2017年10月7日土曜日

Univ. of Cassino and Southern Lazio Lectures Guest Prof. Toshiaki Hirai

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Univ. of Cassino and Southern Lazio Lectures


Guest Prof. Toshiaki Hirai
Emeritus Prof., Sophia Univ., Tokyo

Table of Contents with Preface

Preface

Part I Global Capitalism and the Economies 

Lecture 1 How Should We Grasp Capitalism and Globalization?
Lecture 2 Financial Liberalization and Instability
Lecture 3 Whither Capitalism (the Market Society)?
Lecture 4 The Euro Crisis
Lecture 5 Self-Trapped Japanese Economy 
Lecture 6 Quantitative Easing Policy in the US and Japan
Lecture 7 What Is Happening to Economics?

Part II. What Keynes Achieved for the Modern World

Lecture 8 The Life of Keynes
Lecture 9 Keynes’s Economics in the Making
Lecture 10 Social Philosophy in Interwar Cambridge
Lecture 11 Employment Policy in the Making
Lecture 12 Welfare State in the Making
Lecture 13 Commodity Control Scheme
Lecture 14 Relief and Reconstruction Problem
Lecture 15 International Monetary System


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 Preface



From April through June in 2016 I had the opportunity to deliver a series of lectures at the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Italy, and I prepared the files for them. Now, one year later, it has occurred to me that I might arrange and edit them in such a way as to produce a readable book. Let me present this plan.
Through an exchange of emails with the professors in charge of the program there, I planned to deliver the lectures based on two themes: Part I “Global Capitalism and the Economies” and Part II “What Keynes Achieved for the Modern World”. At first sight the two appear to be presented separately, but they are, in fact, interconnected.
This book is structured with Part I and Part II bearing the same titles as the files for the lectures. Part I consists of seven lectures, Part II of eight. Let me briefly outline Part I and Part II, referring to the lectures concerned.

Part I Global Capitalism and the Economies

Even confining attention to the last three decades, the world economy has gone through considerable transformation. In the latter half of the 1980s we saw the rapidly accelerating political disintegration of the Socialist Bloc, which at last brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union, and with it the Cold War which had dominated the post-war world came to an end.
The Capitalist Camp, meanwhile, had already made great changes, in the 1970s, in the international monetary system and trade structure, deterioration of the US economy contrasting with the remarkable economic growth of the economies of Japan and West Germany. With the advent of the 1980s, this trend became more striking – especially the economic growth of Japan – in contrast with the US, which suffered from stagflation as well as the “twin deficits”. In the latter half of the 1980s, Japanese firms made great efforts to address the depression resulting from rapid yen appreciation subsequent to the Plaza Accord (1885), and the technological innovation they achieved caught attention and stirred wonder throughout the world.
With the 1990s, however, the world awaited another great transformation. In the US the IT industry, thanks to a new wave of innovation, grew at such an amazing pace that it soon came to dominate the world economy, while the financial sector achieved similar status through financial globalization. Contrastingly, despite various economic policies Japan failed to control the Bubble Economy in the early 1990s, as a result of which it suffered from the so-called “Lost 25 years” and remarkably lost much of its presence in the world economy.

The former Soviet bloc, which abandoned the socialistic system, tried to reconstruct their economies by adopting the capitalistic system in haste (that is, applying “Shock Therapy”), which brought about tremendous economic collapse together with severe political and social decline.
Such was not the case with China, however. China, which had launched reconstruction of the economy under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping through the gradual Capitalistic reform in 1978 (“Reform and Opening-Up” Policy), succeeded in attaining vigorous economic growth (over 10 percent annual rate of growth consecutively since the 1990s), as a result of which it has emerged as a great economic nation, ranking second in terms of GDP, and on the strength of this exerting great influence over the world economy.
Besides China, the new “emerging nations” called the BRICs achieved rapid economic development, raising their heads purposefully in the world economy. Among other countries, Russia, with Putin as the President, has shown great presence in not only economic but also political terms.
Over just these three decades, the world economy has thus seen transformation on a vast scale. As from the 1990s we have witnessed increasing uncertainty and fragility due to excessive financial globalization, eventually bringing about the catastrophic meltdown in the fall of 2008 ― the “Lehman Shock”.

In Part I, “Global Capitalism and the Economies”, how global capitalism has evolved during these three decades and where it will be going from now on are examined from several points of view.
Firstly, examination focuses on what capitalism and globalization are (Lecture 1) and the financial liberalization (or financial globalization) and instability which it brought on the world economy (Lecture 2). Secondly, we come to what kinds of problems the economies of the developed nations such as the US, the EU and Japan faced and how the governments addressed them, and what the results of these efforts were (Lecture 3 through Lecture 6). Thirdly, critical examination is made of the role economics has played in these events (Lecture 7).

Part II. What Keynes Achieved for the Modern World

John Maynard Keynes was probably the most important ― unquestionably the most influential ― economic thinker to emerge in the first half of the 20th century. After his death, his influence in the spheres of macroeconomics and economic policy-making became, over the course of the third quarter of the twentieth century, so overwhelmingly dominant that the period might with some credit be designated as the “Age of Keynes”.
The evolution of Keynes’s thought was induced as much by the events of the real world, in which he was himself deeply engaged, as by those of the world of economics. He developed his own monetary approach to economics, centering on the theory of effective demand, and, on that foundation, advocated economic policies to address the pressing problem of mass unemployment which marked the inter-war years. It should be added that the stance Keynes took in economics and in practical affairs was closely linked to his social philosophy ― the “New Liberalism” ― which insisted on the necessity for judicious intervention on the part of governments to facilitate the orderly functioning of the economy ― an outlook set squarely against the 19th -century laissez―faire.
Apart from his activities as an economist, Keynes was much involved in international negotiations throughout his life, starting with the financial negotiations with the US during WW1 and at the Paris Peace Conference. Among other things, he not only put forward important proposals for the design of the post-war world order but also led the UK through the negotiations with the US as the top figure in the United Kingdom delegations.

In Part II, “What Keynes Achieved for the Modern World”, firstly Keynes is introduced with a brief biography (Lecture 8). Secondly, we see how Keynes arrived at his magnus opus, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936) moving on from his former book, A Treatise on Money (1930) (Lecture 9). Thirdly, we see what kind of social philosophy on capitalism the Cambridge economists expressed – six economists, including Keynes (Lecture 10). Fourthly, we look into his activities as policy advisor or system designer, including the field of domestic policy such as employment policy and welfare state planning (Lectures 11 and 12) and the issues of the international system including the commodity problem, relief and reconstruction, and the international monetary System (Lectures 13-15).

Last but not least, I wish to express my great gratitude to Professors Sergio Nisticò and Eleonora Sanfilippo for this great opportunity, and indeed to the graduate students for their assiduous attendance.

August 15, 2017, Tokyo
Toshiaki Hirai