Sunday 30 May 2010

JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES AND FRIEDRICH VON HAYEK

The Keynesian economic theory has been praised as much as it has been refuted.

According to Keynes, the real driving force behind the economy is not money - it is the desire to keep producing goods, which in turn makes money. Keynes calls this 'the real economy'.

Therefore, he argued that spending was almost always a good thing as it encouraged businesses and their employees to contribute more to the economy.

Keynes blamed the Great Depression in America on a lack of goods production and mass unemployment as a result of high wages. His methods of pumping in money and regaining trust in the economy helped to get the country out of this era. He was acclaimed for saving capitalism as a result.

It involved the theory of the 'multiplier effect', which is triggered by extra government spending (or 'quantitative easing').

1. Employ worker
2. Worker makes widget for £1
3. Employer sells widget for £2

However, Economists like Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman saw limitations in the multiplier effect...

4. Worker can't afford widget
5. Less demand for their production as it is to expensive
6. Worker loses job

Hayek identified, as shown in point 6, pumping money into creating jobs cannot last forever. He was strongly against Keynes as he felt his attitudes devalued money, which would lead to hyper-inflation and mass social unrest.

Hayek said: "The widespread emotional aversion to capitalism is closely connected with this belief that undeniable growth of wealth was purchased at the price of depressing the standard of life of the weakest elements of society*".

It seems that this unrest was evident in one of the most unstable states of the 20th century - the Weimar Republic. Weimar was relying on short-term loans from the USA until the Wall Street Crash of 1929. It was effectively spending money that it did not have, which Keynes said would work in the long-term.

"The economic position is only flourishing on the surface. Germany is in fact dancing on a volcano. If the short-term credits are called in, a large section of our economy would collapse."
- Gustav Stresemann, served as Chancellor and Foreign Minister during the Weimar Republic

Hyperinflation kept coming and going during the Weimar years, here is an anecdote from 1923.

"The price increases began to be dizzying. Menus in cafes could not be revised quickly enough. A student at Freiburg University ordered a cup of coffee at a cafe. The price on the menu was 5,000 Marks. He had two cups. When the bill came, it was for 14,000 Marks. "If you want to save money," he was told, "and you want two cups of coffee, you should order them both at the same time.""

The 1918 Treaty of Versailles ordered harsh repayment packages to the allies, which the Weimar government could not keep up with. It kept printing money to avoid raising taxes, but this Keynesian approach did not work as it did in 19th century America. The level of hyperinflation in the ensuing years was shocking, the German wholesale price index went from 2.6 (Jan 1919) to 726,000,000,000 (Nov 1923). Hence, here is an example of Keynes destroying capitalism.

READ MORE: 'A German nightmare' (usagold.com)

* - F. A. Hayek - 'Capitalism and the Historians'

Wednesday 26 May 2010

HCJ 10-MIN GONZO PIECE: UKIP's RAY FINCH



This video follows the UKIP candidate for Eastleigh, Ray Finch. It was part of the Election 2010 coverage from Winchester News Online.

Tuesday 25 May 2010

HCJ PART 4 (REVISION NOTES)

1. Was Nietzche a Nazi?

- No, he was dead 30 years before the NSDAP was formed
- Christians and Jews say he was a Nazi. Neech said Judeo-Christianity is a religion of slave mentality
- "God is dead"
- Anti-semitism was the norm in the 19th Century
- Neech's big idea was individualism, so any group, religious or otherwise, is less important in his eyes
- Zarathustra: Idea of the 'superman' (Ubermensch)
- His ideas are compatible with Charles Darwin (Social Darwinism), as in 'Space Odyssey'. Darwin's ideas were used and moulded by Hitler
- 1960s: Artistic community clear Neech's name somewhat...

2. Was Mersault a bad man?

- Use Existentialism in your answer
- Mersault is bored, murders someone for no reason
[LINK TO EXI] - Life is pointless and has no meaning
- He killed a black man in a time of extreme racism towards them, even in the CJS
- White judges desperate to clear him as long as he apologises
BUT, he doesn't care about anything - whether he is convicted or not
- Reflected in cold, matter of fact writing style
- Subject verb format. Cold. Observational journalism
- "Existence proceeds essence"

3. To what extent does the 'New Journalism' reflect cultural and intellectual trends such as psychoanalysis and politics of the 'me generation'?

- Tom Wolfe's anthology of articles is called 'The New Journalism'
- He uses 19th Century realist narrative style (Dickens/Zola)
- BIG SHIFT...
News = Digetic (telling)
Features = Mimetic (seeing) - Objective role
- Everything is strange

- REFLECTED in PSYCHOANALYSIS
Stepping back and listening to people
- 'Century of the Self' looks at Freud's theories
- Wilhelm Reich: disagreements with Freud
- Psychoanalysis: Getting behind the subject (following them) = GONZO!

- 'ME' GENERATION
- Reich: the total individual [LINK BACK TO FREUD]
- Self-fulfilment = happiness
(If it feels good, do it!)
EXAMPLE: Sex - Sexual liberation
- New agenda in Journalism - the personal aspect...surrounds the individual
EXAMPLE: Agony aunts, horoscopes

4. Why might journalists find logical positivist ideas useful or appealing? What faults have been identified in the approach of logical positivists?

- Vienna Circle rejects Existentialism
- They rejects all philosophy
- They only like SCIENCE

- 'VERIFICATION PRINCIPLE'
Their epistemology (the theory about knowledge) is based on the Verification Principle
EXAMPLE: It could be true that there are people that can run three times faster than Usain Bolt on Mars, but can't be verified scientifically)
SO...Logical positivists don't bother with it as it can't be proved in this way)

- APPEALING TO JOURNALISTS because...
We are 90% into FACTS and 10% into COMMENT
Fact [Link back to Ver. Principle] CAN be checked (verified)
- Separating fact from comment is a big thing in journalism

- FALSIFICATION PRINCIPLE (Karl Popper)
Popper destroys 'Verification Principle'
Things can only be true if their opposite exists, and can be proved that it exists

- Wittgenstein - 'Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus'
"That of which we cannot speak, we must stay silent"
- Destroyed Freud and Marx
Destroyed Id etc (asserted it is not verifiable)
- Freud = Another form of metaphysics

5. John Keynes has been hailed as both the saviour and destroyer of the capitalist system. Why?

- Adam Smith - free market
Market will go up and down continuously
Class economy is self-regulated

- Keynes: the more you cut, the more unemployment there will be
'Multiplier effect' - spend money, give money to others...then they can spend and so on

- OPPOSITION: Marx
To maintain profit, you need to pay people less than what they produce

LIMITATION OF KEYNES' 'Multiplier effect' (Marx)
1. Worker makes widget for £1
2. Sold for £2
3. Worker can't buy widget
4. Sales cut widget production
5. Worker unemployed

- Why not keep printing money?
You get inflation (Keynes)
Keynesians say: keep expanding

Click here to download Chris Horrie's HCJ Revision Webcast

Thursday 20 May 2010

WINOL (WEEK 4 DEBRIEF)

Debrief from Guest Editor Andy Steggall

- Slow news day: this is where you prove your mettle as a journalist. We had some big challenges, including cutting down packages minutes before 5 o'clock.

- Sound was bad for voiceovers, but only because we didn't have the sound booth. But there were sound levels in some packages that could have been controlled better.

- Half-hearted links and stings. The writing, particularly of the links didn't draw in the viewers enough. It lets down the hard work that goes into the packages as less people will watch on.

- Clear angles...they weren't stuck to very well this week.

Stories

1. Stu - Council/Housing

- Had potential to be a great (and very relevant) story for people of Winchester
- Great to get a story from a boring council meeting
- Made FOI request about housing changes, which would have opened up amny more avenues

2. Grant - Crime Down

- One-line link, doesn't sound great or give enough colour
- Link was a 'what's on link'
- ...but PTC did sell the story a lot better (needed to be in link)
- Library pictures: needed to say it was "last month" or have a caption saying 'Library pictures'

3. James - Walk to School

- One-line link. Bad!
- Had a really good shot of busy crowd going to school, was the best shot so use it first

Sport

- Maybe should have started with World Cup story

A. Jason - Athletics

- Started VT with gun shot, caught attention brilliantly
- But link didn't sell it

B. Josh - World Cup Review

- Great PTC
- Could've done with a little stat (e.g. - "English fans will drink 'x' million gallons in pubs during the World Cup")

4. Chanin - Art Gallery (And Finally)

- Another 'what's on' link, lack of angle. But was changed to a terrific link that made the viewer think
- VT started out of focus, really good camera work and drew audience in
- Framing: could've used visual backdrop even more, in order to avoid fire exit sign etc

Tuesday 18 May 2010

WINOL 3 (WEEK 4)

On Monday, Chris made me focus on a few things to make the bulletin better...

- Make reporters stick to their angle rigidly
- It's my responsibility to check spelling (e.g - strap lines)
- Make script more precise/tight (S V O)
- Legal issues, as always

I also decided to specifically ask for text stories this week, as we had none last week.

Chris made a point about the importance of deadlines. Our content and then production will be better if we stick to them. It was my job to tell all reporters about their different deadlines for VTs and links.

On Tuesday, as usual, some stories grew, some began to fell down. Claire's volcanic ash story had to be killed, James' walk to school story grew with some strong interviewees but Joey's stories fell down.

We then looked at updating the site with text stories and/or making NIBs as back up for stories that may fall through. On Wednesday, Paul did a NIB on the SU Elections after his 'And Finally' didn't stand up.

It all turned out to be a nightmare this week.

I repeat: it was my job to tell reporters about their different deadlines for VTs and links. I did do this. Some did not keep to these deadlines, not at all. It made it so hard to get anything sorted properly.

Lack of communication left, right and centre...everything left to the last minute...so everything I did had to be last minute. Everything we normally do well, we didn't.

It's a real shame but I'm not going to dwell on this. We all know what's coming in the debrief!

Thursday 13 May 2010

WINOL 3 (WEEK 3 DEBRIEF)

NOTE: Weeks 1 and 2 set aside for election coverage.

Stories

1. Stu/Chanin - Westminster

- Excellent footage, I was really worried that you two would be disappointed with your material after making the effort to go to Westminster on such a busy day, but brilliant!
- Very strong PTC from Stu
- A genuine/real story - you made it feel real, probably the best VT of this year on WINOL.

2. Grant - Council Election Results

- Confident PTC
- Good interviews; showed perseverance
- Noddie! Gives us all a laugh but maybe we shouldn't use it anymore!
- "Remains to be seen" in sting - NO!
- Sound issues
- "Council is in such financial trouble" - this needed to be probed into more.

3. Joey - Race Row

- Genuine news story, so was given the time he wanted
- Good shots/interviews
- I should be held to account for not checking the spelling of a name
- Very confident PTC, but: "remains to be seen"!!!!!

4. Claire - Teen Pregnancy

- Too many vox pops, not enough experts
- Clear PTC/voiceover as always

Sport

-Josh very good as presenter
- NO moving images?!
- 1 minute?!

5. Paul - Tea!

- Perfect 'And Finally'
- Good scripting, have to disagree with Chris. Funny to hear a 'Tea Council' even exists
- Did a very good job for the 'light and shade'. 'Light' in a very shady bulletin!

Overall

- We appear to be getting more confident/efficient as a team
- We are making stories happen for the most part
- More in control with editing and camera
- Thanks to Veronica for doing a NIB last minute as we expected one to fall through
- Disappointment with headline sequence
- Good job Jon!
- Reporters: Try and aim for an OB next week

- BANNED: "It remains to be seen"

Well done everyone!

Tuesday 11 May 2010

GENERAL ELECTION - EASTLEIGH

Last night I followed events at the Eastleigh count for Winchester News Online and Play Radio.

I had trouble all week getting permission to film at the count. The hostility I received put me off somewhat, but I was glad that I made it in the end. It was a great experience, so let's not dwell on that.

Being my first count, I didn't know what to expect and I could feel some pressure - especially as Eastleigh was a marginal Lib Dem seat.

I'm pretty sure I was the first journalist to arrive, but the likes of the BBC and the Echo soon followed.

The internet connection was poor, there were no mains that we could plug our equipment into, but we got through it.

For a lot of the night my laptop was charging in the Duty Manager's office at Fleming Park, so I could only do one OB for WINOL.

But I did manage to get onto Play Radio a couple of times, as I was covering for their reporter. It was a great experience to be live on such an important night.

Overall, the standard of our student journalism is very high and we should be proud with the all night effort we put in.

WINOL: The South Decides

Saturday 1 May 2010

LOCAL ELECTION 2010

After filming with Eastleigh's UKIP candidate Ray Finch, I have arranged an interview with the Tory candidate Maria Hutchings.

These may be shown on WINOL's 'The South Decides'.