Speaker: George Selgin
Date: Tuesday 28 May 2013
Time: 06:30pm - 08:00pm
RSVP: events@adamsmith.org
Location: Adam Smith Institute, 23 Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3BL
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At a time when monetary policy is top of the agenda, the Adam Smith Institute hosts a leading monetary economist who will outline a bold plan for reform.
Professor George Selgin argues that deflation is not always bad, and outlines his plan to replace inflation targeting with a 'productivity norm' that would allow prices to fall when productivity increases. He distinguishes between 'good deflation' which is associated with technological progress reducing the cost of production, and 'bad deflation', which is caused by a fall in aggregate demand.
He is an outspoken critic of central banks claiming that they have a destabilising influence on financial systems. His speech will be followed by a Q&A session, and guests will have an opportunity to talk to him over drinks afterwards.
George Selgin is Professor of Economics at the University of Georgia and a founder of the influential and growing free banking school. He is a senior fellow of the Cato Institute. Renowned for his bold rhetoric and no-nonsense debating style, Mr Selgin will be an engaging speaker addressing a topical subject. This is not one to miss!
* This event is now being held at the Adam Smith Institute, and not in Church House as previously advertised (which is just next door).
Date: Tuesday 4 June 2013
Time: 06:30pm - 08:00pm
RSVP: events@adamsmith.org
Location: Convocation Hall, Church House, Dean's Yard, SW1P 3NZ
Map: find us!
The Adam Smith Institute is delighted to host David Stockman's book launch of 'The Great Deformation'. Mr Stockman will talk about his analysis of the present state of the US economy and political system while providing a detailed account of how the nation got into its current economic malaise. The Fed’s policy of ever-cheaper credit, he argues, has not only destroyed the free market by constantly distorting price signals, encouraging reckless debt accumulation, and rewarding financial speculation (and consequently widening income and wealth gaps), it has also thoroughly corrupted the political process. Stockman argues that the political system has become easy prey for hordes of crony capitalists. The Fed’s cheap credit policies and interest rate repression make it so chronically incapable of living within its means that it cannot resist the advances of the healthcare industry, the military-industrial complex, trade unions, and the 'too-big-to-fail’ banks.
As well as providing a critique of the American government's economic strategy he is a myth buster par-excellence. He exposes a series of economic misnomers including the myths that the 2008 financial crisis was the result of unregulated markets, that there was such a thing as the ‘Reagan Revolution’, that the Great Depression was caused by the gold standard and was ended by Roosevelt’s Keynesian policies, and that modern financial markets represent free market capitalism.
David Stockman draws on his experience as the director of the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan and his many years as an investment banker and private equity investor. He will deliver a 40 minute lecture to be followed by Q&A, and his book will be available for purchase on the evening.
events@adamsmith.org
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