Welcome to the fifth issue of Insights
Insights publishes condensed and edited versions of important public lectures connected with the Faculty of Economics and Commerce. Its object is to share with the wider public – especially alumni – the issues presented and developed in these lectures. Our goal is to provide readers with access to expert opinion on complex issues and make available some of the extensive resources that are freely available. Insights also constitutes an archival source of an important element in Faculty life.
Editor’s Note
Our last issue went to press when the financial crisis had burst onto the world. We were too late then to include the public lectures given to the Faculty – we make up for it in this volume. The substance of the crisis is represented dramatically on the cover by the panicking bull falling precipitously down the wall of the stock exchange; while the bear, its claws drawn open, rises aggressively to take its place.
The first three articles deal with the crisis, complementing each other by analysing in detail different aspects of it. Each makes tentative suggestions for avoiding such a disaster in the future. The next article, drawing on the Marshall Plan experience, discusses what needs to be done to lift the living standards of the one billion people who are at the bottom of the world economy. Introducing an element of behavioural economics, the following article argues in favour of qualifying economic efficiency measures in micro-economic public policy by considerations of ‘fairness’. This is followed by a statistical exercise based on US statistics, which shows that a more meaningful account of changes in income inequality is provided by excluding the top one percent of incomes from the calculation. Finally, three Occasional Addresses by distinguished alumni give us the benefit of their professional experiences.
Once again, we have been most fortunate with the design and illustrations of the journal. Sonia Kretschmar has applied her talent to give life and visual meaning to the articles. My thanks are also due to the team for another stimulating issue. We are encouraged by the continued favourable responses from readers. The interest in Insights continues to be reflected in the large number of individuals who access the journal in its online form
Joe Isaac
Editor