BonoboLand

europe | by Damien Smith | 09 Jun, 2004 at 09:57 PM | comments (3) | trackback (0)

I'm busy with exams this week and next (I so look forward to my joining the masses of the unemployed afterwards) though I thought this piece from David Warsh needed to be pointed out:... • continue reading

Freedom isn't free

europe | by Eamonn Fitzgerald | 06 Jun, 2004 at 02:25 PM | comments (2) | trackback (0)

I come from a country that opted for neutrality in the existential 20th-century fight to save Europe from fascism, and I live in the country that had to be defeated in this fight, so you can be sure that on this anniversary of D-Day I have some pretty strong feelings... • continue reading

Gambling - Speculation - Arbitrage?

asia pacific | by Lloyd Gillespie | 02 Jun, 2004 at 08:52 PM | comments (4) | trackback (0)

It has always amazed me how few people are willing to admit the amount and power speculation, of all forms, truly has in the global economy. Even on this site, many commenters have doubted the real power and profit potentials of said. I was raised from early childhood about the... • continue reading

The news from Iraq must be bad

opinion | by Eamonn Fitzgerald | 01 Jun, 2004 at 09:07 PM | comments (8) | trackback (0)

The guy on the TV is saying that a car bomb exploded near the Baghdad headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Party, close to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. The message, which is always the same, is clear: Iraq is a disaster. A mess. A quagmire.... • continue reading

• Under The Sign Of Mnemosyne Edward Hugh
• Musings Agnes Stein
• Meet the G5 Daniel Scruton
• Don't Say You Weren't Warned! Edward Hugh
• Well, Well, Well Edward Hugh
• Running in Tandem Edward Hugh
• "Never have so many people written so much... Eamonn Fitzgerald
• Daddy's Been Away on Business Edward Hugh

• The lucky few: Google 'offers' 1 terabyte storage | Reuters

• Crude oil futures extend record high | Bloomberg

• What was someone just saying about inflation pressure? Dollar hits 5 month high with euro | Reuters/Yahoo

• Blogging is most definitely here to stay | Christian Science Monitor

• Greenspan warns rate rises may now be necessary | AFP/Yahoo

• Raffarin changes course on French reforms | Financial Times

• U.S. employment rose in March at the fastest pace in nearly four years | Yahoo Reuters

• German engineering and technology conglomerate Siemans declares it has "concrete plans" to relocate jobs out of the country | Financial Times

• bonobo crossfire

MacKenna's Gold

bonobo crossfire | by Divya Manian | 02 May, 2004 at 06:13 AM | comments (3) | trackback (0)

Recently I had written on my blog about the rise and fall of the Gold Standard -purely from the perspective of an economics newbie. Recently I have heard murmurs of support for bringing back the Gold Standard. Is it feasible to implement the gold standard in face of the weakening... • continue reading

Sustainability of asset/wealth driven economies

bonobo crossfire | by Christopher Anderson | 23 Feb, 2004 at 07:50 PM | comments (0) | trackback (0)

Tax revenue implications Steven Roach�s recent columns have questioned the sustainability of asset/wealth driven (as opposed to income-driven) economies. I started thinking about the pitfalls that would need to be avoided. I ran into one that I haven�t seen addressed before. How will countries raise revenue in an asset/wealth driven... • continue reading

• demography

The Third World: Staying Poor and Growing Old?

demography | by Randy McDonald | 17 May, 2004 at 02:21 AM | comments (12) | trackback (1)

Just today, I noticed an interesting article in the Korea Times, "Alarming Birth Rate Decline: Job Security, Social Justice Ought to Be Enhanced."... • continue reading

Third Republic France as a Demographic Pioneer?

demography | by Randy McDonald | 15 May, 2004 at 09:13 PM | comments (4) | trackback (0)

This followup to my previous post on global depopulation stems from a reply to the original post, made on my blog.... • continue reading

• diversity

Order and Social Tourism

diversity | by Agnes Stein | 28 Apr, 2004 at 03:16 PM | comments (4) | trackback (0)

Prime minister G�ran Persson said no! no! no! But one day he made a full turn and said "social tourism". • continue reading

Iraqi Liberalism

diversity | by Randy McDonald | 17 Mar, 2004 at 12:31 AM | comments (13) | trackback (0)

Houzan Mahmoud's article "An empty sort of freedom" from The Guardian, and Geoffrey York's article "Iraq: One year later ..." from The Globe and Mail are just two of the many articles which describe how, in many respects, spheres of personal autonomy have diminished in Iraq since the overthrow of... • continue reading

• economic theory

Under The Sign Of Mnemosyne

theory | by Edward Hugh | 01 Jun, 2004 at 08:16 AM | comments (4) | trackback (0)

Following Agnes's lead what follows will be "threads picked up and noted in an almost raw state, i.e. as they were found." Let's start with something Daniel said a couple of weeks back: "It is precisely the fact that things are so "finely poised", close to instability, while so many... • continue reading

Pertinent Insights from Milton Gilbert

theory | by Lloyd Gillespie | 03 Apr, 2004 at 03:44 AM | comments (15) | trackback (0)

"...Over the past few weeks we have witnessed the dollar/yen decline from 112 to trade below 104, a four year low. This despite the Japanese authorities having purchased dollars in the range of $265 billion over the past seven months, an unprecedented 85% annualized expansion of foreign currency reserve positions.... • continue reading

• energy

Hubbert's Peak Goes Global

energy | by Lloyd Gillespie | 13 May, 2004 at 07:50 PM | comments (6) | trackback (0)

I can't say that I agree with this article, but Paul Erdman is a respectable economist - a bit bearish though. I believe Chris may be interested enough for a few comments, so I am posting. With China adding considerably to global oil demand, and certain royal families in Arabia... • continue reading

Here's Another Reason.......

energy | by Edward Hugh | 07 May, 2004 at 04:51 PM | comments (3) | trackback (0)

And here's another reason I wouldn't be rushing to tighten on the interest rates front. Oil prices hit $40 a barrel on Friday on concerns over security in the Middle East and tight U.S. gasoline supplies, raising fears that world economic growth may be reined in by rising energy costs..... • continue reading

• geopolitics

Meet the G5

geopolitics | by Daniel Scruton | 29 May, 2004 at 07:29 PM | comments (3) | trackback (0)

• continue reading

Don't Say You Weren't Warned!

geopolitics | by Edward Hugh | 29 May, 2004 at 09:20 AM | comments (3) | trackback (0)

Five foreign oil workers have just been shot dead in Saudi Arabia.

Security and oil sources said on Saturday militants first opened fire at the Al-Khobar Petroleum Centre building, believed to house offices of major Western oil companies, before storming into three nearby office compounds and homes of employees working there.

Now I have no idea at all whether this will be the trigger which sends the value of oil futures skyrocketing through the ceiling. The objective here is cleary to take any credibity away from declarations of the Saudi Regime that they can keep the oil taps open. • continue reading

• global finance

Keynes' Bancor +

global finance | by Lloyd Gillespie | 16 May, 2004 at 07:19 PM | comments (3) | trackback (0)

Ah... Here's a few other economists thinking seriously about the international financial architecture. They not only have adopted Keynes' Bancor scheme, but also give a brief history of why it is necessary. I couldn't agree more. Too bad some other heavyweight economists, like Roach and Xie, wouldn't go public with... • continue reading

The Long Process of Salvaging Capitlaism

global finance | by Lloyd Gillespie | 14 May, 2004 at 06:39 PM | comments (2) | trackback (0)

...Ah... Finally, Stephen has come back in form and relating the real story. I don't find anything in this article I disagree with. If the world is ever to right itself again, it must be through major structural reform, whether by the methods Roach mentions or through real international co-oporation... • continue reading

• internet

Tonight's Heteroclite Crop of Links

internet | by Marcelo Rinesi | 14 May, 2004 at 05:55 AM | comments (0) | trackback (0)

A random midnight hour, a coup of Earl Grey, a homebrew RSS reader and a little above two hundred feeds. Here's what I found...... • continue reading

Googling The Night Away

internet | by Edward Hugh | 30 Apr, 2004 at 10:17 AM | comments (3) | trackback (0)

The Google phenomenon is certainly a non-stop show. Gmail is now available to active blogger users. First impressions from users seem positive. Then yesterday Google confirmed its plans to sell at least $2.7bn of its shares to the public through public auction, in so doing throwing down a challenge to the way Wall Street has traditionally taken companies public. As the FT says:

"In the most eagerly awaited stock offering for years, Google set out its determination to break the mould in the way public companies sell their shares and how they deal with pressure from Wall Street. The opening words of its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Us regulator, declare: "Google is not a conventional company.""

Their objectives as announced: "Don't be evil" and "Make the world a better place." • continue reading

• outsourcing

I love the EU, but dammit...

europe , opinion , outsourcing , protectionism | by Marcelo Rinesi | 29 Apr, 2004 at 02:14 PM | comments (5) | trackback (0)

I love the EU as a concept. In high school one of the few stickers on my bedroom said "I (love) Europe" (keep in mind that I'm born and living in Argentina). But there are obvious problems when you try to integrate wildly dissimilar economies, as for example corporate tax... • continue reading

Brad Delong On Outsourcing: A Commentary

outsourcing | by Edward Hugh | 02 Apr, 2004 at 05:11 PM | comments (10) | trackback (1)

Brad Delong has an interesting piece (written with Stephen Cohen) about outsourcing. "Politically, today's fears about job losses and international trade got their start last summer; they will heat up during the campaign and cool off in a year or so. Economically, they are just starting, and are likely to... • continue reading

• semantic web

Information Flow Between Chinese and English Blogospheres

semantic web | by Andrea | 14 May, 2004 at 08:24 AM | comments (1) | trackback (1)

This picture presented by Isaac Mao at the recent China's Digital Future conference in Berkeley sums up the current relationship between the Chinese blogosphere and English blogosphere: the flow of information between the two worlds is asymetrical and imbalance. There are far more information flowing from the English speaking world... • continue reading

Undressing Brains

semantic web | by Edward Hugh | 21 Apr, 2004 at 04:19 PM | comments (3) | trackback (0)

Ok, get ready, this is going to be an extremely weird, not to say 'whacky', post (well, what else would you expect from the so-called president of the association of 'whacky economists': at least nothing dismal I hope).

The idea started to form in my mind as I was writing a mail earlier this morning to a fellow blogger. As the 'correspondent' (this term is, please note, also used to describe one of the parties in adultery-based divorce proceedings ) was young and female I felt the unusual need to hedge what I was saying with all kinds of qualifiers to avoid the wrong kind of interpretation. Since the 'undressing' thing is a metaphor which I would like to continue to use I thought it might be better to come out of the closet now and declare my secret 'peeping tom like' proclivity for this bizarre practice.

Full disclosure: I enjoy watching other people 'undress their brains', I have even what may be described as an 'un-natural' interest in the topic.

Now if you are over 18, and willing to take responsibility for your own decisions, please press continue reading. • continue reading

• top