Mary Kostakidis and Joseph Stiglitz at the Athenaeum Theatre — Photo: Scott Limbrick

‘Wealth begets power, which begets more wealth,’ Joseph Stiglitz has argued.

Is our economic system fundamentally broken? Who, exactly, are the 1% and how did they get to control so much of the world’s wealth and resources? And are free-market fundamentalists shooting themselves in the Louboutin with short-term, self-serving policies?

These are among the questions that preoccupy Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz – author, academic and perhaps the closest thing in the world to a celebrity economist.

'I don't think anybody today would say the bankers' pursuit of self-interest lead to the wellbeing of society.'

Joseph Stiglitz

Starting out as a student activist during the civil-rights movement, Stiglitz, now a professor at Columbia University, has devoted his working life to understanding and rectifying the complex problems of global poverty and inequality. Stiglitz coined the notion of ‘the 1%’ in his influential 2012 book, The Price of Inequality, and has served as an economic advisor at the United Nations and as chief economist at the World Bank.

In Australia to receive the 2018 Sydney Peace Prize, Stiglitz appears here in conversation with Mary Kostakidis at the Athenaeum Theatre in Melbourne to discuss global inequality – and what we can do about it. Is profound economic overhaul possible in advanced democracies? Which old ideas about wealth distribution are discredited, and which deserve to be revived? And how does the recent global wave of populist political movements play into, and against, the economic status quo?

Presented in partnership with the Sydney Peace Foundation, Oxfam Australia and the Reichstein Foundation.

Sally Warhaft, Bob Carr and Dennis Altman

The 2018 midterm elections in the United States will be held on Tuesday 6 November. In the heated, highly partisan atmosphere in Washington – and indeed across the whole of the United States – the stakes feel higher than ever. Two years into Donald Trump’s presidency, the midterms are a test of his often controversial administration.

In the lead-up to the big day, Sally Warhaft dissects the polls, candidates and analysis with former Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr and La Trobe University academic Dennis Altman.

Carr is a former New South Wales Premier, and is currently a professor of international relations at the University of Technology Sydney, researching foreign policy, economics, international relations, national defence and security and Chinese politics. Altman is a leading writer and academic whose work focuses on sexuality, HIV/AIDS, Australian politics and US politics – in domestic and international contexts.

The House and Senate are both ruled by the Republicans, but this could all change after the midterms, with all 435 seats in the House of Representatives in contention and a third of the Senate up for grabs. A Democratic swing could even spark an impeachment motion. In conversation with Sally Warhaft, Carr and Altman discuss the possible outcomes and their consequences for the Australia and the region.

Sally Warhaft and Stephen Smith — Photo: Scott Limbrick

As we hurtle towards the end of 2018, it’s clear we’ve entered a period of increased volatility and uncertainty in global relations. The world's two major powers are locked in a trade war, the European Union is looking decidedly shaky and much of the Middle East is still mired in conflict, partly due to the interventions of powers outside the region. How can Australia negotiate this shifting and unpredictable landscape? And what's our place in it?

In this Fifth Estate conversation, Sally Warhaft discusses these questions with former Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith. During his political career, Smith has held a range of other portfolios that make him uniquely placed to comment on Australia’s strategic priorities and predicaments, including stints as Minister for Trade and Shadow Minister for Immigration. Today, he’s a professor of international law at University of Western Australia.

Together, they explore Australia’s place in a changing region and a changing world. What are the new security challenges? And how can we nurture friendships within the region, while staying on good terms with our increasingly erratic old allies?