David Takes On Goliath and Loses: The Ferguson - Krugman Exchange
"As long as excessive debt is not digested, both monetary and fiscal policies are inefficient. There is not much of an alternative. Either to let the economy collapse, in order to reduce debts, and...
View ArticleFacebook Links
Quietly clicking my way through Bloomberg last Sunday afternoon, I came across this:Facebook Members Register Names at 550 a SecondFacebook Inc., the world’s largest social-networking site, said...
View ArticleCliff Hanging In Bulgaria
The International Monetary Fund this week forecast the recession in Bulgaria would be deeper than it previously predicted. Such a decision should come as no surprise to anyone, since the country's...
View ArticleSweden's Economy At A Glance
Basically this post accompanies the Swedish monetary policy and devaluation post I have recently put up on the Global Economy Matters Blog. But first some theoretical structure from Claus Vistesen.As...
View ArticleTo The Finland Station And Back Again
This post accompanies my recent piece on Sweden. I have been scratching my head and trying to see what could be learnt from making a comparison between Finland and Sweden. Some of the differences are...
View Article"Advances in Development Reverse Fertility Declines" - Science or Hocus Pocus?
According to a once-upon-a-time post on the Economist's Certain Ideas of Europe Blog Edward Hugh “was very cross” about some of the journalism they were serving up over at that prestigious journal....
View ArticleFrom Original Sin To The Eternal Triangle - Lessons From Central Europe
The non-biblical concept of original sin, as Claus Vistesen notes in this post, when propounded in its standard Obstfeld & Krugman textbook version refers to the situation where many developing...
View ArticleThere Is Another Shoe To Drop In The Global Economic and Financial Crisis -...
'As far as I am concerned, this is ... the most complex crisis we've ever seen due to the number of factors in play'Spanish Economy Minister Pedro Solbes speaking to the Spanish radio station Punto...
View ArticleWhat Exactly Is Going On In Finland?
Finland, we have recently been told, is the world's most prosperous nation, and it is deemed to be prosperous not only in monetary and financial terms, but also in terms of the implicit wealth of its...
View ArticleA New Spectre Is Haunting Europe, A Spanish One
A spectre is haunting Europe, but this time it is not the spectre of revolt by the popular masses, or even one of yet another wave of bank bailouts. No, the spectre which is currently stalking the...
View ArticleNorwegian Wood
Well, if John Lennon had still been around today he would undoubtedly have entitled his song Norwegian oil, but whatever way you want to put it Norway is back in the news, and this time not because of...
View ArticleThe Dollar As A Funding Currency
Nouriel Robini is not a man who is known for mincing his words. “We have the mother of all carry trades,” he tells us, “Everybody’s playing the same game and this game is becoming dangerous.” There is...
View ArticleAre Russia's Consumers Getting "Carried Away" With Themselves?
“Cutting rates by 50 basis points here and there is not going really diminish the appeal of the ruble,” said Manik Narain, an emerging markets strategist at Standard Chartered Bank Plc in London. “In...
View ArticleTotal Eclipse At The Heart Of Dubai's World
Back in the heady days of 2006 some 30,000 cranes, roughly a quarter of total global capacity, were busy whirring away in Dubai. Today most of these devices have either left to find service in other...
View ArticleDouble Dip Alert In Japan
Despite recent optimism about the apparent renaisance of growth in the Japanese economy, and the heightened sense of enthusiasm which surrounds the surge in economic activity right across the Asian...
View ArticleWhy Standard and Poor's Are Right To Worry About Spanish Finances
"Spain's weaknesses over the developing crisis reflect mainly the reversal of the continuous domestic demand expansion of over a decade, which was associated with high indebtedness of the private...
View ArticleTen New Year Questions For Paul Krugman
I have an interview with Paul Krugman in today's edition of La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Below I reproduce the English original. As will be evident, there are many topics about which Paul and I are far...
View ArticleMr Bean Meets The Three Wise Men
Last Wednesday was Epiphany. In Spain it is also a public holiday - Los Reyes Magos - a festival which celebrates the visit of the three wise men who came from the East to find the infant Jesus....
View ArticleDouble-Dip Worries In Japan and Germany
Whoever said economists are people who don't ever get anything right?"Economic growth in Germany probably stagnated in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, the Federal Statistics office...
View ArticleThe Italian Lion Sleeps Tonight, And Yet Awhile..........
“If we look at public-sector debt and interest payments, Greece isn’t doing particularly worse than Italy,” Peter Westaway,Chief Economist Europe at Nomura InternationalTo everyone's relief, Italy's...
View ArticleThe Debt Snowball Problem
OK, just for a change let's start with some math. The increase in a country’s sovereign debt stock to GDP ratio is given by the following formula:where D is the total debt level, Y is nominal GDP, PD...
View ArticleChina's Recent Trade Deficit: Is What You Yuan What You're Gonna Get?
China is self-evidently both a minefield and a potential graveyard for would-be global economists, the sort of place where reputations are made and lost in the twinkle of a dragon's eye, so I think...
View ArticleLies, Damn Lies And Statistics In Sweden (of all places).
This post is basically a follow-up to my earlier Just What Is Going On In Sweden? one, and has been stimulated by an article which appeared in Bloomberg earlier in the week, detailing a number of...
View ArticleIs Estonia's Euro Membership A Done Deal?
Well, if you read this report from Euractiv, citing unnamed EU Commission officials, it is:"If nothing extraordinary happens, the Commission will give its positive opinion for the accession of Estonia...
View ArticleCroatia: On The Brink of What?
As Croatia enters the final stage of its EU membership talks, it is perhaps a fitting moment to review the other half of the picture, namely where the Croatian economy finds itself, and what the...
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