Nobel Prize Recipient Writes for Social Europe Journal
13th May 2009
The latest and much anticipated issue of Social Europe Journal (SEJ) has just been published, featuring an article by Nobel Prize Winner George A. Akerlof and Yale Professor Robert J. Shiller.
This article is an exclusive excerpt (edited from preface) from the authors’ new book: Animal Spirits. How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism, published by Princeton University Press.
In the article the esteemed theorists reemphasise the necessity of an active government role in managing ‘animal spirits’ - a term John Maynard Keynes introduced to explain non-rational behaviour in the economy.
According to the authors: ‘To understand how economies work and how we can manage them and prosper, we must pay attention to the thought patterns that animate people’s ideas and feelings, their animal spirits. We will never really understand important economic events unless we confront the fact that their causes are largely mental in nature.’
The SEJ is an free, quarterly, intellectual journal, which was founded by Dr Henning Meyer and Professor Stephen Haseler at the Global Policy Institute at London Metropolitan University. As a way to enable its readers to participate in an exchange of ideas on all issues surrounding ‘European Social Democracy’, the SEJ has recently revamped its website www.social-europe.eu. Its new interactive features now mean that it is easier than ever to comment on articles and to participate in a forum of lively debates.
SEJ is a forum for debate and innovative political thinking. It not only deals with social democracy and European economic policy but it also uses ‘Social Europe’ as a viewpoint to examine issues such as globalisation, political economy, industrial policy and international relations.
Since its founding, SEJ has published writers of the highest calibre including several Nobel laureates, international political leaders and prime ministers as well as some of the best young talent.
The latest SEJ issue also includes an article by SPD Vice-Chairwoman Andrea Nahles and British MP Jon Cruddas on the challenges European social democracy faces today.
Click here to read the new exciting edition of the Social Europe Journal.