Economics for Everyone

MAY 23, 2010:  Being on a 6-month sabbattical leave in New Zealand, I clearly have too much time on my hands.  Proof?  Check out these two YouTube videos with economic themes -- and really, really bad acting.

The first (Lieutenant Stanfordo and the Curious Case of the Missing Recovery) had real talent behind it: Mike Connolly and his colleagues at Amistad Video in Toronto.  Thanks also to the CAW Communications Department for supporting this, shall we say, unorthodox approach to economics education.

MAY 17, 2010:  I visited Sydney last weekend for a Politics in the Pub session, moderated by the effervescent Frank Stilwell.  These things get a great turnout (150 or so I would guess).  I think all progressive lecture sessions should make sure there's a well-stocked bar on hand.  Does wonders both for attendance, and for the frequency with which the audience laughs at my sick jokes.

MAY 20, 2010: The Fabian Society here in New Zealand has organized a compressed 2-session course in Economics for Everyone that I will be teaching on the evenings of June 15 and 22, at the Trades Hall in Auckland.  Everyone welcome!  Here is a poster with the details.

MAY 3, 2010:  Kerri-Anne Finn, the wonderful communications person at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative, has just kindly compiled some interesting statistics on traffic to this web site.  Interestingly, traffic has continued to grow steadily over the time since e4e was published.  The site is now attracting almost 1000 visits per month.

MARCH 30, 2010: I'd like to post links to several more very generous reviews of e4e that have been published in recent months.  Many thanks to all the reviewers for their interest in progressive economics pedagogy, and for their very kind words:

Simon Black reviewed the book for Canadian Dimension, Canada's most progressive newsmagazine.

FEBRUARY 1, 2010:  I've just arrived in lovely Auckland, New Zealand, where I will spend the next 5 months on a research sabbattical.  I am developing a strong affinity for the southern half of this sorry planet.  After all, I wrote most of e4e while living in Melbourne, Australia on my last leave in 2006-07.  I came back through the Antipodes last summer (their winter).  And now I'll be hanging out in New Zealand -- still suffering mightily from the neoliberal legacy of Sir Roger Douglas and his "Rogernomincs," I might add -- until July.

SEPTEMBER 7 (LABOUR DAY), 2009: A year after the shit hit the financial fan, with the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the subsequent recession, doesn't it seem strange that workers' organizations seem to be on the defensive in so many places?

After all, workers and unions didn't create this crisis... financiers did!  So why are unions taking so much heat, as the recession does its painful work (including its side-effects on governments' fiscal well-being)?

MAY 11, 2009 -- I guess it's fair to claim that Economics for Everyone is now officially a "best-seller."  In the week following my visit to Calgary in April (where I gave two talks, fabulously hosted by the Arusha Centre, Parkland Institute, and the Council of Canadians), e4e became the best-selling non-fiction book in the whole city (according to the Calgary Herald, Calgary's major daily).

APRIL 21, 2009 - I continue to get some very interesting e-mails from readers in various countries, with questions, feedback, and ideas.  Keep those messages coming, to author@economicsforeveryone.com.  I will reply to everyone.

Here are some excerpts from some of the recent messages:

APRIL 18, 2009 - I am thrilled at some of the latest reviews that have been published or posted of e4e from a great range of sources, both in Canada and internationally.  Here's a summary of some of the recent feedback, with links: