Chanuka Wattegama’s Post

Yesterday, Jacqui Dwyer gave this presentation to a lunchtime on-line event for the Economic Society of Australia. It was very good, and heartfelt. As a former Treasury economist, I signed up to both the ESA and Australian Business Economists (ABE) when I returned home after nearly 20 years in the UK. It was a good way to reconnect after being away so long. Those of you that have followed me for some time, will know that I am an advocate of Complexity Economics, which had its origins in the mid 80’s at the Sante Fe institute, an institution where the greatest scientific minds of our age regularly push the boundaries of our knowledge. Indeed, it was where machine learning, or AI, was born. Economics was established as a discipline at the SFI with the help of Ken Arrow, who along with Gerard Debreu, published the defining work on General Equilibrium Theory in 1954. He thought the assumptions so implausible, he spent the rest of his career, to quote his NYT obituary, “…proving how imperfect real world markets were…”. The problem with economics is that it has become detached from reality. So, no wonder students prefer to do business studies. Or use it as an entry ticket to doing something else. It has NEVER been a science, because in science one observation disproves a theory, whereas no amount of contrary evidence disproves an economic theory. For those of you that have studied GE economics, or physics, or read any of the 1000’s of books on the failings of the current orthodoxy, the fundamental problem is that reality is non-convex, discontinuous, and non-ergodic. The arrow of time moves in one direction, an “equilibrium” has never existed, and never will. GE is based on the First Law of Thermodynamics and conveniently ignores the Second.

PARTNERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT! Aspiring Economics Forum & Rethinking Economics We are thrilled to announce a groundbreaking partnership between Aspiring Economics Forum and Rethinking Economics. Both organizations share a common vision of empowering the next generation of economic leaders and revolutionizing the way economics is taught and practiced globally. Aspiring Economics Forum serves as a dynamic platform where young intellectual minds in Nigeria converge to exchange a myriad of ideas, approaches to scarce resources, economic activities, and theories applied to Africa and the world. With a focus on analysis, diversity, inclusivity, and the profound impacts of climate change, Aspiring Economics Forum has been at the forefront of fostering critical discussions and driving innovative solutions to economic challenges. Similarly, Rethinking Economics, an international organization with a global network of students and organizers, is dedicated to reshaping the landscape of economics education and practice. By advocating for a more holistic and real-world-centric approach, Rethinking Economics aims to address pressing issues such as climate collapse, inequality, and the need for sustainable resource management. Through their commitment to exploring diverse theories, including agency theory, Rethinking Economics seeks to catalyze systemic change in economic paradigms. By joining forces, Aspiring Economics Forum and Rethinking Economics are poised to amplify their impact and spearhead transformative initiatives in the field of economics. Through collaborative efforts, both organizations will leverage their respective strengths, resources, and networks to drive innovation, foster dialogue, and empower future leaders. This partnership signifies a powerful alliance between like-minded entities dedicated to redefining economics for the betterment of society. Together, we will embark on a journey towards economic innovation, inclusivity, and sustainability, striving to create a brighter future for generations to come. We look forward to the exciting possibilities that lie ahead as we work hand in hand to shape the future of economics and make meaningful contributions to global prosperity. #REI #AEF Rethinking Economics Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) World Trade Organization International Monetary Fund Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Alexander Omijeh Alex Otti Mr. Peter Obi Chukwuma Charles Soludo

The XXVI Workshop in International Economics and Finance will be held in Santiago de Chile on September 26 and 27, 2024. The event will be hosted by the Central Bank of Chile and Universidad Andrés Bello. The workshop is a unique event that brings together top researchers and policymakers from the North and the South to discuss recent theoretical and empirical advances in International Economics and Finance. The goal of the meeting is to gain a better understanding of the macroeconomic problems faced by Latin American countries and to encourage research on those subjects. We will discuss approximately ten academic papers in closed seminar-style sessions; some sessions of a less technical nature will be open to a broader audience. CALL FOR PAPERS: Papers must be submitted in English through this link: https://lnkd.in/egYijAWX The deadline for submitting papers for this event is Sunday, June 23, 2024. The program will be posted on the workshop’s website by July 12.  www.utdt.edu/ief-workshop KEYNOTE SPEAKERS: Thomas Sargent, NYU Hugo Hopenhayn, UCLA We welcome empirical and theoretical papers on International Economics, Macroeconomics, Finance and Political Economy that address issues of relevance for the economies of Latin America. Topics of special interest include (but are not limited to!): Aggregate Productivity: firm dynamics, distortions, informality, innovation, credit frictions, technology adoption, foreign direct investment, and trade. Macroeconomic aspects of low fertility rates and higher expected lifetimes. Global supply shocks, inflation, price dynamics, and monetary policy Fiscal policy management and commodity price risk: politics and economics. Foreign exchange rate intervention and international reserve management. The role of central banks in addressing inequality, gender issues and climate change. The workshop's organizers are Banco Central de Chile, Universidad Andrés Bello, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, the World Bank’s LAC Chief Economist Office, and the Inter-American Development Bank’s Research Department, and the University of Chicago’s Becker-Friedman Institute. The workshop is an activity of LACEA’s International Macroeconomics and Finance Network.

GLOBAL INSIGHTS: EXPLORING THE AUSTRIAN SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND ITS APPLICATIONS ACROSS CONTINENTS ("World Economics Unveiled: A Series") https://amzn.eu/d/gJipoGE #Amazon via Amazon Fundación para el Progreso 1. #AustrianEconomics  2. #EconomicTheory  3. #FreeMarket  4. #GlobalPerspective  5. #EconomicApplications  6. #InternationalTrade  7. #EconomicInnovation

Paul Samuelson was at the heart of a revolution in economics. He was "the foremost academic economist of the 20th century," according to the New York Times, and the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Economics. His work transformed the field of economics and helped give it the theoretical and mathematic rigor that increased its influence in business and policy making. In Founder of Modern Economics, Roger E. Backhouse explores the central importance of Samuelson's personality and social networks to understanding his intellectual development. This is the first of two volumes covering Samuelson's extended and productive life and career. This volume surveys Samuelson's early years growing up in the Midwest to his experiences at the University of Chicago and Harvard University, where leading scholars in economics and other disciplines stimulated and rewarded his curiosity. His thinking was influenced by the natural sciences and he understood that a critical, scientific approach increased insights into important social and economic questions. He realized that these questions could not be answered through rhetorical debate but required rigor. His "eureka" moment came, he said, when "a good fairy whispered to me that math was a skeleton key to solve age old problems in economics." Backhouse traces Samuelson's thinking from his early days to the publication of his groundbreaking book Foundations of Economic Analysis and Economics: An Introductory Analysis, which influenced generations of students. His work set the stage for economics to become a more cohesive and coherent discipline, based on mathematical techniques that provided surprising insights into many important topics, from business cycles to wage and unemployment rates, and from how competition influences trade to how tax rates affects tax collection. Founder of Modern Economics is a profound contribution to understanding how modern economics developed and the thinking of a revolutionary thinker.

Join us for our second Curtin's Conversation event of 2024! Andrew Leigh’s The Shortest History of Economics When: Tuesday 12th March 2024, 7.30-8.30pm AEDT Panellists: Andrew Leigh MP Nick Dyrenfurth Dominic Meagher Where: Online via Zoom Events Registration Essential: https://shorturl.at/adfsS Or scan the QR code in the e-flyer About The Shortest History of Economics ‘The secret of economics is that the most powerful insights come from a handful of big ideas that anyone can follow.’ This small book tells a big story. From ancient times to the modern world, The Shortest History of Economics unearths the hidden economic forces behind war, innovation and social transformation. It traces how capitalism and the market system emerged, and introduces the key ideas and people who shaped the discipline of economics. From the agricultural revolution to the warming of our planet, Andrew Leigh tells the story of economics that ranges across centuries and continents, highlighting the diversity of the discipline.He delves into the radical origins of the game of Monopoly, why the invention of the plough worsened gender inequality, how certain diseases shaped the patterns of colonialism, the reasons skyscrapers emerged first in American cities, and much more. The result is an illuminating, entertaining book about the economic ideas and forces that shape our world. Praise for The Shortest History of Economics 'This "short" book is bursting with insights about economics, illustrated by memorable stories and historical events. People who are curious about but confused by economics will learn enough from this volume to be conversant for life. Andrew Leigh is not only an engaging writer, he is charming and fun as well – something that cannot be said of all economists!' – Caroline M. Hoxby, Donya Bommer Professor of Economics, Stanford University 'If you read just one book about economics, make it Andrew Leigh's clear, insightful, and remarkable (and short) work. Learn why we are richer, live longer, have healthier children, are monumentally more productive and are happier than our ancestors.' – Claudia Goldin, Nobel Laureate, Henry Lee Professor of Economics, Harvard University 'Leigh takes the reader on an engaging romp through key moments in the world's economic history that created the economies we see today around the globe. It is essential reading for anyone looking to understand today's economy.'– Betsey Stevenson, Professor of Economics, University of Michigan, and co-author of Principles of Economics Buy the book: https://lnkd.in/gkS-cFcZ

One post-doctoral scholarship in Economics (3 years) The Department of Economics at Umeå School of Business, Economics and Statistics, Umeå University, is looking for a post-doctoral scholar. The department has a broad research tradition, where the main research areas are Applied Microeconomics, Environmental Economics, Labor Economics and Public Economics. Four themes are central to our research: (i) economic policy and behavioral economics; (ii) economic policy and the labor market; (iii) sustainable development; and (iv) economic policy and fiscal federalism. The research touches on a broad set of topics including optimal taxation and public expenditure, income formation, household responses to taxation, social accounting, education policy, local public economics, environmental policy, and interactions between energy and the environment. Other active research areas are Econometrics and Health Economics. The department is also the host institution for the Erik Kempe Award in Environmental and Resource Economics. The post-doctoral scholarship is financed by the Tore Browaldh Foundation, Handelsbanken. The stipend on which the scholarship is based will support full-time research activity for at least three years. A review of the research contribution after three years will then determine whether the scholarship is extended for an additional three years. In case the scholarship is extended to an additional three years, and if this second scholarship period is successful, the department’s aim is to offer the scholar the possibility to apply (in competition) for a permanent position within the department. Starting Date: April 1, 2024, or later by agreement. Eligibility requirements The applicant shall have a Ph.D. in Economics, or in a related area before starting the position. Priority will be given to candidates who have completed their doctoral degree no more than three years before the closing date of the application. Candidates that have not yet defended their dissertation when applying are required to have successfully defended their dissertation before starting the position. A candidate who has completed their degree before three years may be considered if special circumstances apply. Special circumstances include absence due to illness, parental leave, appointments of trust in trade unions or similar circumstances. We appreciate an equal gender balance and particularly welcome female applicants for the position. Application requirements -read about those in the link below Selected research articles (maximum 5). The application marked with reference number FS 2.1.6-1883-23 should be sent in electronic format (pdf); as one pdf document for points 1-7 and publications as a separate pdf file, to medel@diarie.umu.se. A complete application must be submitted no later than January 5, 2024. Read more about USBE here: www.umu.se/en/usbe Welcome with your application! #economicresearch #postdoctoralfellowship  

New Post: Beyond Efficiency: A More-human Economics - https://lnkd.in/edBExeF3 Efficiency: A More-human Economicshttps://lnkd.in/eqmfFinR Maynard Keynes, memorializing the death of his mentor Alfred Marshall a century ago, wrote that the “master economist must possess a rare combination of gifts…. He must be a mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher.” Keynes might have been describing himself. He considered economics a moral science that must draw on a wide culture while keeping an “open […] Business John Maynard Keynes, memorializing the death of his mentor Alfred Marshall a century ago, wrote that the “master economist must possess a rare combination of gifts…. He must be a mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher.” Keynes might have been describing himself. He considered economics a moral science that must draw on a wide culture while keeping an “open mind to the shifting picture of experience.” Today, the world urgently needs that rare combination Keynes described to guide the way through disruptions from climate change, artificial intelligence, demographic change, social and economic inequality, and geopolitical conflicts. This is particularly true given the growing disenchantment with the economics profession and calls for the discipline to change to better reflect individual and societal values. Extensive professional soul-searching since the global financial crisis of 2008 has focused on how economics can better integrate social sciences and elevate welfare and distributional issues. There has been much rethinking of macroeconomics and the design of policy approaches. There is a growing consensus that the profession must be open to new ideas and frameworks if it hopes to solve the world’s biggest problems. This issue of Finance & Development magazine takes a fresh look at the discipline. We invited prominent economists with different perspectives to tell us how the profession can become better at answering 21st-century challenges. Of course, economists have embraced new thinking before, as the Keynesian revolution itself demonstrates. Author Niall Kishtainy provides a fascinating account of the forces that have shaped the discipline since Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, the 18th-century opus that largely launched modern economics. Nobel laureate Angus Deaton describes how his views on such topics as labour unions, free trade, and immigration have evolved over half a century. He writes that mainstream economists must revisit their assumptions, cast a more critical eye on the influence of power, stop prioritizing efficiency above all else, and be humbler. Jayati Ghosh of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, laments the profession’s lack of diversity—ethnic, racial, and gender. This deprives economics of new ideas, new problems to work on, and new tale

The Monetary Apocalypse - End of the road for keneysian economics? ( continued- part 2) As stated in the previous part, the growth in outstanding derivatives contracts volume has coincided spectacularly with the near zero percent interest rates prevalent in much of the developed world for larger part of the last 15 years. This will have huge consequences for the world specifically in finance and political economy. What might be the possible impacts of this phenomenon? I will try to explore a few possible areas where there might be profound impact due to the sub zero interest rates and try to deliberate the future of the Keneysian economic principles. The essence of keneysian economics is that governments have the ability to spur growths in economies through monetary instruments. These monetary instruments typically are lowering of the bank interest rates and increasing the velocity of money in circulation in the economy. Needless to say much of the Keneysian economics will result in increases in the aggregate monetary bases. The whole idea is to increase consumption and investments to spur monetary growth and consequently economic growth. In hushed terms insiders also refer to it as simply money printing by the respective governments. To put few things in perspective, the interest rates have been near zero in USA, Japan and even Germany for greater part of the last 15 years. Needless to say this has fuelled huge monetary expansion in the respective countries and even overseas. This has a lot of financial and geopolitical ramifications. The breakup of the USSR and the subsequent cessation of the hostilities between US and Russia post 1991 has resulted in an unprecedented period of economic and trade liberalization with world economies and financial systems becoming more interconnected and interdependent. Furthermore , improvements in technology have implied that trade logistics have improved substantially with trade volumes having registered exponential growth. The increased emphasis for foreign investments also means that there is a huge pressure on countries to assimilate some of the growth in aggregate monetary supply of the reserve currency to spur economic growth in these countries. The global financial system has truly become more interconnected and interdependent as a result of the trade and investments liberalization promoted so strongly by the international organizations such as IMF, World Bank and a host of other international syndicates. In such an environment how concerned should emerging and underdeveloped countries should be due to the huge amount of global reserve currency volumes lent out almost at no cost for almost a decade. Has this phenomenon caused the crowding out of local investments by big behemoths who have access to funds almost at no costs. What kind of societal impact this have on local populations ? What kind of an impact has this had on the local economies of less powerful nations( to be continued)

Do you think economics is boring? This book will change your mind about that. Moreover, it will likely change how you see the real world. I first read “Economics in One Lesson” in 1997, while I was searching for a quick but solid introduction to economics for a master I was taking in the USA. A fellow student gave me this book: “Read this, and you’ll see how the world ticks.” He was right. He was damn right. I don’t know how many times I have reread this book since then. Surely, a dozen times in its entirety, and scores of times partially, for example when I need to better understand how a trend in the economy can impact an industry I’m interested in or even my business and personal investments. This book is a source of wisdom before economics. “Economics in One Lesson” explains the tenets of Austrian economics. 😱 What? Never heard of it? Never heard of Carl Menger? Ludwig von Mises? Friedrich von Hayek? I know, this is not the stuff they usually teach us at school or, even worse, at universities, although Friedrich von Hayek received the 1974 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. This short book by Hazlitt is just an introduction for people who are just starting out with Austrian economics, but let me tell you: you will get many “aha!” moments reading this book, and, very likely, an outright and definite conversion to the free market philosophy. ❗️Beware! If you are a supporter of “Keynesian economy”, you will be red-pilled by this book. Hazlitt won’t be nice to your current beliefs about the economy (but you can take the blue pill and keep going as usual). No matter the logical contortions to escape reality, the principles explained in his book will always challenge and demolish those contortions to reveal how the economy really works. In summary, "Economics in One Lesson" is worth reading because it encourages readers to think critically about economic issues and to question popular narratives and policies. It offers a foundational understanding of economic principles and provides a timeless perspective on the potential pitfalls of economic fallacies. It's a book that can be valuable both for individuals new to economics and for those looking to deepen their understanding of economic reasoning. 👉 It can’t be missing in your library. You can find this great book here: https://lnkd.in/ge4Yvn9m