I you are required to write a 4000-word essay on a topic of your choice

Suggested reading for essay questions Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, we would strongly advise you to do your own independent research on these essay questions by looking for relevant sources on tools like Google scholar. Also look at the Bibliography of relevant articles you read to find further relevant sources and materials. Further relevant reading suggestions are also included in the suggested lecture and seminar reading on Blackboard. For articles that there is no link to online please see the Suggested Reading: Articles section, which contains a number of referenced articles

‘Attempts to ‘green’ capitalism, to make it ‘ecological’, are doomed by the very nature of the system as a system of endless growth’ (Bookchin, 1990). Do you agree with Bookchin’s assessment? Drawing on relevant studies and examples critically explain why.

Suggested reading: Afaq (2008) ‘Can ethical consumption stop the ecological crisis?, Anarchist Writers Blog Post, 11 November https://anarchism.pageabode.com/afaq/secE5.html Asici, A. (2013) ‘Economic growth and its impact on environment: A panel data analysis’, Ecological Indicators, 324-333. Costanza, R. et al. (2014) ‘Development: Time to leave GDP behind’, Nature 15 January https://www.nature.com/news/development-time-to- leave-gdp-behind-1.14499 Dawson, A. (2017) Extreme Cities: The peril and promise of urban life in he age of climate change (Verso), Ch. 1: ‘Capital sinks’. Everett, T., Ishwaran, M., Ansoli, G. P. and Rubin, A. (2010) ‘Economic growth and the environment’, DEFRA, March https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/upl oads/attachment_data/file/69195/pb13390-economic-growth-100305.pdf

Harvey, D. 17 Contradictions and the End of Capitalism (Oxford University Press), ’15 Endless compound growth’, pp. 222-245; and ’16 Capital’s relation to nature’, pp. 246-263. IPCC (2018) ‘Summary for policymakers of IPCC special report on global warming of 1.5C approved by governments’, October 8 https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc- special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments/

Klein, N. (2014) The Changes Everything (Penguin), ‘Introduction: One way or another everything changes’,,pp. 1-30, Ch. 7: Fruits, not roots: The disastrous merge merger of big business and big green’, pp. 191- 230 and Ch. 8 ‘No messiahs the green billionaires won’t save us’, pp. 230-255. Nelm, D. (2015) Natural Capital: Valuing our planet (Yale University Press), ‘Introduction: Taking natural capital seriously’ and Ch. 2 ‘Sustaining Economic Growth’.

Philipsen, D. (2015) The Little Big Number: How GDP came to rule the world and what to do about it (Princeton University Press), Ch. 9 ‘The people of plenty are a people of waste’, pp. 184-207. Stern, N. (2016) Why are we Waiting? The Logic, Urgency and Promise of Tackling Climate Change, Introduction and Ch. 1 Ward, J. D., Sutton, P. C., Werner, A. D., Costanza, R., Mohr, S. H. and Simmons, C. T. (2016) ‘Is decoupling GDP growth form environmental impact possible?’, PLOS ONE October 14 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.016473 3 Winston, A. (2012) ‘3M’s sustainability innovation machine’, Harvard Business Review 15 May https://hbr.org/2012/05/3ms-sustainability- innovation.html Wright, C. and Nyberg, D. (2016) ‘An inconvenient truth: How organizations translate climate change into business as usual’, Academy of Management 60(5): 1633-1661. Wright, C. and Nyberg, D. (2015) Climate Change, Capitalism, and Corporations (Cambridge University Press), Ch. 2: ‘Creative self- destruction and the incorporation of critique’, pp. 28-47.

Discuss the importance of central banks in the global economy, with reference to cases such as the European Central Bank amongst others. Do central banks have too much political power, or is their power essential to avert future economic crises?

Suggested reading: Bomwan, A., Erturk, I., Froud, J., Johal, S., Leaver, A., Moran, M. and Williams, K. (2013) ‘Central bank led capitalism.’ Seattle Law Review 36(2): 455-488. Braun, B. (2018) ‘Central banking and the infrastructural power of finance: the case of ECB support for repo and securitization markets’, Socio-Economic Review online first, 1-24. De Grauwe, P. (2011) ‘The European Central bank as a lender of last resort’, VOX CEPR Policy Portal 18 August https://voxeu.org/article/european-central-bank-lender-last-resort De Grauwe, P. (2011) ‘Only a more active ECB can solve the euro crisis’, CEPS Policy Brief August https://www.ceps.eu/system/files/book/2011/08/CEPS%20PB%20No%2 0250%20PDG%20on%20the%20ECB.pdf Dow, S. (2017) ‘Central banking in the twenty-first century’, Cambridge Journal of Economics 41: 1539-1557. Ertürk, I. (2014) ‘Central banks control us in Soviet style.’ The Telegraph March 17 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/business/manchester-business- school/10702940/central-banks.html Ertürk, I. (2014) ‘Reconcetualizing central bank unconventional policies: long positions on no-growth capitalism’, in C. Goodhard, D. Gabor, J. Vestergaard, and I. Ertürk (eds.) Central Banking at a Crossroads: Europe and Beyond (Anthem Press), pp. 217-228. Faust, J. (2016) ‘Why do societies need independent central banks’, Sveriges Riksbank Economic Review 3: 21-28 http://archive.riksbank.se/Documents/Rapporter/POV/2016/2016_3/er_2

016_3%20Why%20do%20societies%20need%20independent%20centr al%20banks%20by%20Jon%20Faust.pdf Fontan, C. (2018) ‘Frankfurt’s double standard: the politics of the European Central Bank during the Eurozone crisis’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs online first. Harford, T. (2018) ‘Stop sniping at central banks and set clear targets instead’, Financial Times December 14 https://www.ft.com/content/df7c7238-fec4-11e8-ac00-57a2a826423e Liikanen, E. (2013) ‘The economic crisis and the evolving role of central banks’, Bank for International Settlements Speech, 25 November https://www.bis.org/review/r131128c.htm Pixley, J., Whimster, S. and Wilson, S. (2013) ‘Central bank independence: A social economic and democratic critique’, The Economic and Labour Relations Review 24(1): 32 Walter, C. E. and Howie, F. J. T. (2011) Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China’s Extraordinary Rise Ch. 1 ‘Looking Back at the Policy of Reform and Opening’ and Ch. 2 ‘China’s Fortress Banking System.’ Werner, R. (2015) Princes of the Yen : Japan's central bankers and the transformation of the economy. London: Routledge. https://librarysearch.le.ac.uk/permalink/f/8vvj9h/44UOLE_ALMA5118393 2910002746

‘With the value of bitcoin having fallen by around 70% since its peak late last year, the mother of all bubbles has now gone bust. More generally, cryptocurrencies have entered a not-so-cryptic apocalypse’ (Roubini, 2018). We are now three years on from Roubini’s statement and Bitcoin’s high market value has lasted longer than he anticipated. Do you think this disproves his arguments? Why or why not?

Suggested reading: Ali, R. (2014) ‘The economics of digital currencies’, Bank of England, Quarterly Bulletin, Q3

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/digital-currencies/the- economics-of-digital-currencies Andreas, T. (2018) ‘Answers to Nouriel Roubini’s paper on cryptocurrencies’, Medium https://medium.com/@andreastzav/answers- to-nouriel-roubinis-paper-on-cryptocurrencies-b88f0d132e Beemajah, K. (2015) ‘Why business schools need to teach about the Blockchain’ https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2596465 Bits on Blocks (2015) ‘Thoughts on Blockchain technology: A gentle introduction to Bitcoin’ https://bitsonblocks.net/2015/09/01/a-gentle- introduction-to-bitcoin/ Cheah, E. and Fry, J. (2015) ‘Speculative bubbles in Bitcoin markets? An empirical investigation into the fundamental value of Bitcoin’, Economics Letters, vol. 130, pp. 32-36. Cheung, A., Roca, E. and Su, J. (2015) ‘Crypto-currency bubbles: an application of the Philips-Shi-Yu (2013) methodology on Mt. Gox Bitcoin prices’, Applied Economics, vol. 47, no. 23, pp. 2348-2358. https://espace.curtin.edu.au/bitstream/handle/20.500.11937/45230/2273 11_227311.pdf?sequence=2 Dallyn, S. (2017) ‘Cryptocurrencies as market singularities: the strange case of Bitcoin’, Journal of Cultural Economy 10(5): 462-473. Maurer, B., Nelms, T. C. and Swartz, L. (2013) ‘When perhaps the real problem is money itself: the practical materiality of Bitcoin’, Social Semiotics, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 261-277. http://llaannaa.com/papers/maurer_nelms_swartz_bitcoin.pdf

Powell, J. (2018) ‘The bitcoin price is wrong’, Financial Times: Alphaville December 14 https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2018/12/14/1544800327000/The- bitcoin-price-is-wrong/ Roubini, N. (2018) ‘Testimony of the US Senate committee on banking, housing and community affairs on “Exploring the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem’, October https://www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Roubini%20Testimony% 2010-11-18.pdf

Shiller, R. (2013) ‘Speculative asset prices’ Nobel Prize Lecture 8 December https://www.nobelprize.org/uploads/2018/06/shiller-lecture.pdf Shiller, R. (2015) ‘There is a bubble element to what we’re seeing’, Business Insider 31 May (contains a nice, simple definition of bubbles which may be useful) https://www.businessinsider.com/robert-shiller- stock-market-bubble-2015-5?r=US&IR=T Szmigielski, A. (2016) Bitcoin Essentials. Birminghamd: Packt Publishing. https://librarysearch.le.ac.uk/permalink/f/8vvj9h/44UOLE_ALMA5119518 8080002746 Van der Walt, E. (2018) ‘Unabashed Bitcoin bull Thomas Lee says the market is wrong’, Bloomberg December 13 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-13/unabashed- bitcoin-bull-thomas-lee-says-the-market-is-wrong Weber, B. (2016) ‘Bitcoin and the legitimacy crisis of money’, Cambridge Journal of Economics, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 17-41.