The Central Bank Revolution I (well ‘nominally’ so)
by“The Checklist Manifesto – How to get things right”, is a masterful book for its narrative and practical application. Written by Atul Gawande, an…
Economics
Osborne cornered
byOn 20 March George Osborne, the UK’s Chancellor, will present his budget. So far he has made a valiant attempt to cap public sector…
Street Smarts, by Jim Rogers
byIn China, eight is the lucky number. The Mandarin symbol for eight is a pictogram representing a side of meat being sliced in two,…
Bubble trouble: Is there an end to endless quantitative easing?
byThe publication, earlier this week, of the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee minutes of January 29-30 seemed to have a similar effect on equity markets…
Retail therapy for India
byHow will Big Box retailers like Walmart affect India? Some have expressed concern that “retail therapy” will put a small army of independent retailers…
Banking and the state
by“It had come to be accepted that the pigs, who were manifestly cleverer than the other animals, should decide all questions of farm policy,…
The final countdown
byGovernments have refused to accept the necessity of a period of economic re-adjustment following the credit-bubble. The bubble burst about five years ago and…
Incredible confusions, Part 2: Of interest and the dangerous habit of suppressing it
byThe idea that the charging of interest is unethical and should be banned has a long tradition in the history of human civilisation. It…
The errors of Keynes
byThe Austrian School of economics has provided the world with devastating critics of Keynes’s magnum opus The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (TGT) for…
The deflationary spiral bogey
byWhat is deflation? According to dictionary.com, it is “a fall in the general price level or a contraction of credit and available money.” Falling prices….