Category: Economics
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Monkey business-sense
I rather liked this story from last week’s Economist. It concerns risk aversion in humans and monkeys. When buying things in a straight exchange of money for goods, people often respond to changes in price in exactly the way that theoretical economics predicts. But when faced with an exchange whose outcome is predictable only on…
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Oil in troubled waters
The Economist has oil as its cover story this week, a subject oft-covered on this blog. Vijay Vaitheeswaran is writing this story in the Economist. Here’s a nice graph: Vijay notes, and I will highlight the bits I like: More worryingly, Mr Morse believes the problem extends well beyond just spare production capacity. He points…
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The difference between economists and political scientists
Dan Drezner has a lenghty post concerning a debate he’s having with Matthew Yglesias and Brad DeLong. It surrounds the US request for China to “immediately introduce a flexible currency” which the FT reports is “a marked shift in tactics after several years of patient diplomacy aimed at nudging China towards allowing the renminbi to…
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Running out of puff?
The Economist presents a pretty stark view of the world economy with such gems as: Unemployment in the euro area is 8.9%; in Germany, France and Spain it is in double digits. Manufacturing in the single-currency zone has stalled. In its latest World Economic Outlook, published this week, the IMF, like other forecasters before it,…
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Free trade may have finished off Neanderthals
This one for all the free-market lovers out there: Modern humans may have driven Neanderthals to extinction 30,000 years ago because Homo sapiens unlocked the secrets of free trade, say a group of US and Dutch economists. The theory could shed new light on the mysterious and sudden demise of the Neanderthals after over 260,000…
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Dress down to save Japan, PM says
I have to hand it to them, it is a good idea. Japan’s prime minister plans to dress down this summer, and wants millions of Japanese office workers to do the same. Junichiro Koizumi is asking workers to cast off their collars and ties in a national effort to use less energy on air conditioning.…
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A Pain in the Walnuts
Diana has a stinging rebuke for the Freedom Institute in the ongoing debate concerning minimum wage and that girl being pade €1.08 an hour on Irish Ferries. The entire debate, including all the comments, is a very enjoyable read.
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Coal in a nice shade of green
Thomas Homer-Dixon and S. Julio Friedmann suggest using a new-type energy source known as gasification. What is it? Here’s how it works: In a type of power plant called an integrated gasification combined-cycle facility, we change any fossil fuel, including coal, into a superhot gas that is rich in hydrogen – and in the process…
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The Overstretch Myth
David H. Levey and Stuart S. Brown write in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs on the US deficit. A riveting read, for those interested in US economics, I know some of you out there enjoy it at least. In their conclusion they look at some precedents: At the peak of its global power the…
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Pouring oil on the East China Sea
Some ongoing tensions between Japan and China are detailed here. Japan has begun planning for the worst. A conflict with China over rich gas deposits in the East China Sea has escalated since late January when two Chinese destroyers entered the area, which has been in dispute for decades. Japan warned China that it would…