STEVE KEEN and EVAN JONES in conversation with FRANK STILWELL
In this event to celebrate the publication of Political Economy Now!–the history of the Political Economy struggle at Sydney University–Evan Jones, Frank Stilwell and Steve Keen will discuss the struggles inside the university economics departments and their significance, not only for teaching, but for the [...]

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I’ll be speaking at Politics in the Pub on Friday May 29, along with Jacob Saulwick from the SMH.  The Location is the Gaelic Club, Level 1 (Tel. 9212 1587) 64 Devonshire Street Surry Hills–just 50 metres or so from the Chalmers Street exit from Central Station.
The topic will be rather apposite to the most recent blog entry: “The [...]

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In May 1973, dissatisfaction over the teaching of economics at the University of Sydney went from a festering sore amongst the staff only to an outright revolt by a minority of the staff, and a majority of the students.  In 1975, a new Department of Political Economy had its first intake into Economics I(P). Thirty [...]

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Title: “Crunchtime”: Bringing together the best policy minds to discuss Australia’s future
Location: Trades Hall Auditorium, 4 Goulburn St, Sydney NSW
Link out: Click here
Description: The best policy thinkers from Australia and abroad will come together for “Crunchtime” – Australia’s first progressive think-tank conference.
Tax, social policy, the global financial crisis and climate change will be pulled apart [...]

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Broadcast on March 11 2009 by ABC Radio National Big Ideas
A blog member has kindly produced a transcript of the off-the-cuff talk I gave at this forum. I’ve made minor corrections to the punctuation below, but the text is otherwise as delivered on the night without speaking notes–so there are some grammatical slips. For those [...]

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As usual, the latest set of data from the ABS on the economy was “unexpectedly worse” than (neoclassical) economists had been expecting. The consensus was for a 0.2% increase over the month of March, from 5.2 to 5.4 percent. In fact, it leapt by two and a half times as much, to 5.7%.
This was right [...]

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“Lies, damned lies, and statistics” is part of a phrase attributed to Benjamin Disraeli and popularised in the United States by Mark Twain: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” The statement refers to the persuasive power of numbers, the use of statistics to bolster weak arguments, and the tendency of [...]

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I’ve just been sent this link to a hilarious face-off between Max Keiser and an Economics Professor. Max calls the Wall Street speculators “financial terrorists”, calls for decapitation as in days of olde…
The most fun I got out of this was watching the Professor’s discomfort, and his attempts to understand the crisis in terms of [...]

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There’s an interesting story in the New York Magazine by Michael Osinski–the author of the main software package used to create the CMOs and CDOs that have helped cripple the financial system.
Osinski’s story is worth a read in its own right. But what I found curious about it was that he appears unaware of a [...]

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I’m still having difficulties getting my podcasts up and running at the moment, so in lieu here is a link to the ABC Radio National Big Ideas recording of an Evatt Foundation forum on the Global Financial Crisis.
Speakers were Bernie Fraser, ex-Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia, myself, and Garry Weiss, a corporate lawyer (this [...]

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