Blogs

There is a certain rich irony attached to the sight of corrupt Russian oligarchs now posing as liberal champions of the rule of law as they find themselves sucked into the maelstrom of Cyprus's ongoing financial crisis. Read more

The financial crisis has made us aware that financial markets are very complex networks that, in many cases, we do not really understand and that can easily go out of control. Read more

Valentine’s Day, 2013, brought the Institute for New Economic Thinking a rude shock that belied the day’s reputation for good cheer and romance. A German business magazine, Wirtschaftswoche, published an article signed by no less than three correspondents claiming that INET had financed the appearance at a panel of at Columbia University of the leader of the principal Greek opposition party, Mr. Alexis Tsipras, along with two of his advisers (“Ihren Auftritt mitfinanziert hat Soros’ Thinktank INET”). Read more

Free-market thinking had reached a low point in the waning days of World War II, but some of the world’s best advocates for free markets and liberty helped rebuild interest in and knowledge of the value of markets through a group called the Mont Pelerin Society. Read more

Originally posted at AlterNet on February 28, 2013

Jeff Sachs takes on the coming sequester in today's Financial Times. He charges that getting elected required President Obama to make the "Faustian bargain" of preserving most of the Bush tax cuts - but this strategy has pushed Obama to make continual cuts in discretionary spending to compensate. This outcome is the opposite of the president's rhetoric and goals, Sachs says.  Read more

Economists differentiate free and forced labor as if there were no room in between. Yet history shows many examples of "intermediate" labor market institutions that fall outside this simple dichotomy. These historical labor markets have rarely looked like the textbook free markets.  Read more

  There has been an important movement towards making available on the web a host of open courses. One can easily access courses from major American universities such as Harvard, MIT, Yale and Princeton, among others (see the Open Courseware Consortium for similar initiatives worldwide). Read more

Michael Goldberg was awarded last week the Todd H. Crockett Professor of Economics at the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire. Read more

Originally appeared on Alternet Read more