Category: Economics
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Mikhail Khodorkovsky: Letter from a Russian prison
The former head of Yukos with a letter to the outside world. He warns: I have already realized that wealth, and especially vast wealth, does not in itself make a person free. As a co-owner of Yukos, I had to make enormous efforts to protect this wealth. I had to limit myself in everything that…
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Hollywood banks on foreign DVD bonanza
Ever wonder how much Hollywood makes out of foreign DVD sales? Nobody knows the exact figures, but they are pretty high.
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Does Wal Mart affect inflation?
Can a single retail company affect inflation? A recent National Bureau of Economic Research study argues that Wal-Mart’s size and lower-than-average prices have pushed the U.S. inflation rate substantially below what official statistics indicate. According to the study’s authors, the government’s current inflation metric assumes that lower prices at big-box discounters mean products of lower…
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Tiger, Tiger, Fading Fast
Slate had a brief storyon the Irish economy too last week… The lessons of Ireland’s success are obvious enough to border on common sense, in the same way that eating less is the key to losing weight. Support free trade. Create an environment that is amenable to investment. Educate your population. Align the interests of…
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On Stinginess again
Dan Drezner has a good round up of the stinginess debate.
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Warding off the Oil Curse – Chad
Number 8 in the top ten things from Foreign Policy (see below) is this little gem: Although the Boston Red Sox undid their curse in dramatic fashion, the West African country of Chad is quietly trying to undo the oil curse that plagues many developing countries. Chad became an oil exporter and in July received…
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Is Turkey the next Argentina?
Could Turkey be plunged into a fiscal nightmare? Erinc Yeldan, professor in the department of economics at Bilkent University in Ankara and Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington seem to think so. Will this threaten future Turkey accession to the EU? They note: But beneath these numbers, a…
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EU 'over-dependent' on Russian gas supplies
A stark warning from the IEA: A growing dependence among European Union countries on Russian gas supplies piped through politically unstable Ukraine is placing the EU’s energy security at risk, the International Energy Agency has warned. At a time when China and Japan are increasingly looking to Russia to meet their rising energy demands, Claude…
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New oil proves elusive, and alarm bells ring
Jad Mouawad writing in the New York Times discusses such as facts as: According to Wood Mackenzie, an energy research firm, six of the 10 largest oil companies have cut their investments in exploration since 1998. Together, the world’s leading companies spent $8 billion drilling for oil last year; in 1998, they spent more than…
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China's growth as a regional power
Dan Drezner links to an informative article in the New York Times. Drezner sings her praises, perhaps correctly, she notes: American military supremacy remains unquestioned, regional officials say. But the United States appears to be on the losing side of trade patterns. China is now South Korea’s biggest trade partner, and two years ago Japan’s…