A rather nerdy take on Valentine's Day... or as the authors claim: "expectation management, the key to a long and happy relationship". If, however, it doesn't work out, charts demonstrating your inelastic demand and natural monopoly notwithstanding, you can still ponder about the 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover...
Feb 13, 2012
14 Ways an Economist Says 'I Love You'
Jan 24, 2012
Rating the Rating Agencies
Rating agencies remain in the spotlight and they seemingly can never make anyone happy: when they junk or downgrade countries, it obviously hurts, when they fail to do just that, they get blamed for not warning the world to the looming economic crisis. A recent commentary in the Financial Times (and the above illustration) is clearly pointing the finger at them.
PERG, however, had the privilege to listen to a more nuanced take: Zsofia Barta (EUI) presented her research on how rating agencies determine the creditworthiness of a country. More details on the PERG website.
Jan 19, 2012
On Kiev's Black Money Markets
PERG's very own Vera Asenova discovers how restricted markets can still lead to an increase in Pareto efficiency... well, through the good old black market. Read more about her money exchange adventures in Kiev, Ukraine on her blog.
(Reuters) People waiting for Vera to approach them with euros, in front of a Kiev exchange.
Nov 28, 2011
Animated Capitalism
CUNY professor, David Harvey's Marxist-inspired take on 'Crises of Capitalism'.
Slovenian philosopher and critical theorist, Slavoj Zizek's illustrated lecture on 'Capitalism and Charity' and why he thinks George Soros is old fashioned.
Oct 25, 2011
'TED Eye-Opening' Talks for PolSci Students
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), is now offering what they call '12 Eye-Opening TED Talks for Political Science Students' on their website on varied topics, including sub-Saharan Africa, voter apathy, and ethnic conflicts. You can also find economics and development related talks, amongst many others, on their website. TED was launched as a conference series in 1984 and is commited to spreading ideas.
Read more on 'TED Eye-Opening' Talks for PolSci StudentsOct 7, 2011
FT: Visegrad Four are Less Vulnerable to Crisis
A 'Special Report' on the Visegrad countries in Friday's Financial Times argues that the region is less vulnerable and may be in a better position to 'deal with problems' than many eurozone countries. Articles also touch upon the difficulty of moving from emerging to developed economy and the limitations of FDI-based development without an increase in R&D spending and improving education. Plus, everything you wanted to know about Czech viticulture...
Read more on FT: Visegrad Four are Less Vulnerable to CrisisOct 5, 2011
Turning Britain into a CME
Could a Liberal Market Economy (LME) become a Coordinated Market Economy (CME)? Ed Miliband, leader of Britain's Labour Party seems to think so. On 27 September, at his party's annual conference Mr. Miliband is reported to have set out his vision for implementing a Rhineland variety of capitalism in Britain, rewarding production over speculation and services, and introduce corporatist elements to capital and labour relations. A fairly hostile take on this in the Economist is attached below. In any case, this will not happen any time soon: the plan envisages 20 years of transition and the next elections may only take place in 2014 or 2015...
Economist
http://www.economist.com/node/21530975
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
