By Caitlin Kenney

Billionaire financier George Soros has pledged $50 million to create a new think-tank to "develop fresh approaches to economic theory." The Financial Times reports:

Mr Soros, who has long been a critic of economic "fundamentalism", blames the unwavering belief in unchecked free markets, which remains pervasive in universities, for allowing financial markets and asset prices to melt down. Through INET, he will be indirectly funding his philosophy of "reflexivity" -- that markets tend to influence perceptions of reality, which in turn feed back into markets.
"The ideologists in the free markets are still in command and I think they'll be very difficult to remove because they have tenure," Mr Soros said in an interview with the Financial Times.
"I think that the financial crisis has proven that is unrealistic," Mr Soros said of the prevailing economics literature, which assumes that people behave rationally. "The dogma has lost touch with reality."

The board of the Institute of New Economic Thinking, is made up of a number of well known economists including: George Akerlof, Kenneth Rogoff, Joseph Stiglitz and Sir James Mirrlees. The Institute will fund research, sponsor conferences and establish a journal.

categories: Players

1:25 - October 27, 2009

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