Economics links
The history of a spurious statistical indicator that began as satire and refuses to die.
I, Toaster: trying to make a toaster from scratch: a lesson in division of labour, specialisation and commerce. The toaster project.
Evidence that culture matters.
Hans Rosling doing 200 years of progress in great graphics. About economic optimism being a good bet:
You can always make news with doomsday predictions, but you can usually make money betting against them.
Economic history since 1960 in a single graph.
US Freight railway as a knockdown, drag-out case of the success of de-regulation.
How a desperate Chinese village self de-collectivised and became a model for China’s economic reforms. Pointing to issues in world food markets (the comments on the piece are full of ‘people are bad things’ commentary).
US state with the country whose GDP is closest to it named on it.
US GDP growth since 1870. Puts rabbitting on about the business cycle in perspective. The US is still the world manufacturing giant:
In fact, Americans manufactured more goods in 2009 than the Japanese, Germans, British, and Italians - combined. …
Measured in constant dollars, America’s manufacturing output today is more than double what it was in the early 1970s.
The simplest explanation for the postwar boom I have come across. 1929-45 saw no economic growth but great technological advance, so there was lots of “easy growth” to be had utilising the expanded technology. (Stopping blowing up stuff wholesale probably helped too.)
Explaining what is actually involved in a gold standard, and the consequences. About Ron Paul’s crusade against the Fed and for the gold standard.
A nice short discussion of why folk dislike economics.
Anthropologists cheering (pdf) Elinor Ostrom’s (2009) Nobel Prize in Economics.
A nice clear piece arguing that monetary policy should target nominal income.
Noting we are in a period of a huge drop in global inequality. Really nice graphic of how US households spend their income, by income level. How to think about economic inequality:
As long as we think of economic inequality in terms of income, instead of wages, health care and education, we won’t be able to move to the sort of fiscal regime that allows us to address those specific problems, without burdening the economy with an anti-growth tax regime.
Powerful graphic of income and inequality across countries:
That is, the typical person in the bottom 5 percent of the American income distribution is still richer than 68 percent of the world’s inhabitants. …
All people born in rich countries thus receive a location premium or a location rent; all those born in poor countries get a location penalty.
Actually, the penalty or benefit is due to the surrounding society's relative propensity to create and use capital.
Useful piece by Krugman on the Eurozone woes and how the GFC was a North Atlantic, not merely a North American, even. Suggesting Germany paid a lot for the euro even before the recent bailouts. Iceland as the poster economy for yes, you do let the banks fail.
Alan Greenspan stands by his legacy. Noting a serious mistake by the European Central Bank.
Bank of England projects sharpest drop in UK standard of living since the 1920s.
Irish banks continue to lose deposits.
Iceland’s President says they are better off than Ireland because they allowed their banks to fail and were not part of the euro.
Charting the growth of debt.
German is suffering labour shortage problems.
UK job growth, public and private sector, since 1992. Growth in real GDP, total and per capita since 1997. Total government expenditure and revenues, per cent GDP, since 1997. Brown spent big by deficit financing. With a fiscal deficit of over 10% of GDP and high public debt, one can see the UK Coalition’s fiscal problem.
Regulating prices is such a fun game:
"Rates are going up because card issuers know that once you get a card they can't raise the rates, so they're raising rates on the front end to ensure they get the revenue from that interest," said Beverly Harzog, credit card expert at Credit.com.
A new game, based on Monopoly™, where, instead of trying to get rich, people struggle to get basic necessities seeks to remind folk of life under communism:
Polish research institute has developed a board game to teach young people about life under Communism. In the game, which is inspired by Monopoly, players must wait in endless lines at stores for scarce goods. For added realism, they have to put up with people cutting in line and products running out -- unless they have a "colleague in the government" card.
Another successful Cornucopian-versus-Malthusian bet on resource prices:
You can always make news with doomsday predictions, but you can usually make money betting against them.
Noting that the shifts in Congress represent shifts in which regions, and which industries, have political advantage.
The next Chinese PM apparently thinks that China’s economic statistics are not entirely reliable. It is good to know that the next PM of China is not a stupid man. Scepticism about China’s current economic prospects. Concerns about the reliability of Chinese municipal bonds. A lot of hidden wealth in Chinese households. Data and commentary on China as bubble economy.
Identifying weak points in Oz’s economic prospects: competing sources for commodities and increase in the dependency ratio.
Charting how Texas has economically outperformed California. More comparisons while looking at how Texas avoided the Great Recession. Business flight from California speeds up. A state of fiscal crises, economic decline and institutionalised political paralysis. Midwest US is doing fine, thanks.
Kiwiland’s poor growth performance a worry for the National Government. Graphs and commentary arguing that New Zealand is a ‘de-leveraging’ economy.
Pre-Christmas consumer confidence in Melbourne was not strong. Suggesting that lack of savings will make many vulnerable to increases in cost of living. Surging in cost of basic living costs, particularly in Sydney. While households have record debt burdens.
Canada’s tax office administer the law in a way that discourages self-employment:
if you are investigated by the CRA you’ll receive a 77-point questionnaire that will make your head spin if you try to give clear answers. Based on this questionnaire the CRA makes a declaration on your status. If you disagree your only effective response is a challenge in the courts. What self-employed individual can afford to do that?
Los Angeles as a city in decline.
Suggesting Ireland’s woes are going to get considerably worse before they get better.
I, Toaster: trying to make a toaster from scratch: a lesson in division of labour, specialisation and commerce. The toaster project.
Evidence that culture matters.
Hans Rosling doing 200 years of progress in great graphics. About economic optimism being a good bet:
You can always make news with doomsday predictions, but you can usually make money betting against them.
Economic history since 1960 in a single graph.
US Freight railway as a knockdown, drag-out case of the success of de-regulation.
How a desperate Chinese village self de-collectivised and became a model for China’s economic reforms. Pointing to issues in world food markets (the comments on the piece are full of ‘people are bad things’ commentary).
US state with the country whose GDP is closest to it named on it.
US GDP growth since 1870. Puts rabbitting on about the business cycle in perspective. The US is still the world manufacturing giant:
In fact, Americans manufactured more goods in 2009 than the Japanese, Germans, British, and Italians - combined. …
Measured in constant dollars, America’s manufacturing output today is more than double what it was in the early 1970s.
The simplest explanation for the postwar boom I have come across. 1929-45 saw no economic growth but great technological advance, so there was lots of “easy growth” to be had utilising the expanded technology. (Stopping blowing up stuff wholesale probably helped too.)
Explaining what is actually involved in a gold standard, and the consequences. About Ron Paul’s crusade against the Fed and for the gold standard.
A nice short discussion of why folk dislike economics.
Anthropologists cheering (pdf) Elinor Ostrom’s (2009) Nobel Prize in Economics.
A nice clear piece arguing that monetary policy should target nominal income.
Noting we are in a period of a huge drop in global inequality. Really nice graphic of how US households spend their income, by income level. How to think about economic inequality:
As long as we think of economic inequality in terms of income, instead of wages, health care and education, we won’t be able to move to the sort of fiscal regime that allows us to address those specific problems, without burdening the economy with an anti-growth tax regime.
Powerful graphic of income and inequality across countries:
That is, the typical person in the bottom 5 percent of the American income distribution is still richer than 68 percent of the world’s inhabitants. …
All people born in rich countries thus receive a location premium or a location rent; all those born in poor countries get a location penalty.
Actually, the penalty or benefit is due to the surrounding society's relative propensity to create and use capital.
Useful piece by Krugman on the Eurozone woes and how the GFC was a North Atlantic, not merely a North American, even. Suggesting Germany paid a lot for the euro even before the recent bailouts. Iceland as the poster economy for yes, you do let the banks fail.
Alan Greenspan stands by his legacy. Noting a serious mistake by the European Central Bank.
Bank of England projects sharpest drop in UK standard of living since the 1920s.
Irish banks continue to lose deposits.
Iceland’s President says they are better off than Ireland because they allowed their banks to fail and were not part of the euro.
Charting the growth of debt.
German is suffering labour shortage problems.
UK job growth, public and private sector, since 1992. Growth in real GDP, total and per capita since 1997. Total government expenditure and revenues, per cent GDP, since 1997. Brown spent big by deficit financing. With a fiscal deficit of over 10% of GDP and high public debt, one can see the UK Coalition’s fiscal problem.
Regulating prices is such a fun game:
"Rates are going up because card issuers know that once you get a card they can't raise the rates, so they're raising rates on the front end to ensure they get the revenue from that interest," said Beverly Harzog, credit card expert at Credit.com.
A new game, based on Monopoly™, where, instead of trying to get rich, people struggle to get basic necessities seeks to remind folk of life under communism:
Polish research institute has developed a board game to teach young people about life under Communism. In the game, which is inspired by Monopoly, players must wait in endless lines at stores for scarce goods. For added realism, they have to put up with people cutting in line and products running out -- unless they have a "colleague in the government" card.
Another successful Cornucopian-versus-Malthusian bet on resource prices:
You can always make news with doomsday predictions, but you can usually make money betting against them.
Noting that the shifts in Congress represent shifts in which regions, and which industries, have political advantage.
The next Chinese PM apparently thinks that China’s economic statistics are not entirely reliable. It is good to know that the next PM of China is not a stupid man. Scepticism about China’s current economic prospects. Concerns about the reliability of Chinese municipal bonds. A lot of hidden wealth in Chinese households. Data and commentary on China as bubble economy.
Identifying weak points in Oz’s economic prospects: competing sources for commodities and increase in the dependency ratio.
Charting how Texas has economically outperformed California. More comparisons while looking at how Texas avoided the Great Recession. Business flight from California speeds up. A state of fiscal crises, economic decline and institutionalised political paralysis. Midwest US is doing fine, thanks.
Kiwiland’s poor growth performance a worry for the National Government. Graphs and commentary arguing that New Zealand is a ‘de-leveraging’ economy.
Pre-Christmas consumer confidence in Melbourne was not strong. Suggesting that lack of savings will make many vulnerable to increases in cost of living. Surging in cost of basic living costs, particularly in Sydney. While households have record debt burdens.
Canada’s tax office administer the law in a way that discourages self-employment:
if you are investigated by the CRA you’ll receive a 77-point questionnaire that will make your head spin if you try to give clear answers. Based on this questionnaire the CRA makes a declaration on your status. If you disagree your only effective response is a challenge in the courts. What self-employed individual can afford to do that?
Los Angeles as a city in decline.
Suggesting Ireland’s woes are going to get considerably worse before they get better.