Economic links
An economics music video: the Hayek versus Keynes rap.
About the market economy of classical Rome (pdf). About labour supply in the Roman Empire (pdf).
Paper on the continuing effects of forced labour system (pdf) in Peru almost 200 years after its abolition.
Various papers on influences on and in contemporary economics. A 1982 paper by Tobin defending Keynesianism (pdf).
Noting how limited the recent “Great Recession” was.
A simple theory of political jobs.
Identifying successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs. More.
Great post about lateness to meetings. How to cut down interruptions.
Pointing out the proven best way to help Haitians. A blog from a Haitian clinic: this post is particularly pertinent. The Lancet has an editorial attacking the aid industry: comments here, here and here. Using Haiti to remind people of the broken windows fallacy:
It is absurd to say that the earthquake will be good for Haiti’s economy. If that were true, why did the world await natural disaster? If Haiti needed an economic boost, we should have carpet-bombed it years ago. The plain fact is that disasters make everyone permanently poorer by the values of the lives and property they destroy. Earthquakes have no silver linings.
Paper looking at the history of credit crises. An evil plan to stick to the goldbugs (it made me laugh).
Looking at China’s economy. Arguing that global imbalances are not of themselves a problem.
The case for bountiful oil:
A nasty oil shock is always possible. But the case for bountiful oil is strong.
About the prospects for a middle class transformation across the Middle East:
The region’s middle classes are rather small outside Turkey, yet once freed from dependence on the state for their economic well-being, they tend, Nasr says, to make similar political demands as their counterparts in the West. There is an enormous gulf, after all, between practicing Muslims with a stake in society and violent reactionaries at war with the world. The Middle East’s professionals and entrepreneurs need stability, access to foreign markets and a modicum of freedom to live their lives and run their businesses without interference from secular or religious authoritarians.
Nasr brilliantly narrates the tortured histories of the middle classes in Pakistan and Iran, torn between secular dictators like Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and Gen. Pervez Musharraf on one side, and the Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Republic and the Taliban on the other. The road to a new Middle East, where Turkey is the norm rather than the exception, will be a long and perilous one. Even so, “Forces of Fortune” is as hopeful as it is sobering, and Nasr makes a convincing case for optimism tempered with caution and patience.
Wrestling with the notion of bubbles. A useful discussion of bubbles and the efficient market hypothesis. The notion of "correct" prices is a notion that is not able to be "cashed out" in advance. There is a nice discussion here and another here. A nice post on the belief problems of EMH here. A paper on spotting bubbles (pdf).
Critiquing the history of the Fed and its ability to dominate information about its performance.
Graph of housing prices in various Anglosphere countries. Canadian housing prices movements. Analysing the Canadian housing market.
A nice summary of factors likely to have caused the global financial crisis. Going through why housing crashes in the US have only indirectly caused economic downturns.
A view of the politics are big-spending, big-regulating government produces:
Any government that annually spends $3-plus trillions of dollars, and regulates trillions upon trillions of dollars worth of other resources, will inevitably be targeted by special interests and their lobbyists. And any government manned by persons capable of the duplicity, pandering, and cheap theatrics required to win elections will inevitably and without shame put itself at the service of these special interests.
The RBA is bothered by capacity constraints and consequent cost pressures in the Oz economy. (Most Western central bankers would love it if that was their main worry at the moment.) So yes, interest rates are likely to go up.
Noting private sector employment has fallen markedly in the US, while public sector employment has grown. The number of US Federal subsidies is soaring. How the US Congress raised the minimum wage and devastated the economy of American Samoa.
A case illustrating the Baptists-and-bootlegger’s theory of regulation (sellers of “vice” donating to politicians to keep legal restrictions of “vice” going to limit competition).
About the police power to seize assets, its use and abuse in the US.
The US decides to penalise American consumers by stopping the Chinese selling electric blankets cheaply to them. (Same point made about steel here.)
About the market economy of classical Rome (pdf). About labour supply in the Roman Empire (pdf).
Paper on the continuing effects of forced labour system (pdf) in Peru almost 200 years after its abolition.
Various papers on influences on and in contemporary economics. A 1982 paper by Tobin defending Keynesianism (pdf).
Noting how limited the recent “Great Recession” was.
A simple theory of political jobs.
Identifying successful and unsuccessful entrepreneurs. More.
Great post about lateness to meetings. How to cut down interruptions.
Pointing out the proven best way to help Haitians. A blog from a Haitian clinic: this post is particularly pertinent. The Lancet has an editorial attacking the aid industry: comments here, here and here. Using Haiti to remind people of the broken windows fallacy:
It is absurd to say that the earthquake will be good for Haiti’s economy. If that were true, why did the world await natural disaster? If Haiti needed an economic boost, we should have carpet-bombed it years ago. The plain fact is that disasters make everyone permanently poorer by the values of the lives and property they destroy. Earthquakes have no silver linings.
Paper looking at the history of credit crises. An evil plan to stick to the goldbugs (it made me laugh).
Looking at China’s economy. Arguing that global imbalances are not of themselves a problem.
The case for bountiful oil:
A nasty oil shock is always possible. But the case for bountiful oil is strong.
About the prospects for a middle class transformation across the Middle East:
The region’s middle classes are rather small outside Turkey, yet once freed from dependence on the state for their economic well-being, they tend, Nasr says, to make similar political demands as their counterparts in the West. There is an enormous gulf, after all, between practicing Muslims with a stake in society and violent reactionaries at war with the world. The Middle East’s professionals and entrepreneurs need stability, access to foreign markets and a modicum of freedom to live their lives and run their businesses without interference from secular or religious authoritarians.
Nasr brilliantly narrates the tortured histories of the middle classes in Pakistan and Iran, torn between secular dictators like Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and Gen. Pervez Musharraf on one side, and the Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Republic and the Taliban on the other. The road to a new Middle East, where Turkey is the norm rather than the exception, will be a long and perilous one. Even so, “Forces of Fortune” is as hopeful as it is sobering, and Nasr makes a convincing case for optimism tempered with caution and patience.
Wrestling with the notion of bubbles. A useful discussion of bubbles and the efficient market hypothesis. The notion of "correct" prices is a notion that is not able to be "cashed out" in advance. There is a nice discussion here and another here. A nice post on the belief problems of EMH here. A paper on spotting bubbles (pdf).
Critiquing the history of the Fed and its ability to dominate information about its performance.
Graph of housing prices in various Anglosphere countries. Canadian housing prices movements. Analysing the Canadian housing market.
A nice summary of factors likely to have caused the global financial crisis. Going through why housing crashes in the US have only indirectly caused economic downturns.
A view of the politics are big-spending, big-regulating government produces:
Any government that annually spends $3-plus trillions of dollars, and regulates trillions upon trillions of dollars worth of other resources, will inevitably be targeted by special interests and their lobbyists. And any government manned by persons capable of the duplicity, pandering, and cheap theatrics required to win elections will inevitably and without shame put itself at the service of these special interests.
The RBA is bothered by capacity constraints and consequent cost pressures in the Oz economy. (Most Western central bankers would love it if that was their main worry at the moment.) So yes, interest rates are likely to go up.
Noting private sector employment has fallen markedly in the US, while public sector employment has grown. The number of US Federal subsidies is soaring. How the US Congress raised the minimum wage and devastated the economy of American Samoa.
A case illustrating the Baptists-and-bootlegger’s theory of regulation (sellers of “vice” donating to politicians to keep legal restrictions of “vice” going to limit competition).
About the police power to seize assets, its use and abuse in the US.
The US decides to penalise American consumers by stopping the Chinese selling electric blankets cheaply to them. (Same point made about steel here.)