economics
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Krugman became an economist because of science fiction. In the New Yorker's 12-page long chronicle of the Nobel Prize-winning economist, we learn that Krugman's hero is the main character in Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy, Hari Seldon. Hari Seldon is a “psychohistorian" who could predict the future because he understood the mechanics of society so well.
Paul Krugman Became An Economist To Be Like His Science Fiction Hero
CLAIMS and counter-claims are flying as British officials and European diplomats squabble over who, exactly, was being unreasonable last night when David Cameron refused to sign up to a new European Union treaty with strict new curbs on taxation and spending within the euro zone. There are reliable signs of heavy Downing Street briefing over at the Daily Telegraph , where the well-connected Ben Brogan is reporting that it was all the fault of the French, who crammed the text on the summit table so full of impossible demands that the British had no choice but to walk away. He writes:
Britain and the EU: The moment, behind closed doors, that David Cameron lost his EU argument last night
THERE are many facets to the crisis in the euro zone, but at heart the problem is fairly straightforward. The euro zone developed a balance-of-payments problem; some of the countries in the single currency accumulated large external debts. To service those debts, the deficit countries need to become surplus countries, which is difficult to do without the flexibility of a floating currency.
The euro crisis: Who killed the euro zone?
Times Literary Supplement , 18 November 2011, p 26 Ghetto at the Center of the World: Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong , by Gordon Mathews ( University of Chicago ), 241 + xi pp. Review by P. D.
Ghetto at the Center of the World | PD Smith | Kafka’s mouse
THE most daring way that Douglas Rushkoff's fascinating argument about the disappearance of jobs in the economy of the future might play out, as I imagine it, runs roughly as follows.
Labour markets, cont'd: Social networkers of the world, unite
David McKenzie World Bank Development Research Group; Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) Berk Ozler
The Impact of Economics Blogs by David McKenzie, Berk Ozler
The Robin Hood tax: a big step for capitalism, a major stride for development | Global development
In an age of high frequency trading, the late Professor James Tobin's idea of a modest levy on global financial transactions makes increasing sense. Photograph: AFP What connects hunger in Africa, people dying for want of medicines or health care and fast-paced global capitalism?
This year's biggest winner from the botched DSK affair has been France's Christine Lagarde, who despite the dropping of all charges against the former head, is now in charge of the IMF. We admit that the ascension of Lagarde to the throne of the world's most irrelevant global bailout organization (what the IMF "does" is of not importance: the only thing that matters is who Beijing, and Chinabot, feels like rescuing today) happened even though we previously predicted that Germany would be very much against it. Well, Germany let it slide, and endorsed Lagarde. That may soon change though, after the former finance minister essentially threw the entire European (read French, Swiss and German whose assets as a % of host GDP are ridiculous ... yes, a technical term) financial system under the bus at Jackson Hole , a day after Bernanke said to wait until September 20 for QE3 clarity.
As Lagarde Throws Germany And European Banks Under The Bus, Did She Just Truncate Her IMF Career?
Picture credit: may15internationalorganization.blogspot An Italian radio program's story about Iceland’s on-going revolution is a stunning example of how little our media tells us about the rest of the world. Americans may remember that at the start of the 2008 financial crisis, Iceland literally went bankrupt.
SACSIS.org.za » News » The World » Why Iceland Should Be in the News, But Is Not
What to do if the double dip is real?
18 August 2011 Last updated at 14:36 GMT It is gradually dawning on the global political elite that the economics they believe in do not work. They do not work, in particular, in the current crisis and continued pursuance of present policy is threatening a double dip recession (Morgan Stanley, the Bank of England's Andy Haldane), a 1930s-style monetary collapse (Fed dissenter Richard Fisher), Eurozone breakup (Nouriel Roubini) and political mayhem (Jeff Sachs). Free market economics caused the crisis and the rough-hewn Keynesian stimulus policies improvised in 2009 are failing to get us out of it. So, not particularly gradually, but rather with the urgency of Gerard Depardieu on an airplane , there is a sudden rush towards more radical solutions. Haldane, in a Bank of England discussion paper today , compares the situation with the one facing Roosevelt in 1938, when Congress forced him to rein in stimulus, prompting a double dip: he ripped up bank regulations and forced banks to LEND.
Growth: Manufacturing, a political imperative
DANI RODRIK is always thought provoking, but I'm not sure where he's going with this : High-tech services demand specialized skills and create few jobs, so their contribution to aggregate employment is bound to remain limited.board
Home » Messageboard » Message 10505304 mofaha the monkey , Wed 10 Aug 2011, 18:48, archived ) b w (Editorial: " Ecology could teach economists a thing or two " With the world's financial system seemingly under threat this week, economic modellers have diagnosed a cause of the crisis and prescribed a possible solution. The cause, it seems, are " haircuts ", Wall Street jargon for the amount subtracted from the market value of an asset, such as a government bond, that is used as security when a bank borrows cash from another bank.
'Haircuts' identified as a cause of financial crisis - physics-math - 09 August 2011
THIS (gated, sorry) was the most amazing thing I read today . It's a couple of weeks old, but bear with me here.
Stimulus thinking: Adventures in tea-party cognitive dissonance
Big Mac Index
The Economist updates their Big Mac Index , which as we all know, is the most accurate way to measure the global economy: It is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity (PPP), the notion that in the long run exchange rates should move towards the rate that would equalise the prices of a basket of goods and services around the world. At market exchange rates, a burger is 44% cheaper in China than in America.The Economist
Thomas Palley