Why Do Economies Stop Growing?
Spence, Michael. Over the years, advanced and developing countries have experimented, sometimes deliberately and frequently inadvertently, with a variety of approaches to growth. Unfortunately, many of these strategies have turned out to have built-in limitations or decelerators – what one might call elements of unsustainability. And avoiding serious damage and difficult recoveries requires us to […]
Is Europe on a Cross of Gold?
Eichengreen, Barry. Increasingly, one hears predictions that the euro will go the way of the gold standard in the 1930’s. And, increasingly, the reasoning behind such forecasts seems persuasive. But does that mean that the euro doomsayers are right? Πηγή: Project Syndicate πλήρες κείμενο
Plutocracy, Paralysis, Perplexity
Krugman, Paul. Before the Great Recession, I would sometimes give public lectures in which I would talk about rising inequality, making the point that the concentration of income at the top had reached levels not seen since 1929. Often, someone in the audience would ask whether this meant that another depression was imminent. Πηγή: The […]
Ideas over Interests
Rodrik, Dani. The most widely held theory of politics is also the simplest: the powerful get what they want. Financial regulation is driven by the interests of banks, health policy by the interests of insurance companies, and tax policy by the interests of the rich. Those who can influence government the most – through their […]
Why a More Flexible Renminbi Still Matters
Rogoff, Kenneth. One of the most notable macroeconomic developments in recent years has been the sharp drop in China’s current-account surplus. The International Monetary Fund is now forecasting a 2012 surplus of just 2.3% of GDP, down from a pre-crisis peak of 10.1% of GDP in 2007, owing largely to a decline in China’s trade […]
Is high public debt harmful for economic growth?
Panizza, Ugo, Presbitero, Andrea. Countries with high public debt tend to grow slowly – a correlation often used to justify austerity. This column presents new evidence challenging this view. The authors point out that correlation does not imply causality – it may be that slow growth causes high debt. They argue that policymakers should be wary […]
What’s the Matter with Argentina?
Acemoglu, Daron, Robinson, James. One hundred years ago Argentina was one of the richest countries in the world. For fifty years it rode a wave of favorable market opportunities and experienced one of the most successful periods of extractive growth in world history (sharing these honors with the Soviet Union and contemporary China or Sinagpore). Πηγή: […]
Inequality and Keynesian Economics
Acemoglu, Daron, Robinson, James. Paul Krugman and Robin Wells have an interesting article in the Occupy Handbook edited by Janet Byrne that has just come out that has just been reprinted at salon.com. Krugman and Wells articulate and expand on a thesis that they have suggested previously. They start by arguing that the huge increase in […]
Argentina’s critics are wrong again about renationalising oil
Weisbrot, Mark. The Argentinian government’s decision to renationalise the oil and gas company YPF has been greeted with howls of outrage, threats, forecasts of rage and ruin, and a rude bit of name-calling in the international press. We have heard all this before. Πηγή: The Guardian πλήρες κείμενο
The Trouble with Libertarian Paternalism
Rajan, Raghuram. There are many arguments against government paternalism: apart from limiting individual choice (for example, the choice to remain uninsured in the current health-care debate in the United States) and preventing individuals from learning, history suggests time and again that the conventional wisdom prevalent in society is wrong. And, since governments typically try to […]