> Dear All,
> 
> I thought that you might be interested in a short biased summary of the various Post Keynesian/heterodox activities that took place this summer.
> 
> The first activity was the Post Keynesian Summer School that took place at UMKC on June 22-29, 2002.  It was attended by over 75 students and 22 professors from across the United States and around the world.  The students enjoyed the lectures and especially the question and answer periods where they got to ask really hard questions at which the faculty struggled to find convincing answers.  And of course there was plenty of discussion outside the lectures, at dinner, and shooting the bull late into the night.  Of particular interest of the students that I encountered was their curiosity of the relationship between Post Keynesian economics (and economic policy) and other heterodox approaches.  Given my well-know take on their concern, the students I at least talked with hopefully came away with a positive picture of the possible relationships as well as with the view that possible PK economic policy can range from being liberal to quite radical.  If the students were not in lectures or eating or talking to professors, they were going to jazz clubs and coffee houses or getting up early to watch the World Cup-there were lots of gang colors around (and I won> '> t mention anything about the Brazilian students).  Finally, there was an ad hoc student essay competition at the summer school.  In 200 words or less, the question that was posed to the students was > "> Identify and discuss one significant feature/property of Post Keynesian theory.> ">   And there was a tiebreaker question:  > "> Who said > '> money is a time machine?> '> ">   Well the best wrong answer to the tie breaker question was > "> Dr. Who> ">  submitted by that inestimable Australian James Juniper.  And the best 4-word answer to the essay question was > "> It> '> s about demand, stupid!> ">  by that perceptive Canadian Marc Lee.  There were six prize winners, Virginie Monvoisin (France), Eduardo Gimenez (Spain), Lina Ocho (Colombia), Ermano Tortio (Italy), Keon Ho Kim (Korea), and Elisabeth Springler (Austria); and their respective prizes were Sraffa-Production of Commodities, Lee-Post Keynesian Price Theory, King-A History of Post Keynesian Economics, Means-A Monetary Theory of Employment, Steindl-Maturity and Stagnation in American Capitalism, and an autographed copy of Davidson-EJ 1972 article > "> Money and the Real World> "> ..  
> 
> After the Summer School there was the 7th International Post Keynesian Conference held in Kansas City, June 29 - July 3, 2002.  Over 110 economists showed up from across North America and around the world-and many were friends that I had not seen in a long time.  So a lot of time was given to renewing friendships and, of course, discussing economics.  The papers given at the Conference covered money, economies in transition, unemployment, Latin America, investment, financial markets, trade, methodology, instability, and microeconomics.  One of the most popular sessions was a general discussion on economic policy; and other sessions were quite animated.  For example, in a microeconomics session where a couple of papers argued that Post Keynesians/heterodox economists should completely dismissed neoclassical micro theory brought forth many questions from the audience and extensive and passionate debate from the yeas as well as the nays; and afterwards all thought the session was very good.  Dinners were filled with discussion and talks; and after dinner activities included going to jazz clubs, sitting in the hotel bar talking, or going to see the nearby Shakespeare in the Park.
> 
> Following on the heels of the Post Keynesian Conference was the 4th>  Annual Conference of the Association for Heterodox Economics held in Dublin, Ireland, July 9-10, 2002.  Around 85 heterodox economists took part in the Conference with about half from Ireland and the U.K.; the others came from Europe, North America, Australia, and elsewhere around the world.  There were e> xcellent and passionate sessions on methodology, Marx and Marxism especially after Sraffa, power, informal sector, globalisation, trade, social networks, environment, and knowledge.  All the sessions brought together different heterodox perspectives and the diverse audience generated quite interesting discussion.  The time between the sessions as well as lunch times were filled with discussion as well as checking out the bookstalls provided by Elgar, Routledge, and Pluto.  The conference dinner was excellent and the after dinner speaker paid complement and thanks to the conference organizer, Siobhan McGovern, and the host country by relating Jim Larkin (for all of you that know something about Irish labor history) to the formation and history of the AHE.
> 
> Together, the summer school and conferences brought together heterodox economists to listen to papers that interested them and talk economics and perhaps non-economics as well-in short they help to maintain and even develop the community of heterodox economists both locally and worldwide.  I would especially like to thank all those who help organize the summer school and conferences, for it is by your efforts that these events which we all partake in are possible.
> 
> Two last points which needs to be distributed too all post-graduate students:
> 
> 1.    The U.K. Post-Graduate Conference 2003 will take place in Nov.-Dec.  It is open to any and all 
>       post-graduate students in the U.K. and everywhere else.  It is great conference for post-graduates to present papers.  E-mail Gary Slater at [log in to unmask] for more information.
> 
> 2.    The AHE 2nd Annual ESRC funded Workshop on Heterodox Economic Research Methodologies 
>       for Post-Graduate Students and Staff Researchers will take place in Nov.-Dec.  U.K. post-graduate students get their way funded; but all post-graduate students from around the world are invited to attend.  Staff/faculty who are supervising post-graduate students are also strongly urged to attend the Workshop.  For heterodox economists this is probably the best research methodology around anyplace on earth.  For more information contact Wendy Olsen at [log in to unmask] or at [log in to unmask]  
> 
> 
> Fred Lee