Return of Forex Market Interventions

Chile’s Peso Gains After Central Bank Announces Intervention

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-28/chile-central-bank-intervenes-in-currency-market-as-peso-slumps

Brazil Intervenes Twice to Prop Up Real After Fall to Record

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-26/bolsonaro-expresses-concern-about-record-low-brazil-currency

Update:
Trump will reimpose steel and aluminum tariffs on Brazil and Argentina, opening new trade war fronts
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/12/02/trump-announces-tariffs-steel-aluminum-brazil-argentina/

Controversies Surrounding Economic Development Research

Economic Incentives Don’t Always Do What We Want Them To

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/26/opinion/sunday/duflo-banerjee-economic-incentives.html

When a Disappointment Helped Lead to a Nobel Prize

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/29/business/economics-nobel.html

Related:

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/limits-of-randomized-controlled-economics-trials-by-andres-velasco-2019-11

Thanksgiving – Historical Perspective

GMU economist Tyler Cowen - An American Thanksgiving Story Without Any Heroes

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-11-26/thanksgiving-2019-u-s-treatment-of-native-americans-is-shameful

A good single volume history of the US:

These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore

https://www.amazon.com/These-Truths-History-United-States/dp/0393357422/ 

Lack of Competition and Market Access - An Interesting Case Study

The Great American Eye-Exam Scam

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/great-american-eye-exam-scam/602482/

Why is it so difficult to get a new pair of glasses or contacts in this country? It’s easier pretty much everywhere else. 

Choice of College Major and Potential Lifetime Earnings

To make money, study Math or Economics at a top university

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/11/26/to-make-money-study-maths-or-economics-at-a-top-university
Related:
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/01/26/the-cost-of-studying-the-arts-at-oxbridge

Highest Paying Jobs with a Bachelor’s Degree – PAYSCALE DATA
https://www.payscale.com/college-salary-report/majors-that-pay-you-back/bachelors?orderBy=MidCareerPay&ascending=false

In the US, many elite universities (e.g. Harvard) do not offer undergraduate business degrees, and, consequently, economics is a popular choice for a major:

The 3 most popular majors at every Ivy League school

https://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-ivy-league-major-2017-4

Profile of Cornell’s Dyson School:

https://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/school-profile/cornell-universitys-dyson-school/

“The Dyson Cornell SC Johnson College of Business and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania are the only two undergrad business programs of all seven Ivy League schools. And they are the most selective schools in the United States, with only 7.1% of applicants gaining admission to Wharton and an astoundingly low 2.93% getting the nod from the gatekeepers at Cornell…What does that curriculum entail? “We are heavily quantitative applied economics- and science-driven because of our heritage,” Wooten says. “So throughout the four-year experience, much of the curriculum is similar to what you would see in other business schools, but our distinction is smaller classes, the high-touch, and our students have to take a lot of science classes and math classes to go with the general business classes.””

--------

An aside: 
Since there are so many undergraduate economics majors coming out of top universities, admission to elite economics grad school programs is highly competitive. Additionally, many prestigious positions available to economics majors (e.g. Research Associate Programs at the Federal Reserve) often receive applications from a large number of undergrads from elite universities.

Fear the Asset Bubbles

Global Risk-Taking Binge Is Worrying Central Banks

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-27/global-risk-taking-binge-gives-central-banks-cause-to-shudder

Can the Fed Slowly Deflate the Credit Bubble?

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-11-27/federal-reserve-attempts-to-deflate-the-credit-bubble

Your Portfolio Is Probably Doing Great. That’s Bad News for the Future.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/27/upshot/stocks-portfolio-economy-future.html 

Economics of Climate Change

For deep greenhouse gas emission reductions, a long-term perspective on costs is essential

https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/pdf/the-true-cost-of-reducing-greenhouse-gas-emissions-gillingham.pdf

Carbon-pricing strategies could hold the key to meeting the world’s climate stabilization goals

https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2019/12/pdf/the-case-for-carbon-taxation-and-putting-a-price-on-pollution-parry.pdf 

CFA Exam Goes Global

How China CFA Applicants Keep Beating Finance’s Hardest Exam

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-25/how-china-cfa-applicants-keep-beating-finance-s-most-brutal-exam 

A Forgotten Civilization

Hampi – A Forgotten Civilization

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/26/travel/52-places-to-go-hampi-india.html 

The Mixed Impact of 2017 Corporate Tax Cuts

The Mixed Impact of U.S. Corporate Tax Cuts

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/mixed-impact-us-corporate-tax-cuts

How FedEx Cut Its Tax Bill to $0

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/17/business/how-fedex-cut-its-tax-bill-to-0.html

Why Amazon May Pay No Federal Income Taxes This Year

https://fortune.com/2019/03/01/amazon-federal-corporate-income-tax/

Rebranding Countries

How to Rebrand a Country

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/23/travel/rebrandng-croatia-colombia.html 

Jump-starting India’s Privatization Program

Jump-starting India’s Privatization Program

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-11-23/modi-finds-his-inner-thatcher-with-india-privatizations 

Where is the Stock Market Headed?

Where is the Stock Market Headed?

https://www.schwab.com/resource-center/insights/content/shiny-happy-people-investors-cheering-stocks-new-highs

Investors are ignoring two major risks to stocks, warns fund manager

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/investors-are-ignoring-two-major-risks-to-stocks-warns-fund-manager-2019-11-21

Five myths about the stock market

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-the-stock-market/2019/11/22/cca5513c-0686-11ea-b17d-8b867891d39d_story.html 

Related:
World’s Rich Are Rattled and Seeking Old-Fashioned Security

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-20/world-s-rich-are-rattled-and-looking-for-old-fashioned-security

Why Financial Markets’ New Exuberance Is Irrational

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/financial-markets-new-exuberance-is-irrational-by-nouriel-roubini-2019-11 

Ethanol Subsidies - A Disastrous Policy

Stop the Ethanol Madness

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/ethanol-has-forsaken-us/602191/ 

401-K Plans and Retirement Savings

Automatic Enrollment Can Boost Retirement Plan Participation

https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2018/08/15/automatic-enrollment-can-boost-retirement-plan-participation

HOW DOES 401(K) AUTO-ENROLLMENT RELATE TO THE EMPLOYER MATCH AND TOTAL COMPENSATION?

http://crr.bc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/IB_13-14-508x.pdf

Do Government Deficits and Public Debt Still Matter?

Economists Join Congress in Not Worrying About the Deficit

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-11-21/do-deficits-matter-economists-increasingly-say-no

Related:

https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2019/11/political-economy-two-interesting-items.html 

Ride Sharing Services and Heavy Drinking

After Uber arrives, heavy drinking increases

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/11/19/after-uber-arrives-heavy-drinking-increases 

PBOC’s Monetary Policy Dilemma

Inside the PBOC’s Struggle to Balance China’s Growth and Debt

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-19/inside-the-pboc-s-struggle-to-balance-china-s-growth-and-debt 

Algorithms and the Justice System

Algorithms were supposed to make Virginia judges fairer. What happened was far more complicated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/11/19/algorithms-were-supposed-make-virginia-judges-more-fair-what-actually-happened-was-far-more-complicated/

Related:

https://www.wired.com/story/algorithms-shouldve-made-courts-more-fair-what-went-wrong/

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/should-we-be-afraid-of-ai-in-the-criminal-justice-system/592084/

Economic Development - Interesting Issues

To make the world richer, let people move

https://www.economist.com/special-report/2019/11/14/to-make-the-world-richer-let-people-move

Mexico Has a Productivity Problem

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-new-economy-drivers-and-disrupters/mexico.html

Political Economy - Interesting Items

DOES THE US FACE A LONG-TERM FISCAL SUSTAINABILITY PROBLEM?

https://www.ut.edu/uploadedFiles/Academics/Business/Economics/TBEFall2018.pdf
Government Debt Sustainability

http://www.milkenreview.org/articles/government-debt

Need for Comprehensive Tax Reform

http://larrysummers.com/2019/04/01/fair-comprehensive-tax-reform-is-the-right-path-forward/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/yes-our-tax-system-needs-reform-lets-start-with-this-first-step/2019/11/17/4d23f8d4-07dd-11ea-924a-28d87132c7ec_story.html

Political Hurdles Preventing Reform of US Healthcare System

http://www.milkenreview.org/articles/life-and-politics-beyond-the-affordable-care-act

Simon F. Haeder notes:

“Critical bulwarks of society, like the health care system, are creatures of their time and place, reflections of political and economic institutions and the interactions between constitutional constraints and the culture. In America, these interactions inevitably echo a strong suspicion of government and a fear of concentrated power paired with devotion to individualism and personal responsibility”. 

Latin America’s Economic and Political Woes

Latin America’s Economic and Political Woes

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-18/unequal-and-irate-latin-america-is-coming-apart-at-the-seams

"On Latin American Populism, and Its Echoes around the World," by Sebastian Edwards

https://www.aeaweb.org/atypon.php?return_path=/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/jep.33.4.76&etoc=1

In this article, I discuss the ways in which populist experiments have evolved historically. Populists are charismatic leaders who use a fiery rhetoric to pitch the interests of "the people" against those of banks, large firms, multinational companies, the International Monetary Fund, and immigrants. Populists implement redistributive policies that violate the basic laws of economics, and in particular budget constraints. Most populist experiments go through five distinct phases that span from euphoria to collapse. Historically, the vast majority of populist episodes end up badly; incomes of the poor and middle class tend to be lower than when the experiment was launched. I argue that many of the characteristics of traditional Latin American populism are present in more recent manifestations from around the globe.

Related:

https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2019/10/rise-of-populist-anger-economic-causes.html 

An Interesting Mathematical Discovery

Three Physicists Stumbled Upon a Striking Mathematical Discovery

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/11/neutrino-oscillations-lead-striking-mathematical-discovery/602128/ 

Political Polarization and Demographics

A tectonic demographic shift is under way. Can the country hold together?

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/how-america-ends/600757/

YONI APPELBAUM notes:

“The history of the United States is rich with examples of once-dominant groups adjusting to the rise of formerly marginalized populations—sometimes gracefully, more often bitterly, and occasionally violently. Partisan coalitions in the United States are constantly reshuffling, realigning along new axes. Once-rigid boundaries of faith, ethnicity, and class often prove malleable. Issues gain salience or fade into irrelevance; yesterday’s rivals become tomorrow’s allies.” 

Trump's Economic Record: Corporate Tax Cut and Other Fiscal Policy Failures

How FedEx Cut Its Tax Bill to $0

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/17/business/how-fedex-cut-its-tax-bill-to-0.html

“Nearly two years after the tax law passed, the windfall to corporations like FedEx is becoming clear. A New York Times analysis of data compiled by Capital IQ shows no statistically meaningful relationship between the size of the tax cut that companies and industries received and the investments they made. If anything, the companies that received the biggest tax cuts increased their capital investment by less, on average, than companies that got smaller cuts.” 

Donald Trump’s Economic Agenda Has Failed

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/10/why-donald-trumps-economic-dream-crumbled/601153/

Derek Thompson notes:

“Donald Trump’s signature legislative achievement was the corporate-tax cut he signed in 2017. Republicans said it would grow the economy by up to 6 percent, stimulate business investment, and pay for itself.

None of those promises have come to pass. ….

Trump swept into office pledging to restore the U.S. economy to the good old days of brawny work and global swagger. He had a vision of the United States where the exports would be bigger, the trade deals would be better, and “forgotten” Americans working in declining sectors like coal mining would be restored to their rightful place at the center of the economy. This bold strategy hinged on the theory that trade wars were “good, and easy to win.”

None of those promises have come to pass, either.” 

Manufacturing Ain’t Great Again. Why? - Paul Krugman

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/opinion/manufacturing-trump.html

Federal Reserve Independence - Historical Perspective

Trump Isn’t the First President to Make War on the Federal Reserve

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/16/opinion/sunday/federal-reserve-trump.html

Myopic Monetary Policy and Presidential Power: Why Rules Matter

https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/2019-09/cj-v39n3-5.pdf 

Billionaires - Measuring the Fortunes of the World's Wealthiest

Bill Gates Tops Jeff Bezos as World’s Richest Person with Amazon Slide

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-15/gates-tops-bezos-as-world-s-richest-person-with-amazon-slide

Bloomberg's Real Time Billionaires Index:

https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/

Forbes’s Billionaires List

https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/#38f5a95f251c

Highest Earning Hedge Fund Managers/Traders:

https://www.forbes.com/hedge-fund-managers/list/

--

The Great Wealth Tax Debate

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/elizabeth-warren-wealth-tax-debate-by-jean-pisani-ferry-2019-10

Tech and Society - Asian Perspectives

TikTok Is Taking Over India

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/11/india-tiktok-stars-are-outshining-traditional-celebrities/602059/

Beyond Amazon's reach, India's women lead an e-commerce revolution

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Cover-Story/Beyond-Amazon-s-reach-India-s-women-lead-an-e-commerce-revolution

Tiger mom effect: China passes US in educational tech investing

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/China-tech/Tiger-mom-effect-China-passes-US-in-educational-tech-investing

“China has surpassed the U.S. as both the top investor and breeding ground for unicorns in educational technology, propelled by anxious Chinese parents looking to give their children a leg up in the country's cutthroat academic race.

The country is now responsible for over 60% of the world's investment in the field, which draws on artificial intelligence and other tools to provide a tailored educational experience. Increased access to high-quality instruction is expected to reshape the country's educational environment.” 

What Should Germany Do?

Why Germany sticks to strict budget rules despite a slowdown

https://www.economist.com/europe/2019/11/14/why-germany-sticks-to-strict-budget-rules-despite-a-slowdown

Germany Can Reduce Its External Surplus

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/reduce-german-external-surplus-through-public-investment-by-dalia-marin-2019-11 

Update:
Europe is quietly drifting toward a recession. It might be bad news for us all.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/europe-is-quietly-drifting-toward-a-recession-it-might-be-bad-news-for-us-all/2019/11/17/e73ec8b2-07ca-11ea-818c-fcc65139e8c2_story.html

WeWork and Softbank – Interesting Case Study

WeWork’s Downfall and a Reckoning for SoftBank

https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/weworks-downfall-and-a-reckoning-for-softbank 

Workforce Skill Level

U.S. Workers Show Little Improvement in 21st Century Skills

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-15/u-s-workers-show-little-improvement-in-21st-century-skills

“The National Center for Education Statistics asked 3,300 respondents ages 16-to-65 to read simple passages and solve basic math problems. What the researchers found is that literacy, numeracy and digital problem-solving ability in the U.S. have stagnated over the past few years.” 

Consumption Tax and Wealth Tax

The Benefits of a Progressive Consumption Tax

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/benefits-of-progressive-income-tax-by-kenneth-rogoff-2019-09

Wealth taxes have moved up the political agenda
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/10/03/wealth-taxes-have-moved-up-the-political-agenda

Raise Billions from Billionaires? Tax Experts Say It’s Not That Simple

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/your-money/wealth-tax-warren-sanders.html

Greg Mankiw’s Political Switch

Why a ‘Republican Economist’ Plans to Vote in the Democratic Primary

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/14/business/republican-economist-independent.html 

Euro Area Divide

Revisiting the euro’s north-south rift

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/11/07/revisiting-the-euros-north-south-rift 

Update:
Italy’s Playing a Dangerous Game with the Euro

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-11-21/italy-s-resistance-to-eu-monetary-reform-risks-hurting-euro

US Business Cycle – An Update

America’s yield curve is no longer inverted

https://www.economist.com/united-states/2019/11/14/americas-yield-curve-is-no-longer-inverted

Recession Fears Are Receding. That Doesn’t Mean They Were Unfounded.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/upshot/recession-fears-fed-bonds.html

Localized Economic Shocks:

Unemployment is climbing in key swing states, including Michigan and Wisconsin

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/11/04/unemployment-is-climbing-key-swing-states-including-michigan-wisconsin/

The 2016 micro-recession:

The Most Important Least-Noticed Economic Event of the Decade

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/29/upshot/mini-recession-2016-little-known-big-impact.html 

Stock Markets – Do Fundamentals Still Matter?

Stock Investors Could Use a Refresher on the Basics

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-11-14/stock-investors-could-use-a-refresher-on-the-basics

You Care About Earnings? The Stock Market Doesn't

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-11-14/quarterly-earnings-have-almost-zero-impact-on-stock-market-k2y8xd16 

Politics and Economics - Regional Economic Variations

Red and Blue Economies Are Heading in Sharply Different Directions

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/upshot/red-blue-diverging-economies.html 

State Funding for US Higher Education

Most Americans don’t realize state funding for higher ed fell by billions

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/most-americans-dont-realize-state-funding-for-higher-ed-fell-by-billions 

India - Interesting Items

India’s Divided Economy—and a Manufacturing Slump—Slow Its Rise

https://www.wsj.com/articles/indias-divided-economyand-a-manufacturing-slumpslow-its-rise-11573394400

A Startup Is Cashing in on India’s $1 Trillion Gold Stash

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-06/a-startup-is-cashing-in-on-india-s-1-trillion-gold-stash

New Hope for Indian Unity

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/india-supreme-court-ayodhya-decision-by-shashi-tharoor-2019-11 

Political and Economic Divide in America

Tara Westover notes:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/tara-westover-trump-rural-america/600916/

“Broadly speaking, the modern economy works well for cities and badly for the countryside. In recent years, growth has been hyper-concentrated in our cities, which are hubs of technology and finance. Meanwhile, the hinterlands, which rely on agriculture and manufacturing—what you might call the “old economy”—have sunk into a deep decline. There are places in the United States where the recession never ended. For them, it has been 2009 for 10 years. That does something to people, psychologically.” 

Sunday Readings

US wealth distribution

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-09/one-percenters-close-to-surpassing-wealth-of-u-s-middle-class

Emmanuel Macron on Europe’s fragile place in a hostile world

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2019/11/07/emmanuel-macron-on-europes-fragile-place-in-a-hostile-world

Prestige and College Tuition Rates

Six-Figure Price Tags Are Coming to Colleges

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/11/some-colleges-could-soon-cost-100000-year/601648/

““The [colleges] that are expensive are the ones that students want to apply to,” explains the Seton Hall University professor Robert Kelchen, who studies higher-education finance. “Being expensive is seen as being good—if one [elite] college is 20 percent cheaper than another [elite] college, students are going to wonder what’s wrong with it.” "

How Do Humans Think?

A mathematician ruminates on thinking and problem solving:

The Myth and Magic of Generating New Ideas by Dan Rockmore

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/the-myth-and-magic-of-generating-new-ideas

“These stories suggest that an initial period of concentration—conscious, directed attention—needs to be followed by some amount of unconscious processing. Mathematicians will often speak of the first phase of this process as “worrying” about a problem or idea. It’s a good word, because it evokes anxiety and upset while also conjuring an image of productivity: a dog worrying a bone, chewing at it to get to the marrow—the rich, meaty part of the problem that will lead to its solution. In this view of creative momentum, the key to solving a problem is to take a break from worrying, to move the problem to the back burner, to let the unwatched pot boil.

All problem solvers and problem inventors have had the experience of thinking, and then overthinking, themselves into a dead end. The question we’ve all encountered—and, inevitably, will encounter again—is how to get things moving and keep them moving. That is, how to get unstuck.” 

China’s Banking Woes

China’s Banking Woes

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/07/business/china-bank-run.html 

Threat of Economic Nationalism

Daniel Gros notes:

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/risk-of-european-economic-nationalism-by-daniel-gros-2019-11

“Even the self-declared “tariff man” is starting to recognize the limits of this policy instrument. A growing body of evidence indicates that, contrary to most economists’ expectations, Chinese firms have increased their prices in line with tariffs, negating any benefit the US might reap from squeezing its suppliers.” 

Quants Rule

Inside the New Quant Gold Rush, Bond Traders Get Rich by Coding

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-07/inside-the-new-quant-gold-rush-bond-traders-get-rich-by-coding

“These days the ability to code is one of the hottest skills out there. The multi-trillion dollar market in company debt is getting wired up by systematic players, and firms are having to pay up for the best talent.

Hedge funds are poaching from rivals, sweetening compensation packages and committing more resources, according to recruiters. Credit-quant clients at London firm Selby Jennings are offering annual compensation of up to $400,000 to a Ph.D. graduate with five years’ experience as a desk strategist.”

Jim Simons Reveals Clues to Medallion Fund's Unrivaled Run

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-07/jim-simons-reveals-clues-to-medallion-fund-s-long-unrivaled-run

“At the core of the company, which employs about 300 people, is a great computing system, good scientists and low turnover, he said. Employees, who get a piece of the profits, sign non-disclosure agreements when they are hired and non-compete contracts after a couple of years on the job.
“It’s fun to work there,” Simons said in a question and answer format led by MIT professor Andrew Lo, who started the quant fund AlphaSimplex Group. “People get paid a lot of money.””

How Jim Simons Built the World’s Most Lucrative Black Box

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-01/how-jim-simons-built-the-world-s-most-lucrative-black-box

China and the Future of Digital Currencies

China Gives Digital Currencies a Reprieve as Beijing Warms to Blockchain

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/06/business/china-bitcoin.html 

US Trade Deficits - Economic Theory Works

Trump Vowed to Shrink the Trade Gap. It Keeps Growing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/us/politics/us-trade-deficit.html

Prediction: Expansionary fiscal policy will widen the trade deficit

https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2016/11/repeat-of-1980s.html

https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2018/08/return-of-twin-deficits.html

Prediction comes true: US posts a record trade deficit in 2018

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-promised-to-shrink-the-trade-deficit-instead-it-exploded/2019/03/05/35d3b1e0-3f8f-11e9-a0d3-1210e58a94cf_story.html

US Budget Deficit Explodes
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-05/u-s-budget-deficit-widens-77-percent-as-revenue-declines

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman points out an obvious fact:

“The reason America runs persistent trade deficits isn’t that we’ve given away too much in trade deals, it’s that we have low savings compared with other countries.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/opinion/trump-deficit.html

NYT notes –
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/06/us/politics/us-trade-deficit.html

“Mr. Trump views the trade deficit with China as a sort of economic scorecard for which country is on top. Most economists disagree with this perspective, viewing trade deficits as neither a sign of economic strength nor weakness, but a function of macroeconomic factors like investment flows, fluctuations in the value of currency and relative growth rates.”

Classical Liberalism

Mishra on The Economist:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/11/liberalism-according-to-the-economist

“According to its own statistics, its readers are the richest and the most prodigal consumers of all periodical readers; more than twenty per cent once claimed ownership of “a cellar of vintage wines.” Like Aston Martin, Burberry, and other global British brands, The Economist invokes the glamour of élitism. “It’s lonely at the top,” one of its ads says, “but at least there’s something to read.” Its articles, almost all of which are unsigned, were until recently edited from an office in St. James’s, London, a redoubt of posh Englishness, with private clubs, cigar merchants, hatters, and tailors. The present editor, Zanny Minton Beddoes, is the first woman ever to hold the position. The staff, predominantly white, is recruited overwhelmingly from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and a disproportionate number of the most important editors have come from just one Oxford college, Magdalen”.

Liberalism at Large: The World According to the Economist by Alexander Zevin

Fewer Public Companies and High Stock Prices

In trying to explain the rally, many fail to mention that the number of publicly traded companies has dropped by about half in 20 years.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-11-05/stocks-at-record-highs-is-a-function-of-a-lack-of-shares 

The Problem with Facebook

Facebook Isn’t Just Allowing Lies, It’s Prioritizing Them

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/opinion/facebook-political-ads.html

The Real Reason Facebook Won’t Fact-Check Political Ads

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/02/opinion/facebook-zuckerberg-political-ads.html 

Costs of Inflation

Even Inflation Is Worse If You’re Poor

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/income-inequality-getting-worse/601414/ 

Fiscal Policy Debates

Why another round of tax cuts is a monstrously bad idea

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-new-trump-tax-cuts-would-be-bad-economic-policy/2019/11/03/44b94d92-fcd0-11e9-ac8c-8eced29ca6ef_story.html

The Great Wealth Tax Debate

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/elizabeth-warren-wealth-tax-debate-by-jean-pisani-ferry-2019-10 

A tax hike threatens the health of Japan’s economy

https://www.economist.com/asia/2019/09/26/a-tax-hike-threatens-the-health-of-japans-economy

It’s Time for German Fiscal Expansion

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/germany-austerity-time-for-fiscal-expansion-by-jeffrey-frankel-2019-09 

Politics and MMT Theory

http://www.milkenreview.org/articles/modern-monetary-theory

America’s Illusions of Growth by JEFFREY D. SACHS         

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/america-growth-illusions-declining-wellbeing-by-jeffrey-d-sachs-2019-05

The Return of Fiscal Policy by BARRY EICHENGREEN

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/return-of-fiscal-policy-by-barry-eichengreen-2019-05

Related:

https://vivekjayakumar.blogspot.com/2019/05/political-hypocrisy-and-macro.html

Digital Nationalism

Interesting WSJ piece: The Rising Threat of Digital Nationalism by Akash Kapur

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-rising-threat-of-digital-nationalism-11572620577

“Like classical liberalism, the internet may also be a good idea in urgent need of updating. Much as the individualism and freedom of classical liberalism have been distorted into the inequalities and ethical transgressions of modern capitalism, so the internet’s culture of “permissionless innovation” has been abused, transformed into the centralized, controlled network of today. The original dream of an unfettered global public sphere is probably over. Understanding why that happened is the first step to reclaiming at least part of the original vision and to mitigating the most damaging effects of digital nationalism.” 

European Economies - Interesting Items

COOL GRAPHIC – Per-Capita Income Comparison of Eurozone Economies

https://bruegel.org/2019/06/gni-per-head-rankings-the-sad-stories-of-greece-and-italy/

Italy versus Spain

https://www.economist.com/europe/2019/03/21/the-difference-between-italy-and-spain

The Happy, Healthy Capitalists of Switzerland

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/02/opinion/sunday/switzerland-capitalism-wealth.html

EU Agricultural Subsidies - The Money Farmers: How Oligarchs and Populists Milk the E.U. for Millions

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/03/world/europe/eu-farm-subsidy-hungary.html

How Brexit will End

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/04/how-brexit-will-end 

UPDATE:
IMF Warns Europe to Make Emergency Plan for Economic Slump
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-06/europe-warned-to-prepare-for-the-worst-as-imf-sees-clouds-darken

Economic Development - Interesting Items

Transition Economies – Thirty Years After the Collapse of the Berlin Wall

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/most-postcommunist-citizens-worse-off-by-kristen-r-ghodsee-and-mitchell-a-orenstein-2019-11

Africa’s Demographic Transition – Challenges Ahead

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/africa-youth-low-political-socioeconomic-engagement-by-george-lwanda-2019-11 

Ethiopia’s Economy Is Booming, but at What Cost?

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/08/ethiopia-china-economy/594799/

Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling the Soil Once Meant Shame

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/world/africa/farming-millennials.html

Africa needs a green revolution

https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2018/11/03/africa-needs-a-green-revolution

Africa is attracting ever more interest from powers elsewhere

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2019/03/07/africa-is-attracting-ever-more-interest-from-powers-elsewhere

Shayera Dark notes:

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/overcoming-western-media-stereotypes-of-africa-by-shayera-dark-2019-01

“This penchant to accentuate the negative does more than reduce Africa to stereotypes; it also feeds the one-dimensional narrative of Africa as a war-torn, disease-ridden, poverty-stricken hellscape where all hope dies. This inclination to fit people and events into simple plot lines leads to what Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls the “danger of a single story.” A limited viewpoint, repeatedly promulgated, comes to frame all coverage and emerges as the only truth.”

Related:

Hiding the Real Africa

https://archives.cjr.org/reports/hiding_the_real_africa.php