Working Paper: “The Eurozone Debt Crisis — The Options Now”

Buchheit, Lee C. and Gulati, G. Mitu

SSRN Working Papers, October 8, 2012

The Eurozone debt crisis is entering its third year. The original objective of the official sector’s response to the crisis — containment — has failed. All of the countries of peripheral Europe are now in play; three of them (Greece, Ireland and Portugal) operate under full official sector bailout programs.

The prospect of the crisis engulfing the larger peripheral countries, Spain and Italy, has sparked a new round of official sector containment measures. These will involve active intervention by official sector players such as the European Central Bank in order to preserve market access for the affected countries.

This paper surveys the options now facing the sovereign debtors and their official sector sponsors. It concludes that there are no painless or riskless options. In the end, the question e down to this — to what extent will the official sector sponsors of peripheral Europe be prepared to take on their own shoulders (and off of the shoulders of private sector lenders) a significant portion of the debt stocks of these countries during this period of fiscal adjustment?

Conference: Primate “Ethics” and Human Morality

Atom + Eve Project, November 10, 2012

Scientists will review studies on the group behavior of higher primates which is homologous to petition and cooperation, and look at the evolutionary roots of human morality. Catholic biblical and moral theologians will lay out a contemporary view of evil, theodicy, original sin and moral life that is harmonious with contemporary science. A major goal will be to offer ministers a more adequate way of addressing the “problem of evil” in a pastoral context.

Call for Papers: Victorian Belief/Victorian Doubt

Midwest Victorian Studies Association, Cleveland, Ohio, April 12-14

For our 2013 conference we invite presentations, panels, and entertainments from scholars of art, music, history, history of science, and literature on topics related to Victorian belief and doubt. These could include religions, superstitions, and convictions of all sorts, and their obverse: skepticisms, denials, and uncertainties. With its single, shared session format, MVSA offers a unique opportunity to present work to an undivided audience. Participants are also invited to submit essays for an edited volume of articles based on conference proceedings.

Sample topics might include, but are not limited, to the following:

Religious controversies; conversion and de-conversionMusical or artistic expressions of faith, belief and doubt“The invisible hand,” political economy, and “faith in the market”Ethics and moralityDeath and the afterlifeMissions and missionariesSecular faiths: agnosticism, Positivism, the “religion of Socialism”Science as a system of belief; skepticism; the “unknowable”Folk beliefs: medicine, superstitions, witchcraft, magicWorld religions: Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, etc.Social class and religion

Call for Papers: 4th Roger Williams University Conference on Religion and the State

Roger Williams University, April 12-14, 2013

Roger Williams University is named after the founder of the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the first established with guarantees of separation of church and state. We seek papers for our fourth conference on religion and the state, to be held at the university April 12-14, 2013. The core ideas and theories in this conference seek to span various continents and peoples working from the principles of Roger Williams in regards to secular engagement and individual voice. Thus our theme this year is “Narrative and Negotiation: Agency, Religion and the State” and will focus on emerging stories of engagement, struggle and dialogue between individuals, groups, and states. We e submissions addressing matters of religion and the state from any and all regions of the world with particular focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. We hope uncovering these histories helps not only to augment what is known, but challenges researchers to think about the ever-changing contours of power struggle. Researchers are invited to submit panels or individual papers from any academic field.