Worldwise: A European Economic Education (Robert Wright & Arash Molavi Vassei)
 

Re: Worldwise: A European Economic Education (Robert Wright & Arash Molavi Vassei)
 

This was very good. Fits more or less with what I've been hearing/reading/writing on the subject.

In particular, Vassei's point at the close, that this is an essentially political project being pursued by economic means, with some stealth hope that the politics would fall into place over time, is dead on. It might still fall into place, but in a crisis context almost certain to create resentment. It is not a new point, but it is still a good one.

I have been very disappointed by the way the general interest press has covered this story, but the Financial Times has been phenomenal. There is not a day that I don't look at their coverage and think, 'Man, I wish I wrote that.' There's a semi-paywall over there (limited articles a month), but if you are at all interested in how we got here and what happens next and whether this is the beginning of a global second recession and all that jazz, I recommend you head over to their site, register and read everything that Martin Wolf and Wolfgang Münchau have written in the last 18 months.

Re: Worldwise: A European Economic Education (Robert Wright & Arash Molavi Vassei)
 

I agree with Preppy, another excellent diavlog on this complex, boring but important topic.

The ECB, as if to answer Mr Vassei's prayers, has just announced measures that may calm the markets, for a few days anyway:

Arash Molavi Vassei, 10/13/04
 

Translated by google from here:

Hitler was not the beginning of a disaster, but its pathetic effusion! His path was paved in parts of pretentious intellectuals as Hegel, Marx, Fichte, Sombart, Plenge, Schmitt, Spengler and finally Moeller van den Bruck, the latter as, thinkers' propagandists of National Socialism.

Seems a bit huffy but then it was seven years ago.

Re: Arash Molavi Vassei, 10/13/04
 

Are you suggesting that Arash has become a bit less huffy as a result of the crisis?

I skimmed the blog in German. There is nothing unusual about an economist who espouses "liberalism," as that term is understood in Europe. Nothing unusual either in suggesting that Fichte, Hegel, Marx, Sombart, Schmitt, Spengler (I have never heard of Plenge or van den Bruck) led to Hitler. Personally, I think it is rather silly to trace the rise of Hitler to the German philosophical tradition---reductio ad Hitlerum---if only because Hitler was not very well educated in the German philosophical tradition, besides being a lunatic, but that is another matter....

Re: Arash Molavi Vassei, 10/13/04
 

Agreed, Florian.

Re: Worldwise: A European Economic Education (Robert Wright & Arash Molavi Vassei)
 

I disagree with Florian.

The collapse of the world financial system is anything but boring.

Re: Worldwise: A European Economic Education (Robert Wright & Arash Molavi Vassei)
 

That is melodramatic. The kind of thing you read almost everyday in the financial press. Melodrama keeps the financial system in a constant state of turmoil.

I said the topic is complex, boring and important. All good economists are a bit boring imo.

Re: Arash Molavi Vassei, 10/13/04
 

Including Marx on the list seems particularly absurd, given Hitler's hatred of Marxism/communism/left socialism, interationalism, egalitarianism, etc. and his theories of nationalism, racism and the right of Germany to dominate other nations and people. Reminds me of the effort of some on the right to relocate Hitler from the right to the left of the political spectrum.

Re: Worldwise: A European Economic Education (Robert Wright & Arash Molavi Vassei)
 

The headlines right now are very contradictory, if you google Europe news. Everything from a historic agreement that causes stocks to rise to a failure that doesn't impress markets. Some mention "UK isolated" but they aren't part of the eurozone anyway, although part of the EU, sort of half-hearted, I think, generally.