The Institute for New Economic Thinking is a left-wing economics think tank. Founded in 2010 under the sponsorship of financier, philanthropist, and left-wing activist billionaire George Soros, the organization promotes an expansion of left-wing economics education in a search for a new statist economic policy consensus. This search is driven by Soros’s view that policy failed during the financial events of 2008 due to an excess of de-regulation in previous years. Critics have noted that INET’s focus on deregulation as a cause of financial crises is hardly new and misses the failures made by regulators in centralized regulatory systems, including the United Kingdom.

Founding

Following the 2008 global financial crisis, liberal mega-donor George Soros convened private meetings at his home to discuss how mainstream economics had failed to predict the meltdown.¹ Subsequent to discussions, in 2009 Soros announced that he would pledge $5 million per year for the next ten years to fund what would become the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET).²

Following the 2009 announcement, INET opened its doors the next year and convened its first major conference, at Cambridge University in the UK.³  That event featured more than 50 mainly-academic speakers⁴ and included a speech by Soros entitled “The Living History of the Last 30 Years: Economic Theory, Politics and Policy.”⁵  Soros linked the crash of 2008 to economic developments dating back to 1980, including what he called President Ronald Reagan’s belief in the “magic of the marketplace,” which Soros said he preferred to call “market fundamentalism.”⁶

Economics Education

Noteworthy educational initiatives pursued by INET include its support of “Curriculum in Open-access Resources in Economics,” or CORE.⁷CORE distributes free resources via its own website.⁸

Critics, including left-wing critics, have questioned whether CORE is open-minded enough towards new ways of thinking of accomplish its goals. Dr. Tim Thornton⁹ has described CORE as having “a soft pluralism that recognises such things as diversity of method,” but is otherwise ”not sufficiently pluralist” in terms of acknowledging new schools of economic thought.¹⁰ Similarly, Dr. Jamie Morgan¹¹ has highlighted CORE as an exercise in “change without change,” that is in fact pushing new perspectives in economics to the margins of current debates.¹²

Events

INET each year organizes a large-scale annual international gathering of economists. In past years, it has been held:

• 2011 – Bretton Woods, New Hampshire¹³
• 2012 – Berlin, Germany¹⁴
• 2013 – Hong Kong¹⁵
• 2014 – Toronto, Canada¹⁶
• 2015 – Paris, France¹⁷
• 2016 – Budapest, Hungary¹⁸
• 2017 – Edinburgh, Scotland¹⁹

Funding

Liberal financier and philanthropist George Soros, one of INET’s founders, is its most notable financial contributor. In 2011, Jim Balsillie, a Canadian technology magnate and philanthropist, announced a $25 million contribution to INET; Balsillie’s Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) began to work with INET.²⁰

In 2012, William Janeaway of investment firm Warburg Pincus announced he would make a $25 million contribution to INET’s work, shortly after which Soros announced he would commit another $50 million.²¹

People

A long-time Soros associate, Rob Johnson, has served as INET’s President since its founding; Johnson previously served as Managing Director at Soros Fund Management.²²

Drummond Pike, retired founder of the controversial Tides Network, has served as an INET board member since the group’s inception.²³

See Also

Tides Foundation

Open Society Foundations

George Soros

1. Introduction – Institute for New Economic Thinking. YouTube. December 1, 2010. Accessed June 27, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoqLu5CKx-o.
2. “Global Economic Think Tank Launched With $50 Million Pledge From George Soros.” Philanthropy News Digest PND. October 28, 2009. Accessed June 27, 2017. http://philanthropynewsdigest.org/layout/set/html_min/news/global-economic-think-tank-launched-with-50-million-pledge-from-george-soros.
3. “The Economic Crisis and the Crisis in Economics – New Economic Thinking 2010.” Institute for New Economic Thinking. 2017. Accessed June 27, 2017. https://www.ineteconomics.org/events/the-economic-crisis-and-the-crisis-in-economics.
4. “The Economic Crisis and the Crisis in Economics – Speakers.” Institute for New Economic Thinking. 2017. Accessed June 27, 2017..https://www.ineteconomics.org/events/the-economic-crisis-and-the-crisis-in-economics/speakers.
5. Soros, George. “Anatomy of Crisis – The Living History of the Last 30 Years: Economic Theory, Politics and Policy.” New Economic Thinking. April 28, 2010. Accessed June 27, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVC9mwQqWIY.
6. Soros, George. “Anatomy of Crisis – The Living History of the Last 30 Years: Economic Theory, Politics and Policy.” New Economic Thinking. April 28, 2010. Accessed June 27, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVC9mwQqWIY.
7. “CORE Project.” Institute for New Economic Thinking. 2017. Accessed June 27, 2017. https://www.ineteconomics.org/education/curricula-modules/core-project.
8. “Economics for a changing world.” CORE Project. 2017. Accessed June 28, 2017. http://www.core-econ.org/.
9. “Staff profile.” La Trobe University. 2017. Accessed August 02, 2017. http://www.latrobe.edu.au/humanities/about/staff/profile?uname=tthornton .
10. Thornton, Tim. From Economics to Political Economy. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2017. Accessed August 02, 2017. https://books.google.ca/books?id=wnu3DAAAQBAJ&pg=PT121&lpg=PT121&dq=%2B%22a+soft+pluralism+that+recognises+such+things+as+diversity+of+method%22&source=bl&ots=Qmy3HUJ4e2&sig=dmMUM0QqZcYZPacv-_y7fpuEMiI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjZ-I3e57jVAhWr5oMKHctbAvAQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=%2B%22a%20soft%20pluralism%20that%20recognises%20such%20things%20as%20diversity%20of%20method%22&f=false.
11. “Jamie Morgan.” Leeds Beckett University. 2017. Accessed August 02, 2017. http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/staff/dr-jamie-morgan/.
12. Morgan, Jamie. “A heterodox perspective on the Curriculum Open-Access Resources in Economics project.” World Economics Association, February 2014. Accessed August 2, 2017. https://www.worldeconomicsassociation.org/files/newsletter/Issue4-1.pdf.
13. “Crisis & Renewal – New Economic Thinking 2011.” Institute for New Economic Thinking. 2017. Accessed June 28, 2017. https://www.ineteconomics.org/events/crisis-and-renewal.
14. “Paradigm Lost – New Economic Thinking 2012.” Institute for New Economic Thinking. 2017. Accessed June 28, 2017. https://www.ineteconomics.org/events/paradigm-lost.
15. “Changing of the Guard.” Institute for New Economic Thinking. 2017. Accessed June 28, 2017. https://www.ineteconomics.org/events/changing-of-the-guard.
16. “Human After All.” Institute for New Economic Thinking. 2017. Accessed June 28, 2017. https://www.ineteconomics.org/events/human-after-all.
17. “2015 Annual Conference.” Institute for New Economic Thinking. April 7, 2015. Accessed June 28, 2017. https://www.ineteconomics.org/uploads/downloads/inet_2015_paris_program.pdf.
18. “Piecing Together a Paradigm.” Institute for New Economic Thinking. 2017. Accessed June 28, 2017. https://www.ineteconomics.org/events/ysi-plenary-budapest.
19. “2017 Plenary Conference.” Institute for New Economic Thinking. 2017. Accessed June 28, 2017. https://www.ineteconomics.org/events/2017-plenary-conference.
20. “History.” Institute for New Economic Thinking. 2017. Accessed June 27, 2017. https://www.ineteconomics.org/about/history.
21. “Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) Announces Major Fund-Raising Initiatives.” Institute for New Economic Thinking. April 13, 2012. Accessed June 27, 2017. https://www.ineteconomics.org/about/news/2012/institute-for-new-economic-thinking-inet-announces-major-fund-raising-initiatives.
22. “Robert Johnson.” Institute for New Economic Thinking. 2017. Accessed June 27, 2017. https://www.ineteconomics.org/research/experts/rjohnson.
23. “Drummond Pike.” Institute for New Economic Thinking. 2017. Accessed June 27, 2017. https://www.ineteconomics.org/research/experts/dpike.