Comments on: 10 years on, could today’s economics graduates predict and prevent another Northern Rock?

By: PDorman

PDorman — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 03:00:00 +0000

I hate to toot my own horn (really), but I think my macro textbook (Macroeconomics: A Fresh Start) is very strong on economic instability from a practical perspective. I don’t try to shoehorn all crashes into a single model, but allow for three different general types (policy, profit and financial cycles), with suggestions for what to look for to identify them in real time. Overall, I think the macro book is more effective than the micro, which, if I had the time, I’d like to have another go at. Incidentally, the text was written to support active learning methods (workshops, projects, etc.), but I never had the opportunity to do a proper instructor’s manual. My apologies.

By: Michael Harrington

Michael Harrington — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 16:00:00 +0000

Cheap credit, accumulating debt, and excess leverage are pretty good indicators. Uh. Oh.

By: AConcernedCitizen

AConcernedCitizen — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 10:59:00 +0000

I remember reading a critical opinion of the modern economic modelling where everything is fine until a fire suddenly burns everything down and we have to start again.

Buildings are subject to regulations that are meant to prevent them burning down since fires don’t happen all the time but when they do it’s a critical moment that may mean the difference between life and death. Finance and the banking system should be the same really…

By: ANGRY_MODERATE

ANGRY_MODERATE — Sat, 16 Sep 2017 19:12:00 +0000

Economics as taught and practised is not “the dismal science”: it is the religion of capitalism and has no relation to science at all. This has been the deliberate choice of mainly US-based economics faculties and journals — since it has been the only way to bring in large amounts of money. Teachers of economics across the world then chose to buy in to US-style teaching — that is rote learning of dogma, so-called “models” and non-analytical approaches. Nothing has changed since the global financial crash.

By: Robert

Robert — Sat, 16 Sep 2017 19:07:00 +0000

I highly recommend the book, Economics Unmasked, by Philip Bartlett Smith and Manfred Max-Neef. Also, Max-Neef’s book Human Scale Development has been recognized by Cambridge University as one of the fifty most important texts in Sustainability. More about Economics Unmasked: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Economics-Unmasked-Philip-B-Smith/dp/1900322706/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505588139&sr=1-1&keywords=economics+unmasked

By: sdewye

sdewye — Sat, 16 Sep 2017 10:25:00 +0000

There is a way to have a completely stable, self-regulating, market-based economy with no unemployment (at no cost to anyone), no poverty (without having to redistribute anything), no taxes (of any kind), and no public debt (at any level of government). To be clear, there would be no limit on income or property. Also, sustainability would be enhanced. We have to start by simply accepting that a solution is in fact possible.

http://www.ajustsolution.com