. . . the problem is we don’t know which and in what order . . . .
A close friend, far richer and better-informed than I (not difficult) sent me some completely speculative global economic notes, which he admits depend upon force majeure and all that. See how many you agree with. I personally think [...]
Tag Archives: Economics
Thus predicts at least some of these predictions will come true
April 11, 2009 – 5:17 pm
The big money is at the end of the rainbow, same as it ever was
March 3, 2009 – 4:58 pm
Writing in Wilmott, Rudi Bogni argues that banker-bashing may be a convenient way to mask the inconvenient truth that the demands on our financial systems are unsustainable. Western productivity was not up to the task of generating sufficient wealth to fuel perpetual growth, nor is it likely to be. It required a collective suspension of [...]
Oil on troubled waters
February 5, 2009 – 8:25 pm
We need to double food production, but we’re running out of oil and water. Obviously the market will sort this one out…
By Daniel Taghioff, India
When the Food and Agricultural Organisation says that another 40 million were pushed into hunger in 2008, what images spring into your mind? Is it possible to imagine that many people [...]
Why inflation is a Good Thing
January 27, 2009 – 4:58 pm
The view that inflation is an evil ‘debasement of the currency’ with terrible social, political and economic consequences is still orthodoxy among central bankers and the vast majority of economists. Over the next few years we are likely to see it return and become embedded in Western economies. This may not be such a bad [...]
The Great Train Robbers
November 24, 2008 – 11:18 am
The iniquity of the UK train operators’ stranglehold on a captive traveller since the botched 1993 privatisation, when a patchwork of mini-monopolies replaced the monolithic British Rail is well-documented. The network itself – tracks, stations, signals, overhead electric cables and all the costly stuff needed to run a railway – collapsed accordingly and [...]
Fiscal scriscal, fiddle-dee dee, Europe's suddenly OK with me
November 21, 2008 – 6:17 pm
Before spreadsheets enabled geeks to assume they could manipulate the economic weather, we knew that if we spent too much, we’d run out of money. If we ran out of things to sell or do in return for more money, we’d be in trouble. If we borrowed money at unrealistic interest rates, we’d be in [...]
Trouble at t'mill: I've just agreed with a Tory
November 20, 2008 – 7:40 pm
Julia Hobsbawm, the persuasive daughter of the world’s most celebrated Marxist historian invited me to get up very early today for an Editorial Intelligence Briefing. We heard a thoughtful homily from Yasmin Alibhai-Brown about Baby P and what this told us about our expectations of the nanny state. We are generally on the [...]
There is a word for it ….
November 19, 2008 – 4:41 pm
I love online dictionaries. Does this make me a Dork, a Geek or a Nerd? I especially like the OneLook Reverse Dictionary. If you ever feel lost for words, take a concept that leaves you speechless, put it in, and out come the suggestions.
One concept that has been leaving me speechless recently is how many [...]
Human capital is only useful if you don't break the bank
November 16, 2008 – 11:30 pm
The mantra of the Third Way seems to be about “capabilities”. UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband pontificated in The New Statesman that this it is about creating an “I can” society. But what exactly is the point of all this? Coming from a Development background, it took me a while to realise that all politics, [...]
Beyond Them and Us
November 8, 2008 – 10:45 am
It is sobering to consider that half of humanity exists at a level of the economic inferno which we blithely label as “less than a dollar a day.” Just stop and think about what that means. Is there any part of your own life that you can recognise in that? I live in India, and [...]