2022. Here we go again. A new crisis over a big part of the world. Again, newspapers talking about what to do, and what not to do. Again, governments activating different policies to try to restore, as much as possible, economic stability.
What is really a crisis? Why is it caused? How to react to it? Is everybody affected in the same way by the correcting policies? It seems that those are questions that are far from being understood by not expert citizens.
Nevertheless, media is constantly “bombing” with news about the topic (which we probably do not understand completely), and the effects of any crisis, and of the corresponding correcting policies, are definitely affecting the average citizen, no matter it’s expertise level. It is important, then, to at least be able to understand the general ideas behind what media is talking about!
The course Economic strategies to manage the crisis: austerity or government investment programmes? tries to explain what is a crisis and what kind of policies can be put in place, starting from the two opposing models of general reference: the Neoclassical and the Keynesian schools of economic thought. Explaining both is relevant, because they have different assumptions on how the economy works, and therefore, they propose different recommendations to face a crisis. These different recommendations imply also different levels of public intervention.
It is important to bear in mind that the models involve different points of view when making decisions about economic problems. And that those decisions respond not only to scientific data but also to the preferences and ideologies of those who adopt them. In the end, all economic policy measures are conditioned, by value judgments and ideological assumptions and, above all, by the pre-eminence of one or the other interests in the social system.
Join us to learn more about what is a crisis and the economic strategies to manage them. In the course you’ll find deeper information, and we hope it helps you read and analyze in a more critical way the information around us, always keeping in mind that different recommendations lead to different solutions, and also that those solutions affect differently the different group of interest.