Month: January 2012

The FT has launched a series of articles on this topic.  The first essay is by Larry Summers, who focuses on the challenge of Baumol’s cost disease

The nature of the transformation is highlighted by the 50 fold change in the relative price of a television set of a constant quality and a day in a hospital over the last generation.

The NYT outlines the German view of austerity and growth here.

The FT reports on the likelihood of a bigger reduction in the value of the debt held by private-sector investors in this article, while Cypriot central bank governor Orphanides expands on the downside of PSI in this op-ed.

The 2011-2012 Henry Grattan Lecture Series will address the theme of The Debt Crisis: Causes, Consequences, Controls. Henry Grattan lectures aim to promote informed and non-partisan debate and to offer new ideas to decision-makers and opinion-formers on long-term social, political and economic challenges.

Speaker:              Prof Karel Williams, Manchester Business School

Talk Title:            Elites and Crisis: the Case of the Econocrats

Date:                     Thursday 19 January from 6.00 to 7.30pm

Venue:                 Thomas Davis Theatre, Arts Building, TCD

The financial crisis from 2008-11 demonstrates that econocrats (central bankers and regulators) cannot understand or control finance and markets. In this public lecture Karel Williams, Professor of Accounting and Political Economy at Manchester Business School, will argue that the debt debacle is also a crisis of our expert elites. The lecture will be chaired by Paul Sweeney, Economic Advisor at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

Registration:
Lectures are open to the public and there is no charge to attend. However advanced registration is recommended. Reserve your place today.

For additional details visit the Policy Institute website.

The NYT reports on the Sean Quinn case here.