Helsinki Economics and Politics Seminar

Published in November 24th, 2009

The Departments of Political Science and of Economics at the University of Helsinki recently held a seminar entitled “Economics: Challenges for Political, Philosophical and Historical Research”. The motivation was a reorganisation of the University that will combine these two Departments. The flyer for the seminar advertised it in the following manner:
This seminar, organized jointly by [...]

Michael Hudson Talk & Green New Deal Discussion

Published in November 14th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

183 Comments

Michael Hudson was a recent and welcome visitor to Australia, and I helped arrange a talk by him at Customs House that many people on this blog supported financially, and quite a few attended. My own attempt to record the speech was unsuccessful–the sound quality was just too low–but another recording of the event (by [...]

My Per Capita Talk on Debt

Published in November 6th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

334 Comments

I haven’t yet had time to post Michael Hudson’s talk at Customs House–hopefully I’ll manage that this weekend–but in the meantime here is the talk I gave a couple of days earlier at Per Capita’s Policy Exchange 2009 Conference in Canberra on October 21st 2009. The good folk at SlowTV put this together, and this is [...]

It’s the leverage, stupid

Published in November 4th, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

143 Comments

So I’m walking to Kosciusko–now that the ABS Established House Price Index has cracked its September 2008 peak of 131 to reach an all-time high of 134.4 (as of September one year later). This renewed bubble reversed the trend of falling nominal house prices that had dropped the index to a low of 123.8 in [...]

Debtwatch No. 40 November 2009: Have we dodged the Iceberg?

Published in November 2nd, 2009

Posted by Cassander in Debtwatch

122 Comments

Part 1: The USA
The most recent “unexpectedly good” growth figures for the USA appear to indicate that what will still be the worst downturn since the Great Depression is finally over.
However this is not your usual downturn. Not only is it acknowledged as the most severe since the Great Depression, it has also evoked the [...]