Gavinsblog.com

Category: Economics

  • Two arguments

    I liked this quote: One arguments holds that the market is essential to individual freedom or to respecting people’s self-ownership. Forced redistribution of resources away from the outcome resulting from individual exchange violates people’s freedom to do what they like with what is theirs. Another, quite distinct, argument claims that the market gives people what…

  • Caribbean phone wars hit Trinidad

    If you have been following the travels of former Esat BT/Esat Digifone owner Denis O’Brien you will be aware that he has been investing heavily in the Caribbean. It seems that Digicel is causing something of a problem on some of the islands: Historically, C&W has had a virtual monopoly in Britain’s former Caribbean colonies…

  • McCreevy to save Europe?

    The Economist outlines Charlie ‘bundled to Brussels’ McCreevy’s plan for simplifying financial services in the EU. The former Irish finance minister, now the EU’s internal-market commissioner, is regarded as both a sensible champion of capitalism and a bureaucrat who has slowed the march towards a single market. But he is also seen as an enforcer…

  • On Brian Crowley

    After chatting with Brian Crowley briefly last week I am still puzzled and perplexed by some of the arguments in favour of the Common Agricultural Policy. This is mainly because he argued about it in a way I had not read or heard before. He mentioned the three current pillars of CAP, and I can…

  • Globalization drives a wedge into EU

    I like this quote from Ann Mettler of the Lisbon Council, concerning France’s economic policies: “France has not internalized a very important transition that is happening in Europe right now, which is the shift from the industrial economy to the knowledge and services economy,” said Ann Mettler of the Lisbon Council, a market-oriented research group…

  • A tankful of sugar, Brazil's ethanol

    I never knew that Brazil had previously gone down the road of ethanol based fuel for cars. Prompted by the oil shocks of the 1970s, Brazilian governments used laws and subsidies to promote ethanol-only cars, which had 90% of the market by the late 1980s. But supplies of sugar-based fuel dried up suddenly when planters…

  • Is a Slimmer Sony Coming?

    With the new guy in charge it looks like Sony are trying to get back on an even keel. Few doubt that Sony, a much diminished force and brand, needs some shock therapy to revive itself. After all, its core electronics division, which accounts for 70% of sales, has lost money on an operating basis…

  • The Future of Oil

    Foreign Policy poses seven questions to Matthew Simmons, a chief proponent of the idea of peak oil. Some of the juicier ones: FP: You’ve written that Saudi Arabia relies on old and overproduced oil fields that are likely to start declining in output. How has Riyadh responded to your analysis? MS: They’ve said “trust me,…

  • Asian squirrels

    Interesting figures: China has overtaken Japan: it now has the world’s largest foreign-exchange reserves. The combined reserves of the People’s Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority stood at $833 billion at the end of June. By now, given their recent rate of growth, they could be nudging $870 billion-worth, most of this…

  • Oil prices return to record highs

    These kind of rises could really eat into any growth forecasts for the rest of the year, how high can it go? In Wednesday trading in New York, a barrel of US light crude temporarily hit a fresh high of $65.00 before ending the day’s trading at $64.90. London Brent saw similar gains, jumping $2.08…