refreshingly detailed
explanation of the worldwide food crisis. He analyses the economic
conditions that create a simultaneous oversupply and undersupply of
food, and the massive implications they have for human health
worldwide.
"[This book] pulls no punches in its analysis. ... To understand how
starvation and obesity can coexist in the same populations, follow
the flow of capital. Everyone who cares about food equity and the
preservation of democracy should read this book."--Marion Nestle,
Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public
Health, New York University
"Marx understood the dynamics of the current food crisis over a
century ago. Robert Albritton has written a fine primer, bridging
the best thinking of the nineteenth century to the urgent needs of
the twenty-first."--Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved
Available through
Arbeiter Ring Publishing (
info@arbeiterring.com ) Literary Press Group (
orders@litdistco.ca ) and
Amazon.ca
$21.95
260 pp
8.46 x 5.3 x 0.75
1-894037-38-3
978-1894037-38-9
visit www.arbeiterring.com
for more details
The Political Economy of Consumer
Behavior: Contesting Consumption
(Routledge Advances in Social Economics)
Bruce Pietrykowski, Professor of Economics and Director of Urban and
Regional Studies at the University of Michigan-Dearborn
http://www.routledgeeconomics.com/books/The-Political-Economy-of-Consumer-Behavior-isbn9780415773126
In this book the author presents an alternative account of
consumption activity. The groundwork for this alternative
perspective lies in past economics research deemed unacceptable,
incompatible, disruptive, threatening, marginal or foreign to the
mainstream. By exploring these roads not taken we can re-position
historical texts and discourses, provide new readings and
interpretations, and re-evaluate claims, data, theories and methods
in a new light. These perspectives also form the, often
unacknowledged, basis of contemporary scholarship in feminist,
behavioral and radical political economics. Reinterpreting this work
in terms of the social relations of consumption, power and
resistance greatly enlarges the scope for contemporary research in
consumer behavior. The book includes a set of case studies of green
automobility, slow food and alternative/community currency in order
to explore the diversity of user cultures and to highlight resistant
forms of consumer practice. This careful interweaving of historical
and interdisciplinary research results in a lively and incisive
critique of mainstream economics.
Table of Contents: 1. Consumption Matters 2. Economic Knowledge:
Boundary-Keeping and Border Crossing 3. Economic Knowledge and
Consumer Behavior: Home Economics and Feminist Analysis 4.
Psychology And Economics: Max Wertheimer, Gestalt Theory and George
Katona 5. Fordism and the Social Relations Of Consumption 6. Green
Consumption and User Culture: The Case of the Toyota Prius 7. Slow
Food: The Politics and Pleasure of Consumption 8. Consuming with
Alternative Currency 9. Consuming For Social Change: Ethical and
Political Consumption. References
Victorian Investments
New Perspectives on Finance and Culture
Edited by Nancy Henry, Binghamton University (SUNY), & Cannon
Schmitt, University of Toronto
Victorian Investments explores the relationship between the
financial system in Great Britain and other aspects of Victorian
society and culture. Building on the special journal issue of
Victorian Studies devoted to Victorian investments, this volume is
the first to define an interdisciplinary field of study emerging in
the space between Marxist critiques of capitalism and traditional
histories of business and economics. The contributors demonstrate
how phenomena such as the expansion of colonial and foreign markets,
the broadening of the investor base through the advent of limited
liability, and the rise of financial journalism gave rise to a
"culture of investment" that affected Victorian Britons at every
level of society and influenced every kind of cultural production.
Drawing together work by prominent historians as well as literary
and cultural critics, Victorian Investments both defines the
methodologies and perspectives that characterize an existing body of
scholarship and pushes that scholarship in new directions,
demonstrating the signal role of economic developments in Victorian
culture and society.
INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS
March 2009 272pp £18.99 PB: 9780253220271
Two Bits
The Cultural Significance of Free Software
By Christopher M Kelty, Rice University
“I know of no other book that mixes so beautifully a deep
theoretical understanding of social theory with a rich historical
and contemporary ethnography of the Free Software and free culture
movements. Christopher M. Kelty’s book speaks to many audiences; his
message should be understood by many more.”—Lawrence Lessig,
Stanford Law School
“Two Bits describes the way those who work and play with Free
Software themselves change in the process—engendering what Kelty
calls ‘recursive publics’—social configurations that realize the
Internet’s non-hierarchical, ever-evolving, and thus historically
attuned logic, creatively updating the types of public spheres
previously theorized by Habermas and Michael Warner, among others.
Two Bits does something similar, pulling readers into an
experimental (ethnographic) mode that draws out how Open Source
movements have garnered the momentum and significance they have
today. The book—on paper and online—quite literally shows how it is
done, itself embodying the standards that make Free Software work.
Two Bits is critical reading, in all senses.”—Kim Fortun, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute
“Just occasionally, you come across a book that reflects part of
your own life and experience in a way that makes you stop and say:
“Yes, that is the way I remember it happening.” This is one such
book...The voice of the book captures the familiar uncertainties,
complexities and challenges of the time particularly well... a
closely argued, well-defended, painstakingly referenced treatise
covering one of the most complex, and possibly least understood,
cultural movements of recent decades...I had never expected to enjoy
a book that delved so deeply into the writing of software licences
...but I did...Kelty succeeds in delivering a book that is
academically sound, thoroughly researched and deeply engaging...a
very significant book that succeeds in capturing the essence of a
period of huge change...Kelty’s solidly focused text offers an
effective roadmap for the deeply convoluted raw material that
defines this period – providing a detailed, and well crafted,
reference for future investigators.”-John Gilbey, Times Higher
Education, 21st August 2008
DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Aug 2008 368pp £17.99 PB: 9780822342649
Monetary Policy And Financial
Stability
A Post-Keynesian Agenda
Edited by Claude Gnos, Associate Professor, Université de Bourgogne,
Dijon, France and Louis-Philippe Rochon, Associate Professor,
Laurentian University, Sudbury, Canada
http://www.e-elgar.co.uk/Bookentry_contents.lasso?id=13256
Contents:
Introduction
Claude Gnos and Louis-Philippe Rochon
PART I: MONETARY AND MACROECONOMIC POLICY
1. Wage Bargaining and Monetary Policy in a Kaleckian Monetary
Distribution and Growth Model: Making Sense of the NAIRU
Eckhard Hein
2. Price and Wage Determination and the Inflation Barrier: Moving
Beyond the Phillips’ Curve
Philip Arestis and Malcolm Sawyer
3. Manuscript: Central Bank Governance, the Euthanasia of the
Rentier and Interest Rate Policy: A Note on post-Keynesian Monetary
Policy after Taylor
Louis-Philippe Rochon
4. The Macroeconomic Governance of the European Monetary Union: A
Keynesian Perspective
Angel Asensio
5. Inflation Targeting and Monetary Policy Governance: The Case of
the European Central Bank
Sergio Rossi
PART II: MACROECONOMIC POLICY AND THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
6. Enforcing the IMF in the Global Economy: An Institutional
Analysis
Jean-Pierre Allegret and Philippe Dulbecco
7. Too Much Consensus Could Be Harmful: Assessing the Degree of
Implementation of Stabilization and Structural Policies and their
Impact on Growth
Eric Berr, François Combarnous and Eric Rougier
8. The Political Economy of Global Economic Disgovernance
Luiz Carlos Bresser-Pereira
9. Tobin, Globalization and Capital Flows
Robert W. Dimand
10. The Impact of FDI on Capital Formation: The Case of Mexico
Claudia Maya
11. Financial Liberalization, Economic Growth and Rents
Domenica Tropeano
12. The Argentine Jefes Program: From a Post-Financial Crisis
Emergency Safety Net to a Long-Run Policy Promoting Development
Corinne Pastoret
The Food Wars
by Walden Bello
http://www.versobooks.com/books/ab/b-titles/bello_walden_the_food_wars.shtml
Crucial analysis of how the West created the global food crisis
The hike in global food prices has pushed hundreds of millions more
people into poverty, and sparked riots and protests in the Middle
East, Africa and the Americas. Walden Bello, the leading writer and
activist on the global South, provides a penetrating analysis of the
various causes: not just the rise in energy costs, but also the IMF
and WTO-led restructuring of the worldwide agricultural system.
Charting the evolution of the current crisis, Bello also offers a
way forward: the principle of food sovereignty, allowing the
developing world to protect and sustain a diverse range of crops.
The Food Wars is an impassioned, informed and constructive account
of a critical turning point in the system of global trade.
“Walden Bello is the world’s leading no-nonsense revolutionary.” —
Naomi Klein
“An authentic hero of the global justice movement & thoughtful,
trenchant, and constructive.” — Susan George
“Walden Bello is the world’s best guide to American exploitation of
the globe’s poor and defenceless … He directly challenges the
propaganda and the policies of the Washington establishment with an
analysis that is both original and persuasive.” — Chalmers Johnson
“Walden Bello is recognized as one of the leading global analysts &
A must-read for scholars, activists, and global citizens.” — Phyllis
Bennis
Walden Bello is a political activist and Professor of Sociology at
Binghamton University and at the University of the Philippines in
Manila. He is also the founding director of Focus on the Global
South, a policy research institute based in Bangkok. In March 2008
he was named Outstanding Public Scholar for 2008 by the
International Studies Association.
Introduction to Marx’s Capital
by David harvey
http://www.versobooks.com/books/ghij/h-titles/harvey_david_introduction_to_capital.shtml
The radical geographer guides us through the classic text of
political economy
For nearly forty years, David Harvey has taught and lectured on
Marx’s Capital. In this book he draws on his rich knowledge of the
text to create a step-by-step guide to the most important and
influential study of capitalism. Aimed to guide first-time readers
through a dense and complicated as well as a rich and fascinating
text, the book offers fresh, original and sometimes critical
interpretations of Marx’s most famous work.
The contemporary relevance of Capital to understanding the state of
contemporary capitalism shines through in every chapter, making this
a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the world today
and its crises.
“Harvey is a scholarly radical; his writing is free of journalistic
clichés, full of facts and carefully thought-through ideas.” —
Richard Sennett
Praise for The New Imperialism
“David Harvey is a social theorist known for a cool, analytical
style born of interdisciplinary inquiry, coupled with a keen feeling
for political significance.” — The Boston Phoenix
“Navigating effortlessly between history, economics, geography and
politics, with persuasive argument and lucid prose, David Harvey
places today’s headlines in context and makes sense of the early
twenty-first-century maelstrom we’re all caught up in. His concept
of accumulation by dispossession will go far. The New Imperialism is
a truly useful book.” — Susan George
Praise for Limits to Capital
“A magisterial work.” — Fredric Jameson
David Harvey teaches at the Graduate Center of the City University
of New York and is the author of many books, including Social
Justice and the City, The Condition of Postmodernity, The Limits to
Capital, A Brief History of Neoliberalism and, most recently, Spaces
of Global Capitalism: Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical
Development
Meltdown: The End of the Age of Greed
by Paul Mason
http://www.versobooks.com/books/klm/m-titles/mason_paul_meltdown.shtml
A gripping account of the global financial collapse by BBC economics
editor
Meltdown tells the story of the financial crash that destroyed
America’s investment banks, pushed the global economy toward a major
recession, and began to undermine three decades of neoliberal
orthodoxy. BBC journalist Paul Mason explores the roots of financial
hubris, documenting the real world causes and consequences, from the
Ford factory to Wall Street. In response to this challenge to the
reigning ideology, he outlines a new era of hyper-regulated
capitalism that could emerge from the wreckage.
Praise for Live Working, Die Fighting
“This is microhistorical writing at its best.” — Walden Bello
“Brilliantly conceived and beautifully written book ... [Mason] has
found a way to make his book vividly accessible ... without
compromising its intellectual force.” — Guardian
Paul Mason is the economics editor of BBC Newsnight and has covered
globalization and social justice stories from locations across the
world, including Latin America, Africa and China. His previous book,
Live Working, Die Fighting, was longlisted for the Guardian First
Book Award. His blog, Idle Scrawl, chronicles the unfolding
financial crisis.
The Ecological Revolution
Making Peace With The Planet
by John Bellamy Foster
TO ORDER,
Click Here, or call 800.670.9499
“In this time of growing ecological and economic crisis, John
Bellamy Foster’s voice stands out like no other. In his new book,
The Ecological Revolution, he demonstrates that questions of ecology
cannot be separated from questions of economics, and that building a
truly sustainable future means putting people and the planet before
profit.”
—Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States
“Foster is the most systematic thinker on red-green politics writing
today—and he is quite clear about What is to be done! In these
essays, he applies Marx’s theory of metabolic rift to elucidate a
variety of contexts—the Pentagon’s pursuit of oil, neoliberalism and
the Jo’burg Manifesto, the poverty of contemporary sociology,
imperialism and ecological debt, critique of the New Sustainability
Paradigm—all the while keeping his synthesis of historical
scholarship, natural scientific detail, and Marxist theory readily
accessible to a wide readership. Here is reason and discipline
driven by passion and care.”
—Ariel Salleh, Research Associate in Political Economy at the
University of Sydney,
author of Ecofeminism as Politics and co-editor of the journal
Capitalism Nature Socialism
“In The Ecological Revolution, John Bellamy Foster rightly shows the
inadequacy of the technological approaches to which the capitalist
response to the ecological crisis is limited, raising the question
of a wider revolution in ecology and community. In the process he
puts to rest the widely held assumption that Marx and Marxists have
little to contribute on the ecological crisis. His book demonstrates
that Marx addressed the ecological issues with keen insight and that
the historical materialist ecological tradition is alive and
relevant today.”
—John B. Cobb, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Claremont School of
Theology,
coauthor with Herman Daly of For the Common Good: Redirecting the
Economy Toward Community, The Environment, and a Sustainable Future
“For fifteen years, in the books The Vulnerable Planet, Marx’s
Ecology, and Ecology Against Capitalism, Foster has warned us of
capitalist ecological catastrophe. With accessibility, grace and a
powerful intellectual punch, this new collection tackles the
neoconservative petro-military complex of the Bush years sandwiched
between Clinton-Gore-Obama’s pernicious eco-neoliberalism. Foster’s
searing denunciations of environmental commodification give us
confidence to fight bourgeois economic ideology—from the likes of
Thomas Friedman, William Nordhaus, Larry Summers, and Nick Stern—and
to demand an eco-socialist future.”
—Patrick Bond, senior professor of development studies,
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban
Since the atomic bomb made its first appearance on the world stage
in 1945, it has been clear that we possess the power to destroy our
own planet. What nuclear weapons made possible, global environmental
crisis, marked especially by global warming, has now made
inevitable—if business as usual continues.
The roots of the present ecological crisis, John Bellamy Foster
argues in The Ecological Revolution, lie in capital’s rapacious
expansion, which has now achieved unprecedented heights of
irrationality across the globe. Foster compellingly demonstrates
that the only possible answer for humanity is an ecological
revolution: a struggle to make peace with the planet. Foster details
the beginnings of such a revolution in human relations with the
environment which can now be found throughout the globe, especially
in the periphery of the world system, where the most ambitious
experiments are taking place.
This bold new work addresses the central issues of the present
crisis: global warming, peak oil, species extinction, world water
shortages, global hunger, alternative energy sources, sustainable
development, and environmental justice. Foster draws on a unique
range of thinkers, including Karl Marx, Thomas Malthus, William
Morris, Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, Rachel Carson, Vandana
Shiva, and István Mészáros. The result is a startlingly radical
synthesis, which offers new hope for grappling with the greatest
challenge of our age: what must be done to save the earth for
humanity and all living species.
John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review. He is professor of
sociology at the University of Oregon and author of The Great
Financial Crisis (with Fred Magdoff), Critique of Intelligent Design
(with Brett Clark and Richard York), Naked Imperialism, Ecology
Against Capitalism, Marx’s Ecology, The Vulnerable Planet, and The
Theory of Monopoly Capitalism.
Nature, Social
Relations and Human Needs
Essays in Honour of Ted Benton
Edited by Sandra Moog and Rob Stones
Bringing together some of the most eminent thinkers in the field,
this book celebrates the seminal contribution of Ted Benton to the
pressing themes of nature, social relations and human needs. An
introductory overview of the writings of Ted Benton focuses on the
subtle ways in which he has combined the concerns of biology and
sociology, and more broadly, the life sciences and social
sciences.
Click here
for detailed information and the order form.
REVUE FRANÇAISE
DE SOCIO-ÉCONOMIE
ÉDITIONS LA DÉCOUVERTE
PREMIER
SEMESTRE 2009
Pensée économique et système capitaliste
Usages contemporains de quelques grands auteurs en économie
The Challenge of
Eurocentrism
Global Perspectives, Policy, and Prospects
Edited by Rajani Kannepalli Kanth
Foreword by Ali A. Mazrui
“An exciting collection of papers on the distortions of Eurocentric
analyses, one that points the way forward to more truly
universalistic structures of knowledge." --Immanuel Wallerstein,
Senior Research Scholar, Yale University
“A critique in the proper sense of the term: challenges conventional
orthodoxy and provides an alternative, more enlightened world
view”-- Roger Owen, A.J. Meyer Professor of Middle East History,
Harvard University
Click here for detailed
information.
Top
Heterodox
Book Reviews
Money Uncertainty and Time
by Giuseppe Fontana, Routledge, 2009. ISBN:
0415279607; 142 pages.
Reviewed by John F. Henry, University of Missouri-Kansas City
Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide
to the Economics of Capitalism
by Jim Stanford. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Pluto Press, 2008, ISBN
978-0-7453-2750-1; 350 pages.
Reviewed by Ryan A.
Dodd, University of Missouri-Kansas City
The Strange Survival of Liberal
England
E.H.H. Green and D.M. Tanner, editors, _The Strange Survival of
Liberal England: Political Leaders, Moral Values and the Reception
of Economic Debate_. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
xiii + 313 pp. $99 (hardcover), ISBN 978-0-521-88167-8.
Reviewed for EH.NET by Jim
Tomlinson, Department of History, University of Dundee.
Top
Heterodox
Web Sites and Associations
Initiative for Promoting Political
Economy (IIPPE)
New Website for International Initiative for Promoting Political
Economy (IIPPE)
Http://www.iippe.org.
Top
For Your Information
Global Justice
Website
NEW ON THE WEBSITE
The Center for Global Justice has been extremely productive during
recent months. That is reflected in a host of new postings on our
website. You will find there the text of numerous talks as well as
videos of talks and the resulting discussions. Here are teasers for
the thought provoking reading and viewing you will find there:
Kevin Phillips' book Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, &
the Global Crisis of American Capitalism is reviewed by Betsy Bowman
and Cliff DuRand
March 4, 2009 [view the video at
http://vimeo.com/3632441 ]
Comments by Cliff DuRand on "The Financialization of Capitalism"
Kevin Phillips tells us that during the peak 5 years of the bubble
in the housing sector, this accounted for 40% of the growth in the
U.S. GDP. That is 40% of economic growth was fictitious capital. We
can see now that it was fictitious because it has simply
disappeared. When we thought the economy was expanding, we now know
we were just blowing bubbles.... [Read more at
http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/articles/financialization_of_capitalism.html
Comments by Betsy Bowman on "The Perfect Storm"
We are at a pivotal moment in history. Our real economy has been
severely damaged by the fictitious economy of financialization and
debt and needs to be overhauled so as to meet need. We are nearing
the limit of our energy supply but that very same energy supply
threatens the environmental sustainability of our habitat. And we
are living a political crisis where increasing we see that the
world's elites have been telling lies to obfuscate the truth that
they are rigging the system and grabbing more than their fair share
at the expense of everyone else. In short, the legitimacy of our
economic system and our political system is in question.... [Read
more at
http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/articles/the_perfect_storm.html
*******
"Nerds and Politics: GNU Linux and the Free Software Movement" by
August Black
February 20, 2009
[View video at
http://vimeo.com/3323454 ]
***********
[View video at
http://www.vimeo.com/3105984 ]
"Globalization and Economic Crisis" by Cliff DuRand February 4, 2009
We may well be at the end of neo-liberal globalization just as an
earlier episode of it collapsed in the second decade of the last
century. But this time will it be only the exhaustion of
globalization, or the end of capitalism itself? ... [Read more at
http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/articles/global_and_economic.html
"Financialization and the Economic Crisis" by Betsy Bowman February
4, 2009
Financing production-driven accumulation - when value is added by
something being made by human beings - this is a healthy use of
debt. But when accumulation is driven by debt rather than
production, ultimately there is a crisis. Debt does not create new
value; only human labor does. It is important to keep in mind that
all of these debt instruments have created nothing - not a single
pencil, paperclip, or pair of socks....
[Read more at
http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/articles/finan_andeconomic.html
*********
"Possibilities for Change" by Jeff Faux, Marge Allen, Ben Ptashnik
January 21, 2009
[Hear panel discussion at
http://vimeo.com/3410971 ]
******
"An Introduction to Feminism" by Betsy Bowman
[View video at
http://vimeo.com/3407049 ]
*******
"Immigrants and Human Rights" by Eugene Gogol February 11, 2009
[View video at
http://vimeo.com/3507766 ]
**********
Symposium on the Financial Crisis featuring Jeff Faux, Cliff DuRand
and Betsy Bowman Oct. 29, 2008
[View video part 1
http://vimeo.com/2234376 and part 2
http://vimeo.com/2257542
]
*********
"What Is To Be Undone"
a pre-inaugural public forum sponsored by the Center for Global
Justice on January 14, 2009.
[View video at
http://vimeo.com/2939096 ]
"Restore the Constitution" by Cliff DuRand January 14, 2009
What is to be undone? First and foremost I would say "Restore the
Constitution!" It is frightening to see how much Constitutional
principles have been undermined during the last 8 years. ... [read
more at
http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/articles/undone.html
]
************
"Why NAFTA Harms Workers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico and What We
Can Do About It"
A November 7, 2007 talk
by Jeff Faux, author of Global Class War and founder of the Economic
Policy Institute.
[View video at
http://vimeo.com/2854725 ]
***********
***********
COMING SOON TO OUR WEBSITE
"The Exhaustion of Neo-liberalism in Mexico" by Cliff DuRand March
11, 2009
******
Michael Isikoff & David Corn's book Hubris: The Inside Story of
Spin, Scandal, & the Selling of the Iraq War is reviewed by David
Rowe. March 18, 2009
******
"Campesino Resistance in Mexico" comments by Atahualpa Caldera on
the film "13 Pueblos: In Defense of Water, Air and Earth" March 12,
2009
******
"Social Currency" March 5, 2009
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