The following are some videos you may find of interest:

• WTO. “To the heart of the WTO.” Download or stream video via: http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/webcas_e/webcas_e.htm#intro
• WTO. “Case Studies of WTO Dispute Settlement.” Download or stream video via: http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/webcas_e/webcas_e.htm#intro

As we work through this material on the Great Depression and our several successive responses to it, I’m sure we are all thinking about the potential parallels to the current crisis. As I said last Thursday, I want you to think actively about the ways in which these situations are the same and in which they are different. This will help us contextualize our current situation and, perhaps, investigate additional potential responses to it.

Irwin–whom we are reading again now and whom we’ll host in several weeks–has recently been engaged in this exercise. Here are some things he’s recently written in this vein:

– http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/opinion/01irwin.html?_r=2&emc=eta1

– http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/1474

Here’s an interesting piece from The Daily Show on the manipulation of markets. The clip is making its way around the tubes, so some of you have probably heard about this.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/03/13/jon_stewart_exposes_apple_stock_manipulation.html

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/17bb3b20-0fc9-11de-a8ae-0000779fd2ac.html

We should be up to date on the audio and slides.

Keep it real.

The Keynes lecture is available via:

http://s09.middlebury.edu/PSCI0304A/Audio/IPES09-3-5Thu-Keynes.m4a

I’ve posted the slides for this past Thursday. They’re available under “Course Materials.”

I thought all of you might be interested in the following event:

April 10 – Friday

Does Democracy Promote Development?
4:30 p.m. – Robert A. Jones ’59 House conference room
A lecture by Strom Thacker, Associate Professor of International Relations at Boston University, and Director of Latin American Studies Program. He is a Faculty Affiliate of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University and a Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Rage Future at Boston University. He is author of Democracy and Development: A Historical Perspective (with John Gerring, forthcoming), A Centripetal Theory of Democratic Governance (with John Gerring, 2008), and Big Business, the State, and Free Trade: Constructing Coalitions in Mexico (2008).  Sponsored by the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs, the International Politics and Economics Program, the Department of Economics, and the Department of Political Science

More information is available via: http://www.middlebury.edu/administration/rcfia/events/#Apr%2009

I’ve extended the reservation for our normal room (MBH 530) to 3:40 PM. So, section two will now meet on Thursdays, 2:50-3:40 in the normal room. If you’re scheduled for that section but can’t make that new time slot, then just plan to attend Section 1, 1:30-2:20 (in the same room). If that doesn’t work, please contact me ASAP.

Here’s another interesting BusinessWeek story. This one is about the stimulus bill and its (problematic) relationship to our trade agreements.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/feb2009/db20090216_920561.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily