Rethink Economics Host First Online Conference
Rethink Economics Host First Online Conference
Monday 16 Nov 2020We are pleased to report that Rethink Economics Society hosted their first online conference on 31 October to discuss “Public Debt Sustainability and Monetary Policy in the Age of Covid-19”.
The event was supported from the start by Dr Farzad Javidanrad, Teaching Fellow from the Department of Economics at Warwick and the Rethinking Economics organisation.
The conference started with presentations by eminent academics: Professor Roger Farmer (@farmerrf, Department of Economics, Warwick), Dr Eric Tymoigne (@tymoignee, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon, US), Dr Fadhel Kaboub (@FadhelKaboub, Denison University, Granville, Ohio, US) and Prof George Selgin (@GeorgeSelgin, Cato Institute) followed by a panel debate moderated by Dr Farzad Javidanrad. We were also pleased to welcome Prof Stephanie Kelton in the audience, the author of the NYT bestseller ‘The Deficit Myth” and advisor to Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.
The conference was a great success and Dr Farzad Javidanrad commented:
“It was good to watch and take part in a friendly and fruitful discussions of the panel and the audience on sovereign debt, debt sustainability, Green New Deal, Modern Monetary Theory, and budget deficit spending. The Q&A session provided further insights into the topics and the engagement and feedback from Twitter was very positive”.
Salman Mallick and Eric Decker from the Rethink Economics Society worked hard to set up the logistics of the event and to promote it to fellow students. Here is what Salman said about the conference:
“It was a great learning experience for us: we found out about debt sovereignty from Roger Farmer, we were introduced to MMT (Modern Monetary Theory) by Eric Tymoigne, we put the economic effects of coronavirus into context of other crises such as the Great Depression and the 2008 financial crisis thanks to George Selgin; we also explored non-economic reasons of having limited monetary sovereignity with Fadhel Kaboub. The panel debate brought us useful insights into the feasibility of MMT and the risk of inflationary pressure, mainstream and non-mainsstream understanding of monetary sovereignty, the workability of a job guarantee system, and the long-term effects of Covid-19 and the future of monetary policy”.
Rethink Economics Warwick is a relatively new society, set up in 2019 whose aim (together with its mother organisation Rethinking Economics) is working on improving economics education in universities. Salman said of the society:
“We are campaigning for more pluralistic economics education that is more open to insights from other fields and has a higher real-world applicability. We are hosting lectures, seminars, discussion groups and conferences inviting heterodox economists and hosting interesting debates on the role of Economics in climate change, feminism or inequality.”
Dr Javidanrad said that he has plans to hold similar events in collaboration with Rethink Economics Warwick and the next one will be on the topic of global sustainable development.
To find out more about Rethink Economics Warwick and to join here are the ways to get in touch with them: