4 February 2019

Organisers: Sam Forbes, Stefan Grosskinsky, Alexander Karalis Isaac (Economics)

Confirmed speakers: Marco Bardoscia (Bank of England), Rob Macquarie (Positive Money), Marcus Miller (Warwick Economics), Stefania Paredes Fuentes (Warwick Economics), Ann Pettifor (Council Member, Progressive Economy Forum)

Registration is now closed!

(we reached the budget and room size limit due to popular demand)

Programme and talk slides ....... Poster

What is money?
For the ordinary person, money is what you need to pay the bills and lead a decent live in a capitalist society. And, unfortunately it does not grow on 'magic money trees', as assured to us by the PM as the main reason for 10 years of austerity policy.
For the economist, money is a medium of exchange for goods or services within an economy, and has further functions as a unit of account, a store of value or a standard for repayment of debts.
From a mathematical modelling perspective, money is also a locally conserved quantity that is created by well-defined sources within the economy, similar to energy in an open nonequilibrium physical system.
While not trees in a traditional sense, the sources of money creation certainly appear 'magic' to many of us who have little background in this area, and are an interesting topic to learn more about.

The aim of this meeting is to bring together researchers from economics and mathematical modelling to exchange ideas on how to model monetary dynamics and its impact in the modern economy. The 2008 financial crisis triggered renewed scientific interest in this question, and has seen a revival of quantitative monetary theories from the past. It has also led to calls for alternative monetary systems, which allow the state to take back control of money creation.
The introduction from 11-11:50 and the session from 4-6pm including a discussion (see programme) is aimed at a more general audience (including undergraduates), to illustrate how the current monetary system influences the every-day lives of ordinary people, e.g. by facilitating an upward spiral in house prices.

Related links and news items

• For those interested, there is a new local branch of Positive Money just forming in Leamington/Coventry with introductory events summarized here.
• OXFAM briefing paper presented in Davos 21.1.2019
  Public Good or Private Wealth? Universal health, education and other public services reduce the gap between rich and poor, and between women and men. Fairer taxation of the wealthiest can help pay for them.
• All of the World’s Money and Markets in One Visualization, The Money Project
  
• Bank of England quarterly bulletins: Money in the modern economy: an introduction, Money creation in the modern economy
• National Investment Banks, a lecture by Professor Stephany Griffith-Jones on 7.2.2019, hosted by the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose and the Progressive Economy Forum

See also:
Mathematics Research Centre
Mathematical Interdisciplinary Research at Warwick (MIR@W)
Past Events 
Past Symposia