The Newsletter for the Victorian Branch of the Economic Society of Australia

In this newsletter we discuss some of the latest news from Economic Society along with some guest commentaries. I also have some exciting news about an in-person conference by those economists who specialise in the history of economic thought. It is being held in Melbourne CBD this month and some, not all I fear, of the papers, might interest members.
At the recent ACE conference held in Hobart in July four awards were made. Three of the recipients were, I am proud to say, Victorian-based.

At an age now well north of 50, two adult daughters, a husband (with a PhD in economics no less), a dog … and I’ve clocked up 11 different jobs since graduating from the University of QLD with honours in economics.

But a much more recent honour found me speechless. When I learned I had been awarded the ESA’s 2022 Distinguished Public Policy Fellow Award. The award is beyond an honour, particularly upon reflecting on the past recipients. It makes me incredibly thankful for the many smart, generous and passionate public policy folk I’ve worked with and learned from in my fortunate career (most as a public policy economist). And I have to say for the bits of my career away from public policy, they just helped me be a better one when I returned.

I would like to share with you an economic issue that has been lingering on my mind these days. Currently, there are some strong interesting debates going on about what a recession is and if a global recession is looming or is already there.

After the US has recorded two consecutive quarters of negative seasonally adjusted Real GDP growth rates, there are long debates questioning whether the US is/was really in recession territory. The NBER has particularly attempted to redefine the meaning of an economic contraction. The process of recalibrating the meaning an economic recession might actually shift the whole economic ideology around the meaning of economic life cycle and its economic indicators. What I mean is that redefining economic recessions will tend to significantly impact the intensity and timing of economic, monetary and fiscal policy formulation.

After being cancelled due to the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021, a History of Economic Thought Conference is being held at the Monash Conference Centre, 7^th floor, 30 Collins St Melbourne on 22-23 September.  There will be pre-conference drinks on Wednesday evening, 21st September, from 5.30 pm at the Kelvin Club, 14 Melbourne Place, near the intersection of Russell and Bourke streets in Melbourne. (Look for the Mexican restaurant and construction site nearby. The Kelvin Club is in a laneway called Melbourne Place). As host I will be convening the conference on behalf of the History of Economic Thought Society of Australia. Mark Blaug (2001: 147) once said that the history of economic thought tends to be ‘a haven for heterodoxy’. That is partly true. The Cambridge economist A. C Pigou once jibed that looking at the history of economic thought  was all about looking at ‘the wrong ideas of dead economists’. Heterodox economists are much more likely than mainstream thinkers to believe that there is still much to learn from dead economists, even if they did make a lot of errors.

The Victorian Branch will hold an in-person forum on the state of housing and how young people are being shut out of it at the Kelvin Club towards the end of the month. We also hope to have another forum on the all important first budget of the Albanese Government.

There will also be an online session on Cryptocurrency led by the RMIT block chain economists