MERIT Master Distinguished Lecture Series: Economics is the science of confusing stocks and flows

MERIT Master Distinguished Lecture Series

Economics is the science of confusing stocks and flows

Prof. Marcel Coderch

May 14, 2014 at 12.00

Aula Merit D5-010

Abstract

Economics is the science of confusing stocks and flows, so said, jockingly, renowed polish economist Mikal Kalecki. However, he was right on target as most economic discussions do not take into account that the economic system is a complex system full of non-linear feedback loops that are best understood, not as it is usually done through a “general equilibrium” analysis, but as a full fleged dynamical system with a continuous interaction of interconnected stocks and flows.

This fact is most relevant when discussing monetary views of the economy, as we do today in reference to public and private debts, banking crisis, and the need to regulate the financial system.

Some basic, widely misunderstood, concepts about the monetary circuit will be presented with the help of very simple, hidraulic metaphores that higlight how far are mainstream economists and politicians from understanding the inner workings of our monetary system.

Dr. Marcel Coderch is Honorary Professor of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and was Vice-President of The Telecommunications Market Commission (CMT).

Prof. Coderch holds a degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), and a Master’s Degree and Ph. D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and was a Fellow of the MIT Science, Technology and Society program.

He worked in the Telecommunications Area of the Technological Institute for Postgraduates in Madrid and occupied several management posts in the Anaya Group as Director of the Anaya Research Centre, Director of New Technologies and Director of Information and Communication Systems. He took part in launching Gestevisión/Tele 5 and the newspaper El Sol and was a member of the Board of Directors of Anaya Multimedia and the Internet portal Telepolis. He was Internet Director of Retevisión-Auna, director of Servicom, Redes TB, Cinet, Iddeo and a director of the portal EresMas and also a founder Partner and Vice-President of Strategy and Business Development in Tech Foundries and a director of InOut TV, Eneo Labs, PowerOffice and Mediaxpress. He is a member of GAPTEL and an analyst in Real Instituto Elcano.