Post-crisis economics
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How does economic thinking need to change after the world’s worst economic and financial crisis in decades? At a conference in early April, 2010 on new economic thinking sponsored by billionaire hedge fund investor George Soros, economists debated past and future ways of looking at the world. The speakers at King’s College, Cambridge University included George Soros himself, Nobel prize winner George Akerlof and J. M. Keynes’ biographer, Robert Skidelsky
IMF warns on high public debt
IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that public debt in the advanced economies is set to increase significantly and reversing the rise would be a ‘tremendous’ challenge
Financial crisis exposed flaws in economics
Many of the world’s top academic economists agreed that the financial and economic crisis had exposed fatal flaws in their subject and ideas were urgently needed to keep economics relevant
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Soros attacks economic orthodoxy
George Soros bids to break US economic doctrine with a new think tank encouraging post-crisis alternative economic theories
Stiglitz ‘depressed’ at slow US reform
The leading academic critic warns of leaving too much discretion to regulators and emphasises the need for new economic thinking
Focus on the economy, not debt
Keynes’ biographer Lord Skidelsky says the famed economist would be disappointed by his profession and deplore its focus on maths
Lord Skidelsky says Labour ‘right’ on deficit
The former Tory peer questions the Conservative economic model of boosting growth through cuts and improved confidence
Time to end ‘mini-bubbles’ era
The fomer BIS chief economist Bill White calls for swift exit plans and debt forgiveness
Comment
Economics may be dismal, but it is not a science
The environment faced by investors and economic policymakers is one in which actions do depend on beliefs and perceptions, must deal with uncertainty and are the product of a social context, writes John Kay
Bubbles lurk in government debt
As the global economy reflates, many people are asking: ‘Is the next bubble in gold? Is it in Chinese real estate? Emerging market stocks? Or something else?‘ writes Kenneth Rogoff
The emotional markets hypothesis and Greek bonds
While some of this crisis may now have passed, the sense of psychological shock remains. The markets are suffering from something akin to post-traumatic stress disorder, writes Gillian Tett
It is time to treat Wall Street like Main Street
While principles and responsibility sound lofty and idealistic, they can be taught, followed, institutionalised and enshrined in law, write George Akerlof and Rachel Kranton
UK economy: Drenched in debt
UK economy: As all parties argue over relatively small sums, the true scale of post-election austerity measures needed to plug the £167bn hole in the public finances remains to be addressed, writes Chris Giles
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