Economic links
Hayek beats Marx: in economic citations.
Paper on the different work-leisure choices of Europeans and Americans. ADDENDA Useful discussion here.
Comparing the Great Recession with the Great Depression.
Israeli Arabs and Druze’s are notably poorer than Israeli Jews: particularly due to Arab and Druze women having a very low rate of college education and employment.
Three cases of successful aid in Afghanistan, all of which involved working with local skills and abilities. Paper on why conditional aid does not work (pdf) and what to do about it. Paper on the use of aid as a tool for influencing (pdf) local elections.
About the economic temptations for Iraq. In terms of comparative risk:
Iraq is now considered a safer bet than Argentina, Venezuela, Pakistan, and Dubai - and is nearly on par with the State of California, according to Bloomberg statistics on credit default swaps, which are considered a raw indicator of default risk.
Chinese banker says that Greece will probably go bankrupt, but there are much more extensive problems in Europe.
Striking lecture on economic risks in China. Signs of “speculative mania” in China. More on housing-as-bubble in China.
Ph.D on ethnic specialisation in the US. About the Indian (specifically Gujarati) domination of motels in the US. Paper on the Jewish domination of the diamond trade.
Swedish-Americans have higher incomes than Swedes for every decile except the lowest. But the general comparison of Americans to Swedes is more complicated. Ranking US States by their UN Human Development Index: Hawaii tops the world, apparently. Doing the comparison using an adjusted for productivity version.
Pointing out that Americans actually pay roughly the OECD average in taxes per person. (On the same basis, taxes in Oz are $11,414 per head: significantly less than the US and we have universal health care plus a higher HDI ranking.) About taxes and GDP levels. Arguing that the optimal tax mix is not an ideological question.
Gary Becker remains an optimist about markets and does not think much of Obamacare:
I begin with the obvious question. "The health-care legislation? It's a bad bill," Mr. Becker replies. "Health care in the United States is pretty good, but it does have a number of weaknesses. This bill doesn't address them. It adds taxation and regulation. It's going to increase health costs-not contain them."
Drafting a good bill would have been easy, he continues. Health savings accounts could have been expanded. Consumers could have been permitted to purchase insurance across state lines, which would have increased competition among insurers. The tax deductibility of health-care spending could have been extended from employers to individuals, giving the same tax treatment to all consumers. And incentives could have been put in place to prompt consumers to pay a larger portion of their health-care costs out of their own pockets.
"Here in the United States," Mr. Becker says, "we spend about 17% of our GDP on health care, but out-of-pocket expenses make up only about 12% of total health-care spending. In Switzerland, where they spend only 11% of GDP on health care, their out-of-pocket expenses equal about 31% of total spending. The difference between 12% and 31% is huge. Once people begin spending substantial sums from their own pockets, they become willing to shop around. Ordinary market incentives begin to operate. A good bill would have encouraged that."
A point-by-point critique of what the US healthcare reform does and does not do.
Noting the lack of outrage over the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailouts. Greenspan comments on the housing bubble(s), Fed policy and financial regulation:
Greenspan, who was known for his light-touch approach to regulation during his tenure as Fed chairman, said that the idea that a systemic risk regulator can spot risks in a timely manner is likely untenable.
"The notion of an effective systemic regulator as part of the regulatory reform package is ill-advised," Greenspan said.
"Forecasters as a group will almost certainly miss the onset of the next financial crisis, as they have so often in the past and I presume any newly designated systemic risk regulator will also."
In New York, financial constraints are leading to reduction in police and subways services, crime is up but spending is also up because of public sector pensions while the population is falling.
The US Social Security system has reached the point where payouts exceed payroll tax revenues. Pointing out that if you want a European-style social democratic state in the US, that means a VAT/GST. (Though Americans already pay more tax per head than Australians.)
The US economy is not showing signs of sustained growth in private sector jobs yet with personal income falling across the US in 2009.
Arguing that population growth makes a difference to Oz’s economic prospects. (But, of course, the economic growth also helps attract population.)
Since 1995, NSW’s economic growth has been significantly below that of the other State/Territories. Even Tasmania has been doing much better.
Paper on the different work-leisure choices of Europeans and Americans. ADDENDA Useful discussion here.
Comparing the Great Recession with the Great Depression.
Israeli Arabs and Druze’s are notably poorer than Israeli Jews: particularly due to Arab and Druze women having a very low rate of college education and employment.
Three cases of successful aid in Afghanistan, all of which involved working with local skills and abilities. Paper on why conditional aid does not work (pdf) and what to do about it. Paper on the use of aid as a tool for influencing (pdf) local elections.
About the economic temptations for Iraq. In terms of comparative risk:
Iraq is now considered a safer bet than Argentina, Venezuela, Pakistan, and Dubai - and is nearly on par with the State of California, according to Bloomberg statistics on credit default swaps, which are considered a raw indicator of default risk.
Chinese banker says that Greece will probably go bankrupt, but there are much more extensive problems in Europe.
Striking lecture on economic risks in China. Signs of “speculative mania” in China. More on housing-as-bubble in China.
Ph.D on ethnic specialisation in the US. About the Indian (specifically Gujarati) domination of motels in the US. Paper on the Jewish domination of the diamond trade.
Swedish-Americans have higher incomes than Swedes for every decile except the lowest. But the general comparison of Americans to Swedes is more complicated. Ranking US States by their UN Human Development Index: Hawaii tops the world, apparently. Doing the comparison using an adjusted for productivity version.
Pointing out that Americans actually pay roughly the OECD average in taxes per person. (On the same basis, taxes in Oz are $11,414 per head: significantly less than the US and we have universal health care plus a higher HDI ranking.) About taxes and GDP levels. Arguing that the optimal tax mix is not an ideological question.
Gary Becker remains an optimist about markets and does not think much of Obamacare:
I begin with the obvious question. "The health-care legislation? It's a bad bill," Mr. Becker replies. "Health care in the United States is pretty good, but it does have a number of weaknesses. This bill doesn't address them. It adds taxation and regulation. It's going to increase health costs-not contain them."
Drafting a good bill would have been easy, he continues. Health savings accounts could have been expanded. Consumers could have been permitted to purchase insurance across state lines, which would have increased competition among insurers. The tax deductibility of health-care spending could have been extended from employers to individuals, giving the same tax treatment to all consumers. And incentives could have been put in place to prompt consumers to pay a larger portion of their health-care costs out of their own pockets.
"Here in the United States," Mr. Becker says, "we spend about 17% of our GDP on health care, but out-of-pocket expenses make up only about 12% of total health-care spending. In Switzerland, where they spend only 11% of GDP on health care, their out-of-pocket expenses equal about 31% of total spending. The difference between 12% and 31% is huge. Once people begin spending substantial sums from their own pockets, they become willing to shop around. Ordinary market incentives begin to operate. A good bill would have encouraged that."
A point-by-point critique of what the US healthcare reform does and does not do.
Noting the lack of outrage over the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailouts. Greenspan comments on the housing bubble(s), Fed policy and financial regulation:
Greenspan, who was known for his light-touch approach to regulation during his tenure as Fed chairman, said that the idea that a systemic risk regulator can spot risks in a timely manner is likely untenable.
"The notion of an effective systemic regulator as part of the regulatory reform package is ill-advised," Greenspan said.
"Forecasters as a group will almost certainly miss the onset of the next financial crisis, as they have so often in the past and I presume any newly designated systemic risk regulator will also."
In New York, financial constraints are leading to reduction in police and subways services, crime is up but spending is also up because of public sector pensions while the population is falling.
The US Social Security system has reached the point where payouts exceed payroll tax revenues. Pointing out that if you want a European-style social democratic state in the US, that means a VAT/GST. (Though Americans already pay more tax per head than Australians.)
The US economy is not showing signs of sustained growth in private sector jobs yet with personal income falling across the US in 2009.
Arguing that population growth makes a difference to Oz’s economic prospects. (But, of course, the economic growth also helps attract population.)
Since 1995, NSW’s economic growth has been significantly below that of the other State/Territories. Even Tasmania has been doing much better.