Here is a link to the Manifesto of the Appalled Economists (Économistes Atterrées), in opposition to the proposed neoliberal solutions to the current crises in the European Union.
As economists, we are appalled to see that these policies are still on the agenda, and that their theoretical foundations are not reconsidered. The arguments which have been used during thirty years in order to guide European economic policy choices have been undermined by the facts. The crisis has laid bare the dogmatic and unfounded nature of the alleged “obvious facts” repeated ad nauseam by policy makers and their advisers. Whether it is the efficiency and rationality of financial markets, or the need to cut spending to reduce debt or to strengthen the “stability pact”, these “obvious facts” have to be examined, and the plurality of choices of economic policies must be shown. Other choices are possible and desirable, provided that the financial industry’s noose on public policies is loosened.
The importance of this manifesto is that it’s a way of both challenging the current “common sense” and creating a space for imagining and enacting alternatives.
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