Description: Join critically-acclaimed author and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and world-renowned theoretical physicist and author Lawrence Krauss as they discuss biology, cosmology, religion, and a host of other topics.

In an hour you won’t regret losing, both Nader and Fein discuss the “lawless, violent practices by the White House and its agencies that have become institutionalized by both political parties”.

For centuries states have used their power to censor information, to conduct surveillance, to impose belief, to manipulate and to punish. Cullen Murphy’s extraordinary, provocative new book which he will talk about in this lecture explores the idea that the Inquisition – the Catholic body that existed in Europe (and beyond) for over 700 years – is not a medieval oddity, but is intrinsically bound up with the creation of the modern world.

Why are we seeing revolutions sweeping the world? Author and BBC economics editor answers:

“We have tremendous power at our disposal, but we also have the ability to wipe out a large amount of life savings at the click of a mouse. We have to do better. Technology must account for the frailty of human behavior. ”

Andrew Lo

Professor Robert Frank argues that in the next century Charles Darwin will unseat Adam Smith as the intellectual founder of economics.

Over the past 3-4 years the easy criticism has been that US debt levels are too high and that the US government must balance its budget. However, a massive liquidity trap and re-emerging crises, leading to the outperformance of US Treasuries, has shown that the US has had more debt capacity than many imagined. Perhaps Krugman was right?

Jean Michel Severino is inspector general at the French Ministry of Finance. Martin Wolf is a journalist at the Financial Times.

Description from LSE:
Our latest crisis may seem to have started in 2007, with the collapse of the American housing market. But as Philip Coggan shows in this new book, Paper Promises: Money, Debt and the new World Order which he will talk about in this lecture, the crisis is part of an age-old battle between creditors and borrowers. And that battle has been fought over the nature of money. Creditors always want sound money to ensure that they are paid back in full; borrowers want easy money to reduce the burden of repaying their debts. Money was once linked to gold, a commodity in limited supply; now central banks can create it with the click of a computer mouse.

The current crisis not only pits creditors against debtors, but taxpayers against public sector workers, young against old and the western world against Asia. As in the 1930s and 1970s, a new monetary system will emerge; the rules for which will likely be set by the world’s rising economic power, China.

Description:
As the economic crisis deepens, this is the moment to consider moving towards much shorter, more flexible paid working hours — sharing out jobs and unpaid time more fairly across the population. The new economics foundation (nef) set out the case in its report 21 Hours: Why a shorter working week can help us all to flourish in the 21st century.