Do Tax Havens Cause Poverty? [Audio]
Speaker(s): John Christensen, Felicity Lawrence; Nick Mathiason; Dr Attiya Waris | Defenders of tax havens argue they provide vital financial services for international trade, and that most comply with money-laundering regulations and have juridical co-operation treaties. This panel will explore the issues surrounding tax havens, in particular their impacts on poor people.
Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: can Europe be the same with different people in it? [Audio]
Speaker(s): Christopher Caldwell | After a half-century of mass immigration, has Europe overestimated the need for immigrant labour and underestimated the culture shaping potential of religion? Christopher Caldwell is a senior editor at the Weekly Standard, and a regular contributor to the Financial Times. His new book is entitled 'Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Islam, immigration and the west'.
All That Life Can Afford [Audio]
Speaker(s): Mishka Henner | What does poverty in London look like? And can photography expose the often hidden mechanisms that keep the rich divided from the poor? Mishka Henner discusses the making of his photographic essay, All That Life Can Afford, deconstructing its production to reveal the negotiations and obstacles involved in visualising poverty. Mishka Henner is a photographic artist based in Manchester, England.
The Return of Depression Economics Part 3: The night they reread Minsky [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Paul Krugman | The global economic crisis has shaken a lot of what we thought we knew about economics. Over three consecutive evenings, Professor Krugman will cover the causes of the crisis; the deeply vexed question of how and when the world economy can recover; and the implications of the whole mess for economics and economists. Paul Krugman is centenary professor at LSE and professor of economics and international affairs at Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. I
The Lebanese Elections and Middle Eastern Democracy [Audio]
Speaker(s): Hussain Abdul Hussain | From military intervention in Iraq, to supporting an uprising in Lebanon, forcing elections in the Palestinian Territories and imposing international isolation on Syria, the world has tried several scenarios to spread democracy in Middle Eastern countries. In light of the Lebanese elections on June 7, Hussain Abdul-Hussain will explore the status of democracy in the Middle East as well as look at broader impact of these elections on the regional balance of pow
The Post-American World and the Rise of the Rest [Audio]
Speaker(s): Fareed Zakaria | In this lecture, Fareed Zakaria will expound on the The Post-American World; a world in which the United States no longer dominates the global economy, orchestrates geopolitics or overwhelms cultures. He will explain how the 'rise of the rest' - the growth of countries like China, India, Brazil, Russia, and many others - is the great story of our time. He will also explain how economic growth in any given country produces political confidence, national pride, and int
Housing Markets and the Global Financial Crisis [Audio]
Speaker(s): Dr André Broome, Professor Herman Schwartz, Professor Leonard Seabrooke, Professor Mat Watson | Residential property is the single largest asset in people's everyday lives and its associated mortgage debt constitutes one of the biggest financial assets in most economies. Yet political economy largely ignores both. We know that the kind of housing people occupy and their level of debt affects their preferences for the level of public spending, taxation, and inflation. Housing is inti
The Idea of Justice [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Amartya Sen | Amartya Sen explores the ways in which, and the degree to which, justice is a matter of reason, and of different kinds of reason. This event marks the launch of Professor Sen's new book The Idea of Justice. Amartya Sen is Lamont University Professor at Harvard and an honorary fellow of LSE. He won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 and was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge 1998-2004. His books include Development as Freedom (OUP), The Argumentative India
The Situation in the Middle East: the view from Israel [Audio]
Speaker(s): Daniel Ayalon | Daniel Ayalon is the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel. He was born in Israel in 1955. He completed his army service in the Armoured Corps with the rank of Captain (res.). He has a B.A. degree in Economics as well as an M.B.A. Daniel Ayalon served as Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, from March 2001 through July 2002, and as Israel's Ambassador to the United States, from July 2002 through November 2006. He has also served as a Member of
The way forward: building a sustainable recovery and driving growth [Audio]
Speaker(s): Xavier Rolet | The last 18 months have seen unprecedented shocks to the financial system which have had significant implications for the wider economy. As we recover, financial services and the stock markets can and should play a vital role in funding a sustainable economic recovery and social development in the UK and worldwide.
A Lecture by Jens Stoltenberg, Prime Minister of Norway [Audio]
Speaker(s): Jens Stoltenberg | Jens Stoltenberg's Second Government was appointed on 17 October 2005. It is a majority government representing the Labour Party, the Socialist Left Party and the Centre Party. It was re-elected in a general election earlier this year. Mr. Stoltenberg was Prime Minister 2000-2001, Minister of Finance 1996-1997 in Thorbjørn Jagland's Government, Minister of Trade and Energy 1993-1996 in Gro Harlem Brundtland's Third Government, and state secretary at the Ministry o
Jihad: the trail of Political Islam [Audio]
Speaker(s): Professor Gilles Kepel | Political Islam has emerged as one of the great ideologies of the modern world. How did this occur? Will it inevitably lead to conflict with the West? Is a clash of civilizations avoidable? And where is Political Islam heading? Gilles Kepel is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs for 2009-10. Professor Kepel is best known for his books on the Middle East and North Africa, and for his work on Islamism, including Islamism in Europe.
The Value of Nothing [Audio]
Speaker(s): Raj Patel | "Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing." Credit has crunched, debt has turned toxic, the gears of the world economy have ground to a halt. It's now clear that the market doesn't only get it wrong about sub-prime mortgages; it gets it wrong about everything. We need to ask again one of the most fundamental questions a society ever addresses: why do things cost what they do?
Doldrums to Downing Street? The Conservative Party's long journey from opposition to the brink of of
Speaker(s): Tim Bale | Why did the world's oldest and most successful political party dump Margaret Thatcher only to commit electoral suicide under John Major? Just as importantly, what stopped the Tories getting their act together until David Cameron came along? The answers, Tim Bale shows, are as provocative as the questions.
LSE Literary Festival - Literature and the Academic: Literature as a resource for other disciplines
Speaker(s): Richard Bronk, Professor Margot Finn, Dr Neil Vickers | The session examines how the reading of literature can expand the analytical imagination, provide alternative metaphors and supply vital empirical evidence. Three academics from very different disciplines discuss ways in which literature can be invaluable to the broader research community.
How rich are the baby boomers and how poor are their children? [Audio]
Speaker(s): David Willetts MP | David Willetts will analyse the distribution of income and wealth between different generations in Britain. He will investigate why the baby boomer generation have done particularly well for both income and wealth. He will then look at why the younger generation face much less favourable economic circumstances. Drawing on his new book The Pinch he will firmly place the issue of fairness between the generations on the political agenda.
The Importance of Alternative Financing: global perspectives on Islamic finance [Audio]
Speaker(s): Stephen Green, Dr. M. Umer Chapra | This lecture discusses the growing role alternative financing arrangements, such as Islamic finance, have on the global financial markets. It explains how morality or faith based forms of finance can continue to enhance modern finance in the future.
Risk versus responsibility in the regulation of the company [Audio]
Speaker(s): Dr David Kershaw | In this lunchtime series of lectures, a selection of LSE's academics from across the spectrum of the social sciences explain the latest thinking on how social scientists work to address the critical problems of the day. They survey the leading ideas and contributions made by their discipline, explain the types of problems that are addressed and the tools that are used, and explore the kinds of solutions proposed.
Mind-Body Problems: Science, Fiction, and God [Audio]
Speaker(s): Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Professor Steven Pinker | What happens when a novelist and philosopher talks to a cognitive neuroscientist about faith, reason, fiction, and God? Listen in as Rebecca Newberger Goldstein and her husband Steven Pinker explore what Spinoza would say about Darwin, what role fiction should play in intellectual life, whether any of the arguments for the existence of God are any good, and other topics at the interface of literature, science, and philosophy.
Meeting Development Challenges in the 21st Century [Audio]
Speaker(s): Helen Clark | In recent times, the challenges of the developing world have been compounded by multiple crises: the food and fuel crises, the global recession, and devastating natural disasters. There is also the huge climate challenge. How can the international community move the development agenda forward, and stay focused on achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015?













