It’s Hard Being a Bear (Part Six)?Good Alternative Theory?

Published in September 27th, 2009

If the economy does in fact recover from the Global Financial Crisis—without private debt levels once again rising relative to GDP—then my approach to economics will be proven wrong.
But this won’t prove conventional neoclassical economic theory right, because, for very different reasons to those that I put forward, modern neoclassical economics argues that the government [...]

Why I use Mathcad

Published in September 26th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

28 Comments

A new blog member asked “Why do you use Mathcad?” in response to my most recent post about using some of the funds donated by visitors to the blog to help fund my research.
It’s a very good technical question, and one that deserves more than just a reply to the comment. So I’ll try to [...]

Thanks to donors

Published in September 25th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

16 Comments

Thank you to the roughly 170 individuals who have made donations to date via the “Donate” widget on the right hand side of the blog.
Donations have totalled A$7,730, of which about $800 has been for Michael Hudson’s talk in Sydney (on Friday October 23rd at Customs House, Sydney at 6pm).
I have just made the first [...]

Dinner with Michael Hudson?

Published in September 23rd, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

6 Comments

There will be a dinner with Michael Hudson and his wife after the talk at Customs House on Friday October 23rd at a restaurant called Young Alfred, which is also in Customs House. The dinner will start at 8pm.
If you’d like to be part of the booking, please let me know via an email to [...]

It’s Hard Being a Bear (Part Five): Rescued?

Published in September 19th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

445 Comments

I’m happy to admit that I underestimated how strongly governments would respond to this financial crisis. Dramatic reductions in interest rates, huge fiscal stimuli and—in the USA and UK—expansion of government-created money, have all had a positive impact on the economy and asset markets (both shares and houses).
In his recent essay, Australian Prime Minister Kevin [...]

Good article by Ross Gittins on Economics and Equilibrium

Published in September 19th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

19 Comments

Ross Gittins has written a very good overview of the failings of neoclassical economics in today’s Sydney Morning Herald:
Self-righting markets and other shibboleths
The article mentions the Dahlem Report, but doesn’t provide a link to it. For those who would like to read it, here it is.
I also wrote a post on the Dahlem Report shortly [...]

It’s Hard Being a Bear (Part Four): Good Economic Theory

Published in September 15th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

216 Comments

I delayed publishing this on the blog because I thought it was worth submitting it to a newspaper for first publication on the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse. That has occurred: a slightly edited version of this post (for reasons only of length, I hasten to add!) is in today’s Sydney Morning Herald (page [...]

More on Michael Hudson’s visit

Published in September 12th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

69 Comments

Michael’s visit is being organised by Prosper Australia, and they have asked me to link to their page detailing the tour and his speaking engagements while in Australia. It’s quite a good page, with some well chosen links to some of Michael’s research:
Prosper Australia: Professor Michael Hudson Touring October
The fund-raising widget has so far raised [...]

Michael Hudson Public Talk Sydney Friday October 23

Published in September 11th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch, Events

39 Comments

The renowned heterodox financial economist and economic historian Dr. Michael Hudson will be visiting Australia in October.
Michael is another of the handful of economists who predicted the Global Financial Crisis, and he has since worked intensively with the governments of Iceland and Latvia to attempt to pull them out of the economic quagmire. He shares my [...]

It’s Hard Being a Bear (Part Three): Good Economic History

Published in September 5th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

216 Comments

“Green shoots” are appearing everywhere—just read the newspapers, and you can be assured that we’ve turned the corner. Bar the latest rise in US unemployment—up 0.3% to 9.7%, after falling 0.1% the previous month—there’s nothing but good news as far as the eye can see.
Unless, that is, you take a look at a wider range [...]