Montag, 1. Februar 2010

Interview: Prof. Robert Skidelsky

Robert Skidelsky, a member of the British House of Lords, is Professor emeritus of political economy at Warwick University, author of a prize-winning biography of the economist John Maynard Keynes, and a board member of the Moscow School of Political Studies.

What should governments do about banks and financial institutions which are “too big to fail” or “too interconnected to fail”?

Break up the banks à la Obama.

How do you assess the new proposals of the US-President about spending freeze to trim deficits amid increasing unemployment? Does the spending freeze make any sense for the time being to the long-run budget outlook?

The deficits will have to be reduced. Part of the reduction will come from economic recovery. The rest will have to be brought about deliberately. But spending should not be frozen till the recovery is securely embedded.


Market discipline has failed. How far is the Efficient Market Hypothesis to blame for the current meltdown on the global financial markets?

The Efficient Market Hypothesis tells us that markets will always price securities correctly. This is rubbish. Belief in this theory, though, was important in promoting the de-regulation of financial markets. In that sense it was part of the intellectual mindset which led to the present crisis.


Thank you very much.



Robert Skidelsky, a member of the British House of Lords, is Professor emeritus of political economy at Warwick University, author of a prize-winning biography of the economist John Maynard Keynes, and a board member of the Moscow School of Political Studies. His account of the current economic crisis; Keynes: The Return of the Master, published in September 2009.

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