Like piggies at the trough, Argentine businessmen are falling in love with the nationalization of YPF. At first, the private sector recoiled at the idea. It symbolized the growing isolationism of the nation, the abrogation of private property rights and the heavy-handed nature of the Fernandez de Kirchner Administration. However, the move is taking a … Read more
This past Sunday, Paul Krugman penned a screed in the New York Times Magazine (entitled, somewhat unflatteringly in my opinion, “Earth to Ben Bernanke”) that expanded on the content of an ongoing debate in the economics blogosphere over the contents of the mind of Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke. Professor Krugman has posited for months … Read more
Fears that the world is running short of oil aren’t going away, but judging by the latest figures on global oil production there’s no sign that the peak oil factor is an imminent threat. Global output rose to a new all-time high last December, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA): 75.384 … Read more
Early last week, I went on Bloomberg to talk about China’s latest economic figures, and boy did I kick up a hornet’s nest. In a nutshell, I said that I was finding it harder and harder to reconcile China’s official CPI, GDP, and PMI numbers with what I was seeing and hearing on the ground. … Read more
I ran across three separate articles on peak oil at well-regarded financial news sites today: The Economist, The Financial Times and Le Figaro. I thought I’d give you a run down of what they were saying and what it means for the economy and investing. What is Peak Oil About? Let’s start with The Economist: … Read more
In size, the tax deduction for charitable contributions ranks sixth on the dirty-dozen list of tax loopholes, far behind deductions for employer-paid health care or home mortgage interest. In popularity, though, it probably ranks first. Perhaps that is because so many people think it really is what it purports to be: a reduction in taxes … Read more
Another guest post from Ali G (not the rapper– sorry for the bad joke, but I am just preparing you for Monday’s column). Small edits here and there, I don’t touch the style, just minor grammar stuff… And my comments are at the very bottom… CBRT ended the latest special days streak as of 18th … Read more
Who said economists can’t have fun: As loyal readers would know, I have been a staunch critic of Turkish monetary policy. But some key events last week have lifted this veil of ignorance and made me reconsider my position. Here’s the intro. to my column that was published on April 1 . You can read the … Read more
I think the biggest policy failures in Washington over the past three or four decades are caused by confusion over the nature of money, and more specifically, the nature of a sovereign currency. So many of our policy makers simply do not understand that a sovereign issuer of the currency is not like a household … Read more
In the spirit of The Lord of The Rings, I recently attempted my own trilogy about the low Turkish private savings, along with a cheesy title paying homage to one of my (and everyone’s I guess) favorite WWII movies. In fact, I was never planning a trilogy when I first wrote about the issue right … Read more