lectures by : Dr. Piet Keizer Utrecht University School of Economics
How to Understand the Financial Crisis
What can explain why we face the worst financial crisis in world history? This series explores a range of possible explanations using basic concepts from social organization and economic theories. Should we be blaming bad bankers, their greed, poor risk management and sloppy monitoring? Can states make sound judgments in the complex world of international financial markets and what are the limits of individuals’ roles in making choices? But what about the basic assumptions underlying how the world market works? Is this a ‘hiccup’ in the market, or is the whole thing cracking and neo-liberal ‘casino capitalism’ reaching its limits?
Dr. Piet Keizer, Utrecht School of Economics focuses on how to understand the financial crisis. Explore with him during this four-part akademia honora series, the tension between the individual and the collective; freedom and responsibility and the idea of rational decision making.
Tuesday January 27th
I’ll do it my way! – on Freedom and Responsibility
Tonight we explore the tension between freedom and responsibility. Can an individual in today’s complex society make his/her choices/ decisions in freedom and at the same time be held responsible for causing a world wide crisis while even experts fail to grasp all the mechanisms that make the system tick? How free are our choices and where does responsibility begin and end?
Tuesday February 3rd
Order out of Chaos & Rationality’s Limits
Rationality is in the spotlight. Is the world financial crisis telling us that the rationality of the free market has failed or reached its limits? Yes, say those claiming that the market was not ‘free enough’ because states interfered too much (with subsidies for mortgages). Others suggest that states didn’t go far enough to supervise and monitor. But can states be so much more rational than the market? What role did emotions play prior to the crisis? What are the limits of individuals’ abilities to exercise sound decisions?
Tuesday February 10th
What now? The Financial Crisis and Beyond
Dr. Piet Keizer wraps up this series by answering the question: what explains why the world has plummeted into a grave financial crisis? Having explored tensions between the individual and the collective; freedom and responsibility, and notions of rationality, he will reflect on why these core concepts are essential for evaluating and analyzing the various approaches to understanding the crisis. This session summarizes the key ideas explored earlier and evaluates our tools for reflecting on far reaching challenges facing society.
Tuesday, January 20th
You, Me and Us – Individual vs Collective Interests
This evening centers on the interests of the individual versus the collective. Is it really possible that a few greedy or incompetent individuals are capable of rocking collective interests? What holds our system together if our society is so vulnerable? What can social science (for example economy) really tell us about the tension between individual and collective interests?