Institute of Economic Affairs appoints Academic and Research Director
2 July 2021
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The Institute of Economic Affairs, the UK’s leading free-market think tank, has announced the appointment of Dr James Forder as Academic and Research Director.
James is Andrew Graham Fellow and Tutor in Political Economy at Balliol College. He has taught economics and sometimes politics at Oxford since 1993, and will continue in his post alongside his new role at the IEA.
James’s principal research interests have been in central bank independence and the history of macroeconomic ideas, especially those following from the work of A. W. H. Phillips and Milton Friedman. He has also written on the merits of the first-past-the-post electoral system.
James succeeds former Member of the European Parliament Professor Syed Kamall, who was recently elevated to the House of Lords.
Commenting on his appointment, Dr James Forder said:
“The power of the price mechanism, and the scope for public policy to utilise it, are underrated and often misunderstood. I am delighted to have the opportunity to make a real contribution to advancing effective public policy with the IEA.”
Mark Littlewood, the IEA’s Director General, said:
“I am thrilled that James is joining the IEA as our new Academic and Research Director. He brings a wealth of expertise, talent and experience and is a superb addition to the Institute’s team.
“It is also a great pleasure for me to welcome someone from my old Oxford college. I am enormously fond and proud of my alma mater, which produces people of real talent and diverse opinions.
“A good number of Balliol folk have gone on to promote freedom and enterprise at the IEA. Several others of course have succeeded in politics and become high-tax, high-spend Keynesian Prime Ministers. This is testament to the wide variety of views and ideas which Balliol encourages.”
Neil Record, Chairman of the IEA Board of Trustees, said:
“I am delighted that Dr James Forder is joining the IEA as our Academic and Research Director. He will retain his academic position at Oxford University, and this will help to strengthen the Institute’s connections into the academy.
“I have known James for several years, and he has always impressed me as someone with tremendous intellectual power, and great insight into the supremely complex world that is modern economics.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Dr James Forder will take up his position at the Institute of Economic Affairs on Monday 5th July 2021. His personal website can be found here. A full list of current IEA staff is available here.
Balliol College graduates currently involved in the Institute of Economic Affairs include:
Mark Littlewood, Director General and Ralph Harris Fellow
Neil Record, Chairman of the IEA Board of Trustees
Professor Patrick Minford, IEA Trustee
Jon Moynihan, Director, IEA Forum
Shanker Singham, IEA Fellow
Dr James Forder is a graduate of Keble College, Oxford and a Fellow and Tutor in Political Economy at Balliol College.
Balliol College graduates who have later been elected Prime Minister:
H. H. Asquith (Balliol 1869)
Harold Macmillan (1912)
Edward Heath (1935)
Boris Johnson (1983)
The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems, and it seeks to provide analysis in order to improve the public understanding of economics.
The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.
James is Andrew Graham Fellow and Tutor in Political Economy at Balliol College. He has taught economics and sometimes politics at Oxford since 1993, and will continue in his post alongside his new role at the IEA.
James’s principal research interests have been in central bank independence and the history of macroeconomic ideas, especially those following from the work of A. W. H. Phillips and Milton Friedman. He has also written on the merits of the first-past-the-post electoral system.
James succeeds former Member of the European Parliament Professor Syed Kamall, who was recently elevated to the House of Lords.
Commenting on his appointment, Dr James Forder said:
“The power of the price mechanism, and the scope for public policy to utilise it, are underrated and often misunderstood. I am delighted to have the opportunity to make a real contribution to advancing effective public policy with the IEA.”
Mark Littlewood, the IEA’s Director General, said:
“I am thrilled that James is joining the IEA as our new Academic and Research Director. He brings a wealth of expertise, talent and experience and is a superb addition to the Institute’s team.
“It is also a great pleasure for me to welcome someone from my old Oxford college. I am enormously fond and proud of my alma mater, which produces people of real talent and diverse opinions.
“A good number of Balliol folk have gone on to promote freedom and enterprise at the IEA. Several others of course have succeeded in politics and become high-tax, high-spend Keynesian Prime Ministers. This is testament to the wide variety of views and ideas which Balliol encourages.”
Neil Record, Chairman of the IEA Board of Trustees, said:
“I am delighted that Dr James Forder is joining the IEA as our Academic and Research Director. He will retain his academic position at Oxford University, and this will help to strengthen the Institute’s connections into the academy.
“I have known James for several years, and he has always impressed me as someone with tremendous intellectual power, and great insight into the supremely complex world that is modern economics.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
Dr James Forder will take up his position at the Institute of Economic Affairs on Monday 5th July 2021. His personal website can be found here. A full list of current IEA staff is available here.
Balliol College graduates currently involved in the Institute of Economic Affairs include:
Mark Littlewood, Director General and Ralph Harris Fellow
Neil Record, Chairman of the IEA Board of Trustees
Professor Patrick Minford, IEA Trustee
Jon Moynihan, Director, IEA Forum
Shanker Singham, IEA Fellow
Dr James Forder is a graduate of Keble College, Oxford and a Fellow and Tutor in Political Economy at Balliol College.
Balliol College graduates who have later been elected Prime Minister:
H. H. Asquith (Balliol 1869)
Harold Macmillan (1912)
Edward Heath (1935)
Boris Johnson (1983)
The mission of the Institute of Economic Affairs is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems, and it seeks to provide analysis in order to improve the public understanding of economics.
The IEA is a registered educational charity and independent of all political parties.
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The financial system limit brings with it a political system limit.
Politicians need to be aware that there are
no magic answers, no policy levers that can solve the dilemma of ‘expand
now and add to stagnation in a decade, versus do not stimulate and risk immediate stagnation,’ which
is explained in the book.
What led politicians to make our financial worse? Economics originated as a political and social science but
has somehow lost its way buried in the detail of microeconomics.
The old rule of ‘stimulate your way out of recession’
worked when debt levels were much lower, nowhere near the feasible limits, and therefore money could expand
without anyone worrying about the consequences.
As noted, for a period that ended nearly forty years ago,
that expansion caused negative real interest rates.
Now, after seventy-five years of the post-war consensus, in which every recession has been neutered by economic stimulus,
the economic cycle driven by central banks keeps bumping up
against the financial system limit.
Central banks are now the victim of their past policies.
The Fed, and other central banks, need to keep on stimulating so that more credit can pay the interest cost of earlier debt creation.
The alternative is to crash the economy, which nobody wants.
The financial system limit and political system limit are
intertwined.