The term Arab Spring is now entrenched in the lexicon although what it actually refers to – liberty or more oppression – is now a question in its own right. There is another Spring occurring – smaller, more obscure perhaps, but with significant potential to change the way academic research is disseminated and the way funding agencies treat universities. In the case of the economics discipline it offers significant scope to break down some of the barriers that allow the mainstream economics paradigm to retain dominance despite it being largely bereft of empirical support. I am talking about the Academic Spring, which is a grass roots revolt that is gathering pace. You can find out how to join this revolt at the end of the blog.

It is a holiday in Australia today and the sun is shining and so this blog will be very short. There are so many issues going on at present that it is hard to know which one to prioritise. Anyway …

Yes, and more. There was an article in the EU Observer this week (April 3, 2012) – EU ‘surprised’ by Portugal’s unemployment rate – which I had to re-read a few times to check that I was actually reading the words correctly. The dialogue presented was so shocking that it raises fundamental questions about how one is interact with the economics debate. Then I read some more articles this week which investigated why mainstream economics retains its dominance in the face of its catastrophic failure to explain anything of importance to humanity. Closed minds are very resistant to change especially when socio-pathological dimensions are present. Which led me to investigate Mayan cosmology after being accused of being a practitioner of the art! Overall, another week in the life of a Modern Monetary Theorist (MMTist) – par for the course really.

The Australian Treasurer wrote an Op Ed in the Melbourne Age today (April 4, 2012) – Return to surplus is the right move at the right time – trying to defend his obsessive pursuit of a budget surplus in the next financial year. It was in direct response to an article yesterday (April 3, 2012) from the Melbourne Age economics editor Tim Colebatch – Budget cuts will bring on recession. Tim Colebatch’s commentary was a followup to his article last week (March 30, 2012) – Swan’s foolish surplus fetish – which I considered in this blog – A seriously reckless act. The pressure is mounting on the Government to abandon their reckless pursuit of the surplus. Even the conservative State premiers have expressed concern (States warn Wayne Swan over budget cuts. It is clear that the forecasts that the surplus were based on have no hope of being realised over the relevant horizon. The Australian economy is performing well below what the Treasury expected and deteriorating. The surplus obsession is based on these overly optimistic forecasts. The Government would be advised to assume the worst case scenario at present and calibrate its May Budget accordingly, rather than persist with the myth that the Treasury has it right.