Seminars in Economics, Economic Policy, and Political Economy

The seminar program for student scholarship holders of the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation includes the possibility of offering and participating in seminars. Each year, the opportunity to propose seminar topics with a title and concept is open to all. The democratic process of voting by all scholarship holders then determines the seminars for the following year. Together with colleagues, I won about ten elections and hosted several seminars. As a speaker for the working group on Economics, I took on the responsibility of organizing several meetings. As a host of a seminar or working group meeting, I had to organize the entire program of a three- to four-day event, including selecting topics, articles, teaching formats, speakers, and visits to institutions with integrated discussions like the European Central Bank, the Bundesbank, or the Bundestag. Hosting also includes guiding through the seminar.

One of the most enriching aspects of the seminar implementation was navigating the diverse educational and political backgrounds of the scholarship holders. This presented unique challenges and opportunities, sparking engaging discussions and fostering a rich learning environment where each participant’s unique perspective was a valuable contribution. While their ability to understand quickly allows them to progress easily within unfamiliar topics, their diverse study programs from Economics, Law, Politics, Philosophy, Arts, and Natural Science make it challenging to create a common ground from which analysis can start and be shared. This requires the seminar guide to break down complex topics and translate them into different and enable different ways to approach problems. Once we had built a common ground of terminology, the participants appreciated the opportunity to gain new perspectives in the discussions.

List of seminars and working group meetings

• This time is different.
  What can we learn from financial crises in history?
• What is Criticism?
• Economic Dogmas
• Tax Myths
• Debt - The first 5,000 years
• World Economic System 2050
• What is Politics? What is Radicalism?
• Myths of the Economy
• Social Economics
• Postcapitalism
• No, no, there is no limit
• This crisis is different? Concepts for the next crisis.

Besides seminars, I organized or participated in reading groups of multidisciplinary character to get beyond the curriculum of my Economics education. This involves especially classical Political Economy such as Smith, Ricardo, Marx, Luxemburg, Lenin, Keynes, Hayek, Friedman.

Details on selected examples

This time is different.
What can we learn from financial crises in history?

In the aftermath of Lehman Brothers and the Financial Crises of 2008, many scholars and politicians have raised the question of how unique this crisis was. Reinhart and Rogoff published their book “This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly” in 2009, tediously analyzing the history of financial crises. Political leaders in times of financial crises react with policy measures that shall ensure that ’this time is different’ and crises do not repeat. However, the truth is that patterns of crises repeat: credits to firms, foreign banks, or states with changing risks. The uncertainty on the return of investments and exchange rates can lead to an explosion of the financial system, even more so in times of a recession that strangles current cash flows and the future outlook. If there are no sufficient reserves to cover the risks or policy instruments to prevent a cascade of defaults, financial crises will play out in a similar manner.

The seminar played a crucial role in fostering a shared understanding of the various types of financial crises among the participants. It achieved this by drawing on numerous historical examples, including the Tulip Crisis, Great Depression, Skandinavian Crises 1990s, and Asian Crisis 1997. The seminar was enriched by the contributions of esteemed guest speakers, each of whom brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. These speakers included renowned researchers from academia such as Prof. Moritz Schularick and Prof. Jan-Otmar Hesse, as well as the head of Deutsche Bank Research and the head of risk controlling at the federal institute for financial markets stability (FMSA).

All crises are unique, but they share commonalities that, so far, no economic policy could prevent.

No, no, there is no limit

Since the industrialization, economic growth has massively increased the quality of life for many people. Not everyone on this planet benefits from this growth in the same manner. While some countries and their people caught up in the last decades, especially China, others have not. Also, in the economically developed world, growth has slowed in the last decades.

Do we approach a limit to growth? While a macroeconomic analysis could indicate economically developed countries reaching a steady state, the ongoing rapid technological progress suggests that growth should continue. But there are counteracting effects. This century, the human population will reach its peak, shifting absolute and relative growth to per capita growth. Can per capita growth go on in the face of an ecological crisis? Famously, climate change exceeds the limits that the common good of the atmosphere can bear. But beyond other results of climate change, like ocean acidification and the sixth mass extinction, there is more to come. The common good of the atmosphere gets filled not just with CO2 and methane but also micro- and nano-plastics, as well as other pollutants. Our production processes result in what we want, but also unwanted scrap. Missing property rights on the scrap or where we can put the scrap create extra profits. This incentive keeps the mechanism running.

The answer to whether per capita growth can go on depends on three other questions. Can we decouple technological progress from per capita use of resources? Can we reorganize production to prevent scrap? Can we set property rights accordingly for the scrap and the global garbage dumps?

The seminar created a common base for how economic growth is measured and which mechanisms contribute to it. We discussed with guest speakers the potential limits to growth and what policies can help to reduce the conflict between global common goods and economic production.