The economic downturn has produced an explosion of popular anger against bankers’ “greed” and their “obscene” bonuses. This has accompanied a wider critique of “growthmanship” – the pursuit of economic growth or the accumulation of wealth at all costs, regardless of the damage it may do to the earth’s environment or to shared values. John … Continue reading How Much is Enough?
Category: Journalism
How Much is Enough?
The economic downturn has produced an explosion of popular anger against bankers’ “greed” and their “obscene” bonuses. This has accompanied a wider critique of “growthmanship” – the pursuit of economic growth or the accumulation of wealth at all costs, regardless of the damage it may do to the earth’s environment or to shared values. John … Continue reading How Much is Enough?
Keynes versus the Classics: Round Two
The economist John Maynard Keynes wrote The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936) to “bring to an issue the deep divergences of opinion between fellow economists which have for the time being almost destroyed the practical influence of economic theory…” Seventy years later, heavyweight economists are still at each other’s throats, in terms … Continue reading Keynes versus the Classics: Round Two
Is Stimulus Still Necessary?
Have stimulus packages brought the world’s traumatized economies back to life? Or have they set the scene for inflation and big future debt burdens? The answer is that they may have done both. The key question now concerns the order in which these outcomes occur. The theory behind the massive economic stimulus efforts that many … Continue reading Is Stimulus Still Necessary?
George Osborne fails to mind the output gap
It was John Maynard Keynes who first pointed out its importance, and its consequences for policy. Keynes said that policies which are sound and necessary when the economy is fully employed, are unsound and destructive when the economy is shrinking. He knew what he was talking about. He had lived through the Great Depression of … Continue reading George Osborne fails to mind the output gap
Keynesian reforms could stop us falling into more economic foxholes
One might almost say that economics is too important to be left to economists. Keynes, as his wife put it, was "more than an economist". Here are three things he believed: 1. The future is radically uncertain. To talk of risks being "correctly priced" is a nonsense term. Risks are conventionally priced, but because there … Continue reading Keynesian reforms could stop us falling into more economic foxholes
Fictional Sovereignties
A year ago, tiny Georgia tried to regain control over its breakaway enclave of South Ossetia. The Russians quickly expelled the Georgian army, to almost universal opprobrium from the West. South Ossetia, together with Abkhazia (combined population 300,000), promptly declared their “independence,” creating two new fictional sovereignties, and acquiring in the process all the official … Continue reading Fictional Sovereignties
How to rebuild a shamed subject
It was to be expected that our present economic traumas would call into question the state of economics. “Why did no one see the crisis coming?”, Queen Elizabeth reportedly asked one practitioner. A seminar at the British Academy tried to answer and the FT has taken up the discussion. The Queen’s question is understandable, given … Continue reading How to rebuild a shamed subject
Risky Risk Management
Mainstream economics subscribes to the theory that markets “clear” continuously. The theory’s big idea is that if wages and prices are completely flexible, resources will be fully employed, so that any shock to the system will result in instantaneous adjustment of wages and prices to the new situation. This system-wide responsiveness depends on economic agents … Continue reading Risky Risk Management
The Lost Continent
Home to one-sixth of the world’s people, but contributing only one-fortieth of world GDP, Africa is the most conspicuous victim of the global recession. After a half-decade of 5% growth, the continent’s growth rate is expected to halve in 2009. Some countries, like Angola, are contracting. Elsewhere, the crisis has swept away the benefits of … Continue reading The Lost Continent
Robert Skidelsky 