Status: | Active, open to new members |
Group leader: | |
When: | on Mondays 10:30 am Every Three Weeks |
Venue: | Highbury Church Hall |
The group meets every three weeks on a Monday morning in Cheltenham with a summer break from mid July to mid September. We discuss a variety of different economic issues including current economic policy. The group is led by Tim Powell, an ex economics consultant who over time tries to introduce, or for long standing members of the group refresh, a background understanding of the relevant economic theories.
We currently have about 15 members and can take a few more. Our members have a wide variety of different political allegiances and differing views are expected, but we try to relate them to the underlying economics.
Our members acquaintance with economics is very varied. Some have had professional or academic experience of the subject but many have not. Tim sees one of the main objectives of the group being to help people with no formal knowledge of the subject, but with an interest in current affairs and the economy, to understand better the options available to policy makers. He states that one of his objectives is to explain why when governments do apparently stupid things they may not be quite as stupid as they seem!.
We also from time to time base our discussions around a specific book. From September 2017, as well as discussing current issues as they arise, we will also be basing some of our discussions on the book “Why Nations Fail” by Acemoglu and Robinson.
If you think that you would like to know more about economics please get in touch wth the Group Leader. Do not be worried that you may not know enough to participate actively in our discussions. Some of our members are quite voluble, other just come and listen. Both are equally welcome.