Wednesday, October 18, 2006

End of Summer Hiatus

by Administrator


Yes, we have been idle during this summer.

But isn’t the renowned philosopher Bertrand Russell said that “The wise use of leisure, it must be conceded, is a product of civilization and education…….Men who, in their professional work, have become interested in some phase of economics or government, will be able to develop their ideas without the academic detachment that makes the work of university economists often seem lacking in reality” in his 1932 essay entitled In Praise of Idleness.

Following his line of thought, proper idleness is just the product and influence of proper civilization. Even better, it also produce more realistic economist. And in the time like this, more of practical (not just a freak and an undercover) economists are just what the world need.

Blanchard (2004) in analyzing economic future of Europe noted that in this continent, more of the productivity rise is used to increase leisure time compare to America. If in term of total output per worker Europe is behind US but if the unit of measurement is change to output per hour per worker then the difference is negligible.

And aren’t we, as (half finish?) product of European education system, also supposed to absorb the institutional arrangement and social consensus of society around us in addition to optimization techniques and quantitative methods of mainstream economics?

Now we are more energize than ever and looking forward to serve you better economics and a-bit-related-to-economics articles. We also have new contributors just starting their study in Europe, so please check us out.

Summer is dead, long live summer!