World Economics Association – The next 3 years
Dear WEA member,
Today, 16 months after launch, the WEA:
- has a membership of 10,400;
- has a membership with a wide geographical distribution, approximately as follows: Africa 9%, Asia 18%, Europe 33%, Latin American and the Caribbean 12%, Oceania 8%, and US and Canada 20%;
- has published the first issues of its two new open-access and open-peer review journals, World Economic Review and Economic Thought;
- has increased the subscription base of its pre-existing open-access Real-World Economics Reviewto 20,900;
- has held its first online conference, with two more set to begin in September and November and with more lined up to follow;
- has published 5 issues of its 12-page bi-monthly newsletter, and
- has become a major presence in the world of economics.
Over the next 3 years the WEA expects:
- to become the world’s largest professional association of economists (it is already the second largest), thereby becoming the world’s new primary institutional reference point for the profession;
- to gain a very large and worldwide readership for all three of its now existing journals;
- to establish its online conferences as a major mode for global exchange and development of economic research and ideas;
- to launch one or more new journals;
- to greatly expand its website, and
- to witness the beginning of the end of the profession’s neoclassical hegemony.
This requires money. We are committed to being as self-sustaining financially as possible. To that end we are seeking to raise $100,000 from our membership on a voluntary basis.
Membership in the WEA will continue to be free.
But we are asking you for a voluntary annual contribution fee of $15 / £9.50 / 12 euros.
Or you may become a sponsor of the WEA, either anonymously or with your name listed on the sponsor’s webpage. There are three tiers of sponsorship: $100 – $500; $500 – $1,000; and $1,000+.
You may contribute here, either with a credit card or directly through a PayPal account. http://www.worldeconomicsassociation.org/contribute/
The WEA’s strategic goal is to improve economics. It intends to do so by encouraging pluralism, by developing a thriving, growing, and active platform for economists committed to pluralism and new thinking; and by deepening and broadening the reach of its activities. To that end it will expand and continually upgrade the quality of its suite of journals, establish its conferences as leading the field, and expand its website to become a central location and reference point for economics and economists.
To see the draft WEA budget for the coming year, click here. http://www.worldeconomicsassociation.org/budget/
The World Economics Association is registered under United Kingdom law as a non-profit public interest company.
Hopefully yours,
WEA Executive Committee
Juan Carlos Moreno Brid, Mexico, UN Economic Com. for Latin America and the Caribbean
C. P. Chandrasekhar, India, Jawaharlal Nehru University
Ping Chen, China, Peking University and Fudan University
Edward Fullbrook, UK, University of the West of England
James K. Galbraith, USA, University of Texas at Austin
Grazia Ietto-Gillies, Italy / UK, London South Bank University
Steve Keen, Australia, University of Western Sydney
Richard Koo, Japan, Nomura Research Institute
Tony Lawson, UK, Cambridge University
Peter Radford, USA, Radford Free Press
Dani Rodrik, USA, Harvard University
WEA online Sustainability Conference, 24 September to 21 October, 2012
Congratulations on your first, and highly successful, 16 months. As a regular reader, I appreciate your articles and blogs for their interesting and unique perspectives on economics.
That said, I wish there was more out-of-the-box thinking on the following:
1. Where does money come from? What is the possibility, in our fiat-money economy, for Greenbacking/Positive money, or any other kind of non-bank created and even debt-free money?
2. Public Banking. Most of the world’s banks are public banks. Public Banks did not meltdown in the last, and continuing crisis. Why and is moving toward a more public banking system worth investigating?
3. What is the difference between a budget and an asset report of ALL holdings? Are governments really broke just because they are “over-budget” when they hold trillions in assets, accumulated over many decades? If not, what is the best way to return those liquid assets back to the public from whom they were obtained?
4. What are the implications for the world money supply of offshore accounts? These total up to $32 trillion, according to a new Tax Justice Network report. Should these monies be repatriated, and if so, how?
5. Rent-seeking on resources. How to reclaim the rent on the commons – Land, Location, Spoilage of resources (i.e. pollution). Should the rent-collectors be allowed to profit from the surplus that is part of the commons? If not, how much rent is there to collect (Many Georgist economists calculate it is more than 1/3 of GDP)?
6. With all the money actually out there, should there be a Basic Income Guarantee, aka a Citizen’s Dividend?