Essays
How do the powerful get the idea that they ‘deserve’ more? Lessons from the… laboratory
, 21/03/2014
The ‘haves’ of the world are always convinced that they deserve their wealth. That their gargantuan income reflects their ingenuity, ‘human capital’, the risks they (or their parents) took, their work ethic, their acumen, their application, their good luck even. The economists (especially members of the so-called Chicago School. e.g. Gary Becker) aid and abet […]
Is this an alien landing site, ancient monument, or something else?
, 15/03/2014
Readers of this blog are familiar with Danae Stratou‘s photographic works (her photos adorn the header above). In this post I copy a story from CNN.COM about Desert Breath: one the largest and (in my eyes) most significant land art projects on the planet’s face. It is the creation of Danae Stratou, Alexandra Stratou and […]
Tony Benn – in memoriam
, 14/03/2014
Tony Benn’s passing saddened and concentrated my mind. His was the voice that resonated with (a much younger version of) me most powerfully immediately after I moved to England in 1978. I was attracted instantly to the combination of: his commitment to the progressive history and potential of British Parliamentarianism, his passionate anti-imperialist pacifism, his relentless […]
On Bitcoin’s potential: Q&A on what Bitcoin can and cannot offer a troubled world
, 13/03/2014
Following my debate with Andreas Antonopoulos on ABC Late Night Live, graduate students of mine (at the University of Texas) were kind enough to piece together a related Q&A reflecting my views on BTC. Read on…
Debating Bitcoin on ABC Late Night Live, with Phillip Adams and Andreas Antonopoulos
, 13/03/2014
In this lively debate, on ABC Radio National’s excellent Late Night Live (with Phillip Adams in the chair), we discuss what makes Bitcoin a fascinating technology, whether it is a genuine currency, its parallels with the Gold Standard and what I have called previously the dangerous fantasy of apolitical money.
Of Masks and Shadows: The curious case of actors arrested on stage in Athens’ theater of the absurd
, 11/03/2014
The curious tale of two actors’s arrest on the stage of a derelict, occupied, Athenian theatre offers a window into life in Athens in the shadow of its wholesale economic collapse. This is our sixth article for the Witte de With Review (an initiative of Rotterdam-based Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art of which we, vitalspace.org and I, are party to, […]
Open Letter to Mr Alex Salmond
, 10/03/2014
Scotland’s First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party (Click here for a pdf version of this open letter and here for a longer article, on which this letter is based, entitled ‘If Scotland, why not Greece?’) Dear Mr Salmond,
If Scotland, why not Greece?
, 10/03/2014
Why an independent Scotland should get out of sterling, but Greece should not volunteer to exit the Eurozone Scotland should state its intention to decouple from sterling, once independent, rather than petitioning for a continuation of its subservient role in an asymmetrical sterling union. Or so I argued in the Scottish Times in ‘Scotland Must […]
On the Ukraine: Three awkward questions for Western liberals and a comment on the EU’s role
, 09/03/2014
Let us accept (as I do) the principle that national minorities have the right to self-determination within lopsided multi-ethnic states; e.g. Croats and Kosovars seceding from Yugoslavia, Scots from the UK, Georgians from the Soviet Union etc.
James K. Galbraith on Inequality and the Eurozone (audio)
, 05/03/2014
at the Progressive Economic Conference, Brussels 2nd March 2014
177 years of Political Economy at the University of Athens: a panorama of a little known tradition
, 28/02/2014
My dear friend and colleague Nicholas Theocarakis has just pieced together a document outlining the past and present of Political Economy (teaching and research) as practised at the University of Athens (click here)…
Austerity as a destabilising assault on the New Deal institutions: A joint presentation by J.K. Galbraith & Y. Varoufakis (video)
, 27/02/2014
A debate involving James K. Galbraith, Yanis Varoufakis and Jeff Sommers (in the role of moderator) took place on 24th February at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee in the context of the George Kennan Distinguished Lecture Series. An amateurish recording is available here. For ease of ‘navigation’, a list of topics (with their location on […]
Don't Try This at Home! Greek Austerity
, 26/02/2014
by JEFFREY SOMMERS and YANIS VAROUFAKIS This is an op-ed published in initially in the Wisconsin-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, on 22nd February 2014, and then in CounterPunch, on 26th February 2014. You can read the text here by clicking…
Can the Internet democratise capitalism?
, 21/02/2014
Technological fixes to time-honoured problems are all the rage these days. Bitcoin is meant to fix money, social media are seen as an antidote to Rupert Murdoch and assorted tyrants, networked robots are to help countries like Japan deal with demographic declines etc. Perhaps the largest claim is that the Internet has helped (or is […]
The Folly of Biblical Economics: Lessons from Europe that Americans must heed
, 18/02/2014
Moralizing and generalization have always been terrible foundations for public policy.
BITCOIN: A flawed currency blueprint with a potentially useful application for the Eurozone
, 15/02/2014
The responses of many to my post on Bitcoin reveal a powerful tendency to underestimate the ill-effects of deflation on a social economy. This tendency to underestimate deflation’s deleterious impact matters beyond debates on Bitcoin per se. For example, in Europe the incapacity of the European Central Bank (ECB) to act in the face of […]
The US-Mexican Border Fence 20 years after NAFTA – Danae Stratou’s installation
, 12/02/2014
On 6th and 7th February 2014, the LBJ School of Public Affairs (University of Texas at Austin) organised a conference on the 20 years since the signing of the North America Free Trade Agreement Treaty, entitled NAFTA+20: Intended and Unintended Consequences. The organisers commissioned Danae Stratou to produce a photographic installation in the entrance of the […]
War spikes in the Eve Online universe: A political economist’s account
, 30/01/2014
Vicious, intense war broke out the other day. Hundreds if not thousands of people, in New York, in Chicago, in the great capitals of Europe, in China, rushed home on the news that hard-earned assets they were keeping in an inhospitable far away place had been placed under sustained, brutal military attack. By the end […]
Being Greek and an Economist While Greece Burns: An intimate account – MGSA Keynote 2013
, 16/11/2013
(Gonda Van Steen introduced the audience to the MGSA 2013 Conference and Artemis Leontis introduced me. The talk begins at around 10′, when the audio becomes loud and clear) The Modern Greek Studies Association (MGSA) kindly invited me to deliver its 2013 Keynote, at the MGSA biannual Conference held at Indiana University. I grabbed the opportunity […]
Democracy: Its trials and tribulations in the face of financialisation, crisis and technological change
, 15/11/2013
On 15th November the Department of Political Science at Indiana University kindly organised a talk on the theme of Democracy. Here is an audio of my 40 minute talk on the subject.
Does Europe threaten world recovery? Lessons for the US
, 13/11/2013
On 12th November 2013 Economists for Peace and Security convened a workshop in Washington DC to discuss Jobs, Investment and Rebuilding America: An economic and national security agenda. In that forum we heard Jason Furman, Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, deliver a passionate speech in defence of social security and welfare provisions against […]
Beyond Pop Histories of the European Union – in The Globalist
, 06/11/2013
The following piece was published in The Globalist on 5th November 2013, extracted and edited by Stephan Richter (thanks Stephan) from my Sydney talk The Dirty War for Europe’s Integrity and Soul. Click here for The Globalist’s page or…
Europe: Technocrats versus Democrats – in The Globalist
, 06/11/2013
The following piece was published in The Globalist on 5th November 2013, extracted and edited by Stephan Richter (thanks Stephan) from my Sydney talk The Dirty War for Europe’s Integrity and Soul. Click here for The Globalist’s page or…
On ABC Radio National's 'Big Ideas' program: 'The Dirty War for Europe's Integrity & Soul'
, 30/10/2013
ABC Radio National’s ‘Big Ideas’ program has now broadcast my talk entitled The Dirty War for Europe’s Integrity & Soul (original broadcast: 30th October, 20.05 Sydney time). [Click here for details of the lecture.] For the complete transcript click here – please note that the ABC (to fit in both the talk and the discussion the […]