Archive for June, 2007
A New Deal to save globalisation
In: Uncategorized
19 Jun 2007A New Deal is needed on globalisation according to an essay in the July / August 2007 issue of Foreign Affairs. Kenneth Scheve and Matthew Slaughter concede that globalisation has brought huge benefits. However, they are worried that the income inequality it has brought to American workers could prompt a protectionist backlash. For them the […]
- Tags: America, globalisation, inequality
Bond market signals on global economy
In: Uncategorized
18 Jun 2007This week’s Fund Strategy included a comment by me on what recent developments in the bond market say about the world economy. For the non-mathematically inclined any discussion of bonds is about aswelcome as a zit to a teenager. All the discussion of yields, yield curvesand spreads can be brain-achingly confusing. Equities, in contrast, seemlike […]
- Tags: economics, finance, Fund Strategy
Growth is still good
In: Uncategorized
17 Jun 2007A paper (PDF) published by the Information Technology & Innovation Forum argues that most Americans have benefited from productivity growth over the past 25 years. Stephen Rose, the paper’s author, concedes that inequality has risen but, through a careful statistical analysis, shows there is still a link between productivity growth and wage growth. Much of […]
- Tags: America, growth, inequality
More Layard on teaching happiness
In: Uncategorized
16 Jun 2007Professor Richard Layard has elaborated on his views on teaching happiness in schools. Writing (PDF) in the summer 2007 edition of CentrePiece, a magazine from the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, he argues that schools should place great emphasis on developing good and happy people (see also 9 May 2007 […]
Critique of eco-tourism
In: Uncategorized
14 Jun 2007An astute article by Jim Butcher, a lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University, on eco-tourism is available here. He concedes that eco-tourism may help communities to meet basic needs but it also rules out broader development. Butcher also points out that there is no intrinsic virtue in harmony between local communities and local environments.
- Tags: development, environment
Ten years since Asian financial crisis
In: Uncategorized
12 Jun 2007This week’s Fund Strategy included a world markets review with a comment by me on the 10th anniversary of the Asian financial crisis. Ten years after the outbreak of the 1997-8 Asian financial crisis it is worth re-examining what happened. Many commentators have forgotten how wrong they were about the event and its implications. The […]
- Tags: Asia, finance, Fund Strategy
G8 embodies growth scepticism
In: Uncategorized
11 Jun 2007My comment in this week’s Fund Strategy looks at the “growth and responsibility” motto of last week’s G8 summit. It is a classic growth sceptic formulation. The slogan for last week’s G8 summit of world leaders in Germany was “growth and responsibility”. The more closely it is examined the stranger it sounds. Economic growth has […]
- Tags: environment, Fund Strategy, growth, happiness, inequality
New York Times magazine on inequality
In: Uncategorized
10 Jun 2007The theme of today’s New York Times magazine is inequality. It includes a piece on whether labour should be globalised, an article on whether equality can be promoted without killing American prosperity and a piece on Larry Summers’ views on the impact of globalisation on the middle class (on the final point see my post […]
- Tags: globalisation, inequality
An erudite Canadian growth sceptic
In: Uncategorized
10 Jun 2007Last Wednesday (6 June) I want to a Bookshop Barnie featuring Thomas Homer-Dixon, director of the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto, on his new book, The Upside of Down. One of his central arguments is that the “growth imperative” is pushing the world towards breakdown. His solution, typically […]
- Tags: development, growth
Happiness update
10 Jun 2007I have come across so much on happiness in the last few days that I will have to resort to relaying it in bullet point form: * Happiness debate in the Financial Times. Martin Wolf, the chief economics commentator of the Financial Times, had a belated review of Richard Layard’s 2005 book on happiness published […]
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