The recent appointment of Jesse Klaver as the new leader of GroenLinks, a progressive left-wing party in the Netherlands, has sparked a new debate in Dutch politics. Klaver used his first speech as political leader to attack a concept called “economism”. Although the wording suggests that economism is a belief system with economics at the
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Perspectives on the Millennium Development Goals
The world has always been divided between the developed and the undeveloped, or at least for as long as written history tells us. Prosperity has been unequally divided over the globe, from the early days of human history. Powerful and lasting societies have formed in Eurasia, leading them to conquer the rest of the world where societies were
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A few of my fellow students at the UvA may know that I never make any annotations in my textbooks. Most of those books look like they have never been touched, even tough some of them have seen multiple courses over the past years. There is one exception: An Introduction to Game Theory, by Martin
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To improve financial stability in the aftermath of the financial crisis, regulators have been enforcing stricter requirements on banks to prevent them from failing. Capital requirements have always been an important part of the regulatory process, since banks generally have high leverage and are often looking to hold as little capital as possible. A general
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Joris Luyendijk is a journalist, a writer and above all, he is an anthropologist. In his latest book, This Can’t Be True (Dutch: Dit Kan Niet Waar Zijn), he dives into the City of London to find out what is wrong with the banking system. The book is not academic nor is it difficult to read. It
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Finally, the exam week of Period 4 is (almost) over. But today marks another special occasion. Rostra Economica has completed its first academic period as an online magazine. Of course, the magazine has existed since 1953, so one academic period is not at all impressive in the grand scheme of things. However, the transition into an
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Over the past few weeks, the University of Amsterdam has faced the protests of many students, teachers and staff members. Their core demand is a more democratic university. The protesters are dissatisfied with the current executive board (CvB) of the university which, as they argue, makes decisions about study programs and facilities based on financial considerations
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But money creation is best left to commercial banks
It is a daunting message, spread by the five Dutch actors knows as De Verleiders (The Seducers). Their show on the banking system has toured around the country, giving the audience a glimpse of how rotten the system is from within. Bankers will do anything to make more money. Greed, power and wrong incentives result
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Effective at the cost of credibility
The EU and US governments have opted for a targeted strategy when trying to force Russia out of the Ukraine conflict. Unlike Russia, they have not chosen wide restrictions on imports and exports. The initial sanctions attempted to restrict travel of senior Russian corporate leaders close to Putin. Recently, they have focused on restricting selected
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