Sure, email me at s.keen@uws.edu.au.

On that topic, I am less appropriate as a supervisor than, say, Clive Hamilton–though I think Clive might have ceased taking PhD students. But I could certainly provide more appropriate and less analytically constrained supervision on the topic than most academic economists in Australia.

Thanks! The “?” on the “I told you so” was of course tongue in cheek! I was just delighted to see, when looking back on my submission from twelve years ago, that my predictions about what securitisation of loans would lead to were accurate.

Of course, I have Minsky to thank for that. His “financial instability hypothesis” was the framework for all those predictions, and their accuracy was stunning. Another euphoric speculative bubble (though picking residential real estate as its basis rather than the stock market may have been a lucky guess by me!), debt financed of course, with the distribution of the debt differing because of securitisation.

I agree also that so many issues–like the West’s response to terrorism–can better be understood with simple dispassionate analysis rather than emotive spin. But spin seems to rule in political circles.

The pity is that “spin” has also ruled in economics–otherwise nonsense like the “Efficient Markets Hypothesis” could never have got off the ground. Now at least, since the markets have so spectacularly crashed as a result of swallowing that spin, there may be a chance for a more rational economics to take the place of the palaver of neoclassical thought.

Steve - I’m interested in the pursuit of GDP as an economic objective and the effect this has on institutionalised values and subsequent behaviour. Glibly, I think GDP fosters a mindset of ‘any activity is good activity’.

I’m interested in pursing a Phd in this area and thought you would have some interesting insights. Is it possible to take an email conversation offline?

Many thanks for your consideration

The “I told you so” is justified because that is the more precise description of what you actually did! ‘They’ would likely see it as ‘rude’, but that is often the way people spin embarrassment into something less personally damning.

Isn’t it fascinating how much sway emotions have over issues which could (and should) be dealt with more rationally.

Perhaps the ability to discipline the mind is part of that now-long-lost pearl called ‘wisdom’, a skill no longer valued and long since jettisoned in favour of self-interest and laziness.

We see so many other areas where emotions have had far too much say recently. Take these repulsive restrictions on personal liberty on grounds of ‘anti-terrorism’… and also the pathetic level of public dissent to such laws.

Fear and greed… fear and greed… And the cycle goes on.

Off topic, the unit I’m in is up for sale, the owners are having trouble paying the interest, and they are unlikely to recoup their investment. The real estate agent seems to believe that I should be sharing their pain, that it is somehow my fault, but what part of “property speculation” didn’t they understand. Good news is repairs I’ve been waiting 6 weeks for have now become urgent.

I was generously allowed to make the first offer but I declined. My guess is that prices will need to decline by 30-50% in real terms, so it doesn’t seem sensible. I’m in more than slight disagreement with BIS Shrapnel but I’m truly independent as I have never received money from the real estate industry.