February 2012

READING ROOM: An Online Seminar on David Graeber’s "Debt: The First 5000 Years"

by The Institute for... on February 29, 2012

What is Debt? David Graeber’s book Debt: The First 5000 Years explores this question by tracing the historical development of the idea of debt from ancient Mesopotamia to present, in the process challenging the idea that a barter economy preceded the development of money.

Crooked Timber hosts an online seminar on Debt that includes a series of essays by scholars from different disciplines to provide some critical perspective. You can find the online seminar here.

Conference: Sovereign Debtors in Distress: Are Our Institutions Up to the Challenge?

by The Institute for... on February 25, 2012

In Europe and the United States, political and economic breakdowns have become untenable. Existing political and economic systems protect and favor creditors over borrowers and leave us with systemic debt imbalances of the kind we now face in Greece and the EU, where well-intentioned policymakers are being held hostage by financial architecture. Solutions to these urgent problems are essential if society is to move forward or simply avoid collapse. New economic thinking is needed. Read more

Alexander Field: A Great Leap Forward - Productivity Growth During the Great Depression

by The Institute for... on February 21, 2012

Alexander Field offers a new take on postwar prosperity in the United States. While public spending during the Second World War is often credited with laying the foundation for postwar growth, Field suggests this foundation had long been laid. In this INET interview with Rob Johnson he says productive capacity increased tremendously in the years preceding the war, and that fact – not the war spending – provided the basis for prosperity and productivity improvements in the 1950s and 1960s. Read more

Sylvia Nasar on The Story of Economic Genius: Great Thinkers in History

by The Institute for... on February 07, 2012 4 comments

Today INET presents you an interview with Sylvia Nasar, who discusses her book, Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius, with INET Executive Director Rob Johnson. Nasar discusses the work of economists leading up to the early 20^th century. She suggests that Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was a work of economics that influenced later economists such as Alfred Marshall. Nasar also talks about the intellectual debates between Keynes and Irving Fisher on one side and Joseph Schumpeter and Hayek on the other.

Part 1: Charles Dickens, Economist

Part 2: The Discovery of Productivity Growth and the Welfare State

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Suresh Naidu - Property Rights and Growth: Lessons from Slavery

by The Institute for... on February 02, 2012

30 Ways to Be an Economist is INET's grantee interview series - INET grantees talk about how they do their work, and how they came to be doing it. This week: Suresh Naidu - Property Rights and Growth: Lessons from Slavery. Read more