The conflict between democracy and the EU’s financial rules is reaching right down to the local level http://t.co/0uj2IYC935
11 minutes ago
Geostrategy Channel: Latest Posts
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Asia
Where is India in Internet adoption?
Where is India in terms of usage of the Internet? One way to think about this question is to look at specific application areas. I saw two fragments of evidence today: Online tradingWriting in Hindu Business Line, Rajalakshmi Sivam has interesting information about the share of online trading on NSE: 2006 Today Number of trades [...]
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Finance & Markets
Paul Krugman: All the President’s Zombies
The age of Reaganism should be over, but it isn’t: All the President’s Zombies, by Paul Krugman, Commentary, NY Times: The debate over the “public option” in health care has been dismaying in many ways. Perhaps the most depressing aspect for progressives, however, has been the extent to which opponents of greater choice in health [...]
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The Wilder View
Follow up on Debt-Fueled Consumption Growth
Wow, this post got a lot of attention/criticism on the web (see comments on RGE Economonitor, Investment Postcards from Cape Town, and of course News N Economics). I guess it’s hard to believe that the mortgage buildup over the last decade was financing health care rather than durable-goods consumption. The chart illustrates annual real spending, [...]
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Geostrategy
Changing Migration Patterns in Oregon?
In the winter of 2005, I had a conversation with a developer in Central Oregon. He was regaling me with the unlimited upside to the property market (and his deal-making prowess). I replied that what was going to happen was that the Fed would raise interest rates and that would end the hot money propping [...]
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Finance & Markets
Why the Gang of Six is Deciding Health Care for Three Hundred Million of Us
Last night, the so-called “gang of six” — three Republican and three Democratic senators on the Senate Finance Committee — met by conference call and, according to Senator Max Baucus, the committee’s chair, reaffirmed their commitment “toward a bipartisan health-care reform bill” (read: less coverage and no public insurance option). The Washington Post reports that [...]
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The Wilder View
The Misunderstanding of “Debt-Fueled Consumption”
Today I plan to rant just a bit about consumption because I was reading Yves Smith’s article today, and she referred to “debt-fueled consumption” – the now pejorative phrase that just rolls off the tongue. She says: “no where does the article [referenced WSJ article in her post on the consumption share] acknowledge that the [...]
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Geostrategy
Five Simple Principles for Scaling up in Aid
There is a lot of discussion in aid on scaling up small-scale successes in aid to reach many more potential beneficiaries. But what things can be scaled up? Here are some principles so simple that they would be embarrassing except that they are routinely violated in aid. (1) Scale up success not failure The only [...]
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Finance & Markets
Home Appraisal Reform: WSJ vs NYT
Two new articles — in the NYT and the WSJ — look at the home appraisal business: Both article somewhat acknowledge the role appraisers played in facilitating the outsized run up in prices. Yet clearly, there are significant differences. The Times wrote “A profession that should have been a brake on the spiral in home [...]
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Geostrategy
USA and Argentina – Alan Beattie’s Response
In Response to Eugenio Diaz-Bonilla’s post USA, Argentina and Alan Beattie: Wrong Starting Point. Nice to spark a debate, but I don’t find this critique of my book very convincing. It is based on two fallacies : 1. wrongly implying that I was focusing on Argentina’s absolute rather than per capita GDP, and 2. assuming [...]
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Finance & Markets
Odd WSJ Story on Vermont
The Wall Street Journal has an odd piece on the Vermont mortgage market today. Odd in that the thesis appears to be completely unsupported by the rest of the piece. The story begins: In plenty of other states, Andrea Todd would have been a homeowner years ago. Here, she bought just this month — a difference [...]
