---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: World Economics Association <[email protected]> Date: Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 12:03 AM Subject: World Economics Association - The political economy of economic metrics To: michel <[email protected]> ** <http://p.feedblitz.com/r.asp?l=56496096&f=763931&u=28787422&c=4538557><http://p.feedblitz.com/r.asp?l=56496096&f=763931&u=28787422&c=4538557>World Economics Association<http://p.feedblitz.com/r.asp?l=56496096&f=763931&c=4538557>- The political economy of economic metrics ------------------------------ <http://p.feedblitz.com/r.asp?l=72583672&f=763931&u=28787422&c=4538557> *Economic metrics* are used to describe the world. Enormous amounts of money are spent on measuring GDP, employment, wages, unemployment, inflation, consumer and producer confidence, debt, money, the price level and whatever. These metrics show us if inequality is rising or if unemployment is going down. But these metrics are not just, or even mainly, gathered for the sake of science. They also play a role in economic policy and are often designed to enable this. Some of these metrics like government debt as a percentage of GDP, are even used to call entire countries to account – they surely are part of ‘the language of power’. But are we measuring the right metrics? And do we measure them in the right way? Or are our insights and policies biased because we’re looking at biased and incomplete metrics? And are we looking at them in the right way? Or do they act as blindfolds? Who decides anyway and on which grounds about the very definitions and about the money spent on gathering the data? These kinds of questions are being discussed in the World Economics Association internet conference on *The political economy of economic metrics*. The conference is now open. Its website can be found here: *http://peemconference2013.worldeconomicsassociation.org/<http://p.feedblitz.com/t2.asp?/763931/28787422/4538557/peemconference2013.worldeconomicsassociation.org/> * *The WEA depends on small donations from its members and other users*. *PLEASE HELP by donating here<http://p.feedblitz.com/t2.asp?/763931/4534930/4516227/https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=4U9A9HDTBH7ZE> * • Email to a friend<http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Fwd2FriendEdit=763931;24273755;http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Articles=763931&guid=f590b416-6a33-11e2-955f-003005ce8819&ajax=4;The%20political%20economy%20of%20economic%20metrics;4538557>• ------------------------------ *Click here to safely unsubscribe<http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?EmailRemove=_28787422%7c763931%7c63effc3aec9e845d5afc308df929628f%7c4538557_>from "World Economics Association." Click here to view mailing archives <http://archive.feedblitz.com/763931>, here to change your preferences<http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Subscriptions=763931>, or here to subscribe <http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Sub=763931> • Privacy<http://www.feedblitz.com/f?Privacy> <http://www.feedblitz.com/f>* ------------------------------ ------------------------------ Your requested content delivery powered by FeedBlitz<http://www.feedblitz.com>, LLC, 9 Thoreau Way, Sudbury, MA 01776, USA. +1.978.776.9498 -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/