Attention Economy


Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Quality of Caribbean Medical Schools

‘It’s Tough to Get Out’: How Caribbean Medical Schools Fail Their Students
The institutions are expensive, often operated for profit and eager to accept applicants. But graduates have trouble landing residencies and jobs.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/health/caribbean-medical-school.html

at
Labels: , ,

Chip Shortage

From Cars to Toasters, America's Semiconductor Shortage Is Wreaking Havoc on Our Lives. Can We Fix It?
https://time.com/6075425/semiconductor-chip-shortage/
 
The chip shortage will likely get worse before it gets better
https://www.theverge.com/2021/6/23/22547826/chip-shortage-cars-playstation-5-gpus-semiconductors-time-foundaries-tsmc
 
America’s Lack of Chips Is More Than a Blip
https://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahwince-smith/2021/06/29/americas-lack-of-chips-is-more-than-a-blip/


The Tech Cold War’s ‘Most Complicated Machine’ That’s Out of China’s Reach
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/04/technology/tech-cold-war-chips.html 

at
Labels: , , ,

Bitcoin - Financial Risks and Environmental Concerns

Why China Is Cracking Down on Bitcoin Mining and What It Could Mean for Other Countries
https://time.com/6051991/why-china-is-cracking-down-on-bitcoin-mining-and-what-it-could-mean-for-other-countries/
 
Bitcoin miners exit China, beat a path to the U.S. as crypto climate shifts
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/bitcoin-mining-china-crypto-america/2021/06/17/0a39c3a8-c903-11eb-8708-64991f2acf28_story.html 
 
Bitcoin’s growing energy problem: ‘It’s a dirty currency’
https://www.ft.com/content/1aecb2db-8f61-427c-a413-3b929291c8ac 
 
Bitcoin’s True Social Cost Is Impossible to Ignore
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-05-25/bitcoin-s-btc-cost-to-society-is-impossible-to-ignore
 

Why we shouldn’t listen to crypto ‘experts’ 
https://www.ft.com/content/26283f09-c3df-4c7e-814c-65083b063d8a
Most are just insiders talking up their interests
 
After a 50% slump, the cryptocurrency’s speculative investment story won’t be so contagious.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-23/bitcoin-btc-millionaires-aren-t-the-same-after-tumble-to-near-30-000 
 
The Dramatic Crash of a Buzzy Cryptocurrency Raises Eyebrows
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/business/dealbook/icp-cryptocurrency-crash.html 

at
Labels: , ,

Bangalore/Bengaluru – The Best Indian City

Nice videos of Bangalore and its Food Scene:

at
Labels:

The Views of David Deutsch

David Deutsch on Multiple Worlds and Our Place in Them [Podcast]
https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/david-deutsch/

at
Labels: ,

Housing Market and the Inflation Debate

at
Labels: , , , , ,

CPI versus PCE Inflation

at
Labels: , ,

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Poor Countries Hit Hard by the Pandemic Shock

Poor countries’ struggles amid vaccines shortfall threaten greater instability, migration and disease
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/06/29/global-economy-pandemic/ 

at
Labels: , ,

The Future of Geopolitics

A Little Geopolitics Is a Dangerous Thing
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/geopolitics-dangerous-term-for-a-globalized-world-by-harold-james-2021-06
Historian Harold James observes:
A classically ambiguous concept, geopolitics has both innocent and perilous uses. For some, it promotes a vague sense of geographical contingency. For others, however, it amounts to geographical determinism, implying an endless conflict in which space matters more than ideas, maps more than chaps. The term’s danger lies in its inherent nihilism: it leads us to assume that no one can be seriously interested in values, because there can be no universal good. 

at
Labels: ,

The Decline of Hong Kong


at
Labels:

Battle of Ideas and the Need for a Genuine Liberal Education

Democracies Don’t Try to Make Everyone Agree
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/milley-critical-race-theory-marxism-racism-fox-news/619308/
Anne Applebaum notes:
But to maintain that flexibility, a liberal-democratic society absolutely requires that its citizens experience a liberal education, one that teaches students, scholars, readers, and voters to keep looking at books, history, society, and politics from different points of view. If one of our two great political parties no longer believes in this principle—and if some of our scholars don’t either—then how much longer can we expect our democracy to last?

at
Labels: , , ,

Global Economy - Commodities and Supply Chains


Americans’ Hunger for the World’s Goods Drives Global Recovery
https://www.wsj.com/articles/americans-hunger-for-the-worlds-goods-drives-global-recovery-11624892062 

High Lumber Prices Add Urgency to a Decades-Old Trade Fight
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/28/business/economy/lumber-prices-canadian-trade.html 

at
Labels: , , ,

Big Tech and the Antitrust Debate

Boom Times for Lawyers as Washington Pursues Big Tech
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/technology/boom-times-for-lawyers-as-washington-pursues-big-tech.html
 
How to Tame the Tech Giants: Reverse the Burden of Proof in Merger Reviews
https://promarket.org/2021/06/28/tech-block-merger-review-enforcement-regulators/
 
Freiburg and Chicago: How the Two Worlds of Neoliberalism Drifted Apart Over Market Power and Monopolies
https://promarket.org/2021/06/27/freiburg-and-chicago-how-the-two-worlds-of-neoliberalism-drifted-apart-over-market-power-and-monopolies/
 
When Do Users Benefit from Platform Mergers?
https://promarket.org/2021/06/15/digital-platforms-mergers-network-effects-user-value/

Once Tech’s Favorite Economist, Now a Thorn in Its Side
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/technology/tech-antitrust-paul-romer.html
Paul Romer’s call for government activism, particularly toward the big tech companies, reflects “a profound change in my thinking.”



How Robert Bork Fathered the New Gilded Age
https://promarket.org/how-robert-bork-fathered-the-new-gilded-age/
“Much like in the first Gilded Age, antitrust enforcers today are hitting labor, not capital. This is thanks to Robert Bork’s radical and influential reinterpretation of antitrust law. In helping successfully rewrite antitrust, Bork left a legacy of corporate supremacy and individual powerlessness.” 

Be Afraid of Economic ‘Bigness.’
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/10/opinion/sunday/fascism-economy-monopoly.html
“From a political perspective, we have recklessly chosen to tolerate global monopolies and oligopolies in finance, media, airlines, telecommunications and elsewhere, to say nothing of the growing size and power of the major technology platforms. In doing so, we have cast aside the safeguards that were supposed to protect democracy against a dangerous marriage of private and public power.”

MONOPOLIZATION OF AMERICA
https://youtu.be/KLfO-2t1qPQ

My Take:
Big Tech and the antitrust debate: Do network effects outweigh competition concerns?
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/509933-big-tech-and-the-antitrust-debate-do-network-effects-outweigh-competition 

at
Labels: , , , ,

Monday, June 28, 2021

US Equities - What Next?

The stock market hit a double but almost nobody noticed
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/28/stock-market-record-wilshire-5000/
The U.S. stock market closed more than 100 percent above the pandemic low to which it had plummeted on March 23 of last year
 
Valuations Are Extreme. Stocks Can Still Go Up
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-28/valuations-are-extreme-stocks-can-still-go-up 

Reopening Stocks Fuel $6 Trillion Boom in a Post-Pandemic Market
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-26/reopening-stocks-fuel-6-trillion-boom-in-a-post-pandemic-market
A $6 trillion boom in U.S. equities to open 2021 is leaving the pandemic’s winners in the dust as investors shift their focus to companies taking advantage of a reopening economy. 

at
Labels: , ,

Sunday, June 27, 2021

Covid-19 Vaccines - Science and Politics

The mRNA Vaccines Are Extraordinary, but Novavax Is Even Better
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/06/novavax-now-best-covid-19-vaccine/619276/

Related:
Get Ready to Live with Covid’s Hassles Forever

at
Labels: , ,

State-Level Performance: Democrats versus Republicans

Democrats need to show they can be trusted with power
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/24/democrats-need-show-they-can-be-trusted-with-power/
Zakaria notes:
Today, the Democratic Party has total control of just 18 state legislatures, compared with 30 for Republicans. Democrats spent tens of millions of dollars to flip the legislatures in Arizona, North Carolina, Florida and Texas. They failed everywhere, and they even managed to lose control of New Hampshire’s legislature. Since states oversee redistricting and voting laws, the 2022 midterms look very tough for the Democrats.
Part of the issue is Republican advantages — the overrepresentation of rural areas, for example — but Democratic failures have also played a role. Put bluntly, too many Democratic states have gotten bloated, mismanaged and corrupt. Take New York state. It has a budget nearly twice the size of Florida’s though it has roughly the same population. Its budget is just 12 percent smaller than California’s despite having half as many people.

Red states lead economic recovery, giving GOP ammo against Biden’s spending plans
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/24/gop-states-fight-uneven-recovery-495762

The Best & Worst States for Business 2021
https://chiefexecutive.net/up-for-grabs-the-best-worst-states-for-business/ 

Related:
Ultra-high earners can cut their tax bills a lot by moving from a high-tax state to a low-tax one. For most other people, that's not at all a sure thing.

at
Labels: , ,

Learning Math

at
Labels:

Insights from Happiness Rankings

We’re Learning the Wrong Lessons from the World’s Happiest Countries
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/06/worlds-happiest-countries-denmark-finland-norway/619299/
Taking forest walks and foraging for berries do sound delightful, but a focus on activities and habits reduces entire cultures to individual lifestyle trends and obscures the structural forces that make people satisfied with their lives. No quantity of blankets or candles is going to make up for living in an unequal society with a weak social safety net. The folly of fixating on local customs becomes even clearer if you consider the poverty and violence that are common at the bottom of the rankings: No lifestyle blogger is studying Afghanistan, the least happy country in this year’s report, and recommending that readers avoid Afghan pastimes and customs such as flying kites and going to communal bathhouses.
 
The Grim Secret of Nordic Happiness
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/04/finland-happiness-lagom-hygge.html

at
Labels: , , ,

Saturday, June 26, 2021

In Defense of Meritocracy

Attacking ‘merit’ in the name of ‘equity’ is a prescription for mediocrity
George F. Will observes:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/25/attacking-merit-prescription-mediocrity/
“A meritocratic society has less discord than a society that abandons meritocratic principles. Equity, pursued through government-driven allocation of social rewards, drenches society with bitter distributional conflicts because wealth and opportunity are allocated by political power according to shifting standards contested by competing factions. Allowing the market to articulate preferences, without seeking to decide — who will decide who the deciders are? — the preferences’ moral worth, promotes domestic tranquility”.
 
Meritocracy, Not Democracy, Is the Golden Ticket to Growth
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-05-16/china-knows-that-meritocracy-is-the-key-to-boosting-economic-growth
Adrian Wooldridge notes:
“The war against merit is producing real consequences. San Francisco’s Lowell School is one of the most successful schools in the country and has given thousands of poor immigrant children (among others) a chance of an elite education. The San Francisco Board of Education has now banned it from using admission tests and introduced a lottery system instead, with the school commissioner, Alison Collins, pronouncing that meritocracy is “racist” and “the antithesis of fair.” Elite schools in New York and Boston are also under threat. Programs for the gifted and talented are being dismantled across the country. Universities have been reducing the importance of standardized admissions tests, with some going so far as to make testing optional, and putting more emphasis on “holistic assessment” instead. Companies are introducing formal or informal quotas in the name of “equity” (which is increasingly taking the place of equality of opportunity as a measure of justice)”. 
 
Harvard’s Michael Sandel on the Dignity of Work
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/contributive-justice-and-dignity-work/615919/
Unfettered markets and a rampant culture of meritocracy have eroded the rewards and dignity of work for most Americans. It’s time for a new ethic of “contributive justice.”

Does the white upper class feel exhausted and oppressed by meritocracy?
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/18/opinion/sunday/white-fragility-meritocracy.html
In Defense of Meritocracy
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/08/american-meritocracy-needs-reform-not-replacement/
How to Fix American Meritocracy
https://www.nationalreview.com/2017/07/david-brooks-american-meritocracy-practical-reforms-more-important-changing-cultural-attitudes/
How We Are Ruining America
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/11/opinion/how-we-are-ruining-america.html

at
Labels: , , , ,

Japanification

at
Labels: , , , , , ,

Friday, June 25, 2021

History Wars

History As End: 1619, 1776, and the politics of the past
https://harpers.org/archive/2021/07/history-as-end-politics-of-the-past-matthew-karp/
Matthew Karp, an associate professor of history at Princeton University, notes:
“The past may live inside the present, but it does not govern our growth. However sordid or sublime, our origins are not our destinies; our daily journey into the future is not fixed by moral arcs or genetic instructions. We must come to see history, as Brown put it, not as “what we dwell in, are propelled by, or are determined by,” but rather as “what we fight over, fight for, and aspire to honor in our practices of justice.” History is not the end; it is only one more battleground where we must meet the vast demands of the ever-living now”. 

The Fog of History Wars
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-fog-of-history-wars
A new battle is being waged over how we teach our country’s past. But old feuds remind us that history is continually revised, driven by new evidence and present-day imperatives. 

A Good Single-Volume History of US:

at
Labels: , ,

Labor Market Trends

 
Japan proposes four-day workweek as idea gains purchase amid pandemic
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/06/24/japan-four-day-work-week/

at
Labels: , , , ,

Thursday, June 24, 2021

Beware of Shrinkflation

Shrinkflation Is an Economic Monster Worth Watching
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-24/shrinkflation-is-the-grocery-store-s-inflation-secret
When inflation strikes, retailers have a proven strategy to pass the costs on to consumers.
 
How shrinkflation is playing havoc with economists’ models
https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2019/08/06/how-shrinkflation-is-playing-havoc-with-economists-models 

at
Labels: , ,

Perceptions of Wealth

at
Labels: ,

Smart versus Attractive

Why Is It OK to Be Mean to the Ugly?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/24/opinion/why-is-it-ok-to-be-mean-to-the-ugly.html
David Brooks notes:
“Not all the time, but often, the attractive get the first-class treatment. Research suggests they are more likely to be offered job interviews, more likely to be hired when interviewed and more likely to be promoted than less attractive individuals. They are more likely to receive loans and more likely to receive lower interest rates on those loans.
The discriminatory effects of lookism are pervasive. Attractive economists are more likely to study at high-ranked graduate programs and their papers are cited more often than papers from their less attractive peers. One study found that when unattractive criminals committed a moderate misdemeanor, their fines were about four times as large as those of attractive criminals”.

Ellis P. Monk Jr., Michael H. Esposito, and Hedwig Lee, “Beholding Inequality: Race, Gender, and Returns to Physical Attractiveness in the United States” (American Journal of Sociology, July 2021)
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/715141
Abstract
Physical attractiveness is an important axis of social stratification associated with educational attainment, marital patterns, earnings, and more. Still, relative to ethnoracial and gender stratification, physical attractiveness is relatively understudied. In particular, little is known about whether returns to physical attractiveness vary by race or significantly vary by race and gender combined. In this study, we use nationally representative data to examine whether (1) socially perceived physical attractiveness is unequally distributed across race/ethnicity and gender subgroups and (2) returns to physical attractiveness vary significantly across race/ethnicity and gender subgroups. Notably, the magnitude of the earnings disparities along the perceived attractiveness continuum, net of controls, rivals and/or exceeds in magnitude the black-white race gap and, among African-Americans, the black-white race gap and the gender gap in earnings. The implications of these findings for current and future research on the labor market and social inequality are discussed.
 
HT: https://conversableeconomist.wpcomstaging.com/2021/06/22/the-reality-of-attractiveness-bias/  

at
Labels: ,

The Rise of China


‘China Has Risen.’ And It Is Hungry for Competition.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/30/opinion/china-us-competition.html

China's unrivaled economic power will define Asia's political future

at
Labels: , , ,

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Bitcoin - A Purely Speculative Asset

at
Labels: , , ,

Investment in Human Capital


at
Labels: , , , ,

Vaccine Mandate Debate

Colleges want students to get a coronavirus vaccine. But they’re split on requiring the shots.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/06/23/colleges-covid-vaccine-mandates-divide/ 

at
Labels: , ,

The Amazon Prime Ecosystem

The subscription service is Amazon’s greatest—and most terrifying—invention.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/amazon-prime-day-dystopian/619265/ 

at
Labels:

US Labor Market Flexibility Debate

Most Americans Can Be Fired for No Reason at Any Time, But a New Law in New York Could Change That
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-21/new-york-just-cause-law-is-about-to-make-workers-much-tougher-to-fire 

at
Labels: , ,

Tuesday, June 22, 2021

Jeremy Grantham on Asset Market Distortions

at
Labels: , , ,

Emily Oster and the School Reopening Debate

She Fought to Reopen Schools, Becoming a Hero and a Villain
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/us/emily-oster-school-reopening.html 

at
Labels: ,

Are Inflation Fears Overdone?

Fed chair looks in unlikely place for clues on economy’s future: Lumber
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/06/22/lumber-inflation-powell-economy/


Rising Inflation Looks Less Severe Using Pre-Pandemic Comparisons
https://www.wsj.com/articles/inflation-rates-fed-11624304034 
 
Wage Gains at Factories Fall Behind Growth in Fast Food
https://www.wsj.com/articles/wage-gains-at-factories-fall-behind-growth-in-fast-food-11624354200

at
Labels: , , , , ,

Monday, June 21, 2021

US Labor Market - In a State of Flux


Retail workers are quitting at record rates for higher-paying work
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/21/retail-workers-quitting-jobs/

Millions of workers are quitting their jobs during the pandemic. Meet six who made a big change.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/17/record-workers-quit-pandemic/ 

How Do They Say Economic Recovery? ‘I Quit.’
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/20/business/economy/workers-quit-jobs.html 
at
Labels: , ,

Douglas Copeland on Defining Generations

Douglas Coupland on Generation X at 30: ‘Generational trashing is eternal’
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/19/douglas-coupland-on-generation-x-at-30-generational-trashing-is-eternal
“The false assumption of human sameness is a key ingredient in generational discussions, because without it, you can’t demonise younger people – and there’s a ton of money to be made from demonising the young. It has been entertaining for me over the last 15 years to see the exact same venom that was thrown at Gen X being thrown at Gen Y (millennials): they whine, they’re lazy, they’re useless and all of that. I think that kind of generational trashing is actually eternal human behaviour – we all just never collectively lived long enough before to see it repeatedly deployed”. 

at
Labels:

US Economic Recovery - Growth and Inflation

Recovering U.S. economy is drastically changed and it’s not going back
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/20/us-economy-changes/

The Pandemic Stimulus Was Front-Loaded. That Could Mean a Bumpy Year.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/21/upshot/pandemic-economy-stimulus.html

The post-covid luxury spending boom has begun. It’s already reshaping the economy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/18/luxury-boom-recovery/ 

Is the U.S. Economy Headed for a “Hotter but Shorter” Expansionary Cycle?
https://www.ut.edu/uploadedFiles/Academics/Business/Economics/Tampa%20Bay%20Economy%20Newsletter_Summer%202021_WEB.pdf 

at
Labels: , , , , , , ,

Sunday, June 20, 2021

The Global Art Market and Money Laundering

As Money Launderers Buy Dalís, U.S. Looks at Lifting the Veil on Art Sales
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/19/arts/design/money-laundering-art-market.html 

at
Labels: , ,

Chinese Censorship and Western Businesses


at
Labels: , , ,

The State and the Economy

at
Labels: , ,

South versus North India

Ahead of the curve
https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/ahead-of-the-curve-taking-the-south-seriously/cid/1819266
Ramachandra Guha notes:
“In proportionate terms, South India contributes far more to the national economy than North India. And to the tax revenues of the Central government too. Those Indians who live in the South are, on the whole, healthier, better fed, more prosperous, better educated, and with easier access to public services than Indians who live in the North. Many northerners recognize this — which is why they vote with their feet to move South. The city I live in, Bengaluru, has a profusion of successful entrepreneurs with surnames indicating that their state of origin is somewhere in the Indo-Gangetic plain. (I somehow do not think that the city of Lucknow has many entrepreneurs bearing Tamil or Kannadiga or Malayali surnames.) Evidence suggests that middle class and working class migration is also much more biased in a North-South direction than the reverse”. 

at
Labels: , ,

Saturday, June 19, 2021

Limiting Tax Evasion

at
Labels: , , ,

Global Tech Supply Chains - A Dangerous Overreliance on Taiwan


at
Labels: , ,

Progressophobia

at
Labels:

Public Economics and Inequality

2021 AEA DISTINGUISHED LECTURE:
Public Economics and Inequality: Uncovering Our Social Nature by Emmanuel Saez
https://eml.berkeley.edu/~saez/saez-AEAlecture.pdf
“In human societies, childcare and education for the young, retirement benefits for the old, health care for the sick, and income support for those in need are to a large extent resolved at the social level rather than the individual level. This was traditionally done informally through the community and family and is now achieved through the modern social state in advanced economies. Even though an individual solution through markets is theoretically possible, it does not work well in practice without significant institutional or government help”. 

at
Labels: , , ,

Tech Products - Design versus Functionality

The ultrathin new iMac lost a lot more than size
A half-inch desktop computer shows how Apple’s obsession with thin design can work against us
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/16/apple-imac-thin/
“This is partly a philosophical divide between Apple and people like Wiens. Turning computers into appliances can simplify them: You don’t need to know about what’s going on if it just works.
But Apple’s appliance mind-set is also self-serving, because it means we have to keep buying new stuff. You may already have a box of old iPads and iPhones you aren’t using after upgrading. Now you can add an iMac to the pile”. 

at
Labels:

Friday, June 18, 2021

Bidenomics - The Big Picture

at
Labels: , , ,

Weekend Readings - International Politics and Economics


at
Labels: , , , , ,

Thursday, June 17, 2021

Graphs and Data Visualization

at
Labels: ,

China's Role in Asia's Environmental Degradation

One Hundred Years of Devastation
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/cpc-centenary-dam-building-baihetan-by-brahma-chellaney-2021-06
The Communist Party of China's 1951 annexation of the water-rich Tibetan Plateau – the starting point of Asia’s ten major river systems – gave China tremendous power over Asia’s water map. In the ensuing decades, the country has made the most of this riparian advantage, but at an enormous social and environmental cost. 

at
Labels: , , , ,

Global Supply Chain Disruptions

at
Labels: , ,

Inflation Concerns and Monetary Policy in Emerging Markets


at
Labels: , , , ,

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Will the Federal Reserve Do the Right Thing?

Updates: 
The Economic Gauges Are Going Nuts. Jerome Powell Is Taking a Longer View.
Federal Reserve Now Projects Rate Increases in 2023 as Economy Heals

The central bank’s outcome-based approach exacerbates economic and financial risks and needs to be addressed now.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-15/fed-meeting-central-bank-needs-to-take-action-despite-its-framework
El-Erian notes:
“In such an environment, the world’s most powerful central bank should ease its historically astounding policy stimulus. This would start immediately with a small taper of the $120 billion of monthly asset purchases — a prelude to their eventual elimination over the next 12 months— and the subsequent start of a slow lifting of interest rates from near zero. The argument for launching this policy adjustment immediately is reinforced by how record loose financial conditions have encouraged and enabled excessive and, in some instances, irresponsible risk-taking”
 
Related:
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/554058-should-the-fed-be-less-complacent-about-inflation-risks 

at
Labels: , , , ,

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Vaccine Card - Useful Info

What You Need to Know About Your Vaccine Card
https://www.nytimes.com/article/vaccine-covid-card.html 

at
Labels:

The Problem with Big Tech

Google’s Privacy Backpedal Shows Why It’s So Hard Not to Be Evil

Companies Write Their Own Rules and Make a Mockery of Democracy

at
Labels: , ,

Profile of Amartya Sen

at
Labels: , ,

NBER and Business Cycle Dating

The Recession Isn’t Over Till They Say It’s Over. (But Who Are They?)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/upshot/pandemic-recession-endpoint.html 

at
Labels: ,

Should India Adopt a Digital Currency?

at
Labels: , , , , ,

Capital Flows and Interest Parity Conditions

Old risks in new clothes: The changing nature of capital flows
https://voxeu.org/article/changing-nature-capital-flows
FIVE FACTS ABOUT THE UIP PREMIUM
https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w28923/w28923.pdf 

at
Labels: , ,

Consequences of Fed's Easy Monetary Policy

Everyone’s a Rising Star When Debt Is Cheap

at
Labels: , , , ,

Monday, June 14, 2021

Economics of Remote Work

Winners and Losers of the Work-From-Home Revolution
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/06/winners-losers-work-home-remote/619181/
 
A Little More Remote Work Could Change Rush Hour a Lot
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/11/upshot/rush-hour-remote-work.html

at
Labels: , , , ,

US Housing Market - Recent Developments


Wall Street isn’t to blame for the chaotic housing market
https://www.vox.com/22524829/wall-street-housing-market-blackrock-bubble 

at
Labels: , , , , ,

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Root Causes of US Border Crisis


Remittances aren’t talked about much in discussions of northern migration. They should be.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/18/remittances-arent-talked-about-much-discussions-northern-migration-they-should-be/ 

at
Labels: , , ,

Poverty Alleviation - Policy Debates

at
Labels: , ,

America's Broken Tax System

Private Inequity: How a Powerful Industry Conquered the Tax System
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/12/business/private-equity-taxes.html

The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax
https://www.propublica.org/article/the-secret-irs-files-trove-of-never-before-seen-records-reveal-how-the-wealthiest-avoid-income-tax
Wealthiest Executives Paid Little to Nothing in Federal Income Taxes, Report Says
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/08/us/politics/income-taxes-bezos-musk-buffett.html
Paul Krugman on attempts to impose a global minimum corporate tax on MNCs:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/07/opinion/yellens-new-alliance-against-leprechauns.html
To put this in a broader context, what we’re looking at here is the beginning of an attempt to fix a system that is rigged against workers in favor of capital. Workers have few ways to avoid income taxes, payroll taxes and sales taxes besides actually moving to another country. Multinational corporations, which are ultimately owned in large part by a small wealthy minority, can shop for low-tax jurisdictions without doing anything real besides hiring some skilled accountants. The G7 plan would curb that practice. 

Related:
The richest 1 percent dodge taxes on more than one-fifth of their income, study shows.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/26/wealthy-tax-evasion/
High-Income Tax Avoidance Far Larger Than Thought, New Paper Estimates

at
Labels: , , , ,

Pandemic Worsens Inequality in India

at
Labels: , ,

El Salvador’s Bitcoin Experiment

What you need to know about El Salvador’s plan to use volcano-powered bitcoin as legal tender
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/06/12/el-salvador-bitcoin-volcano-faq/
Related:
El Salvador’s facade of democracy crumbles as president purges his political opponents

Bitcoin Basics:
Bitcoin FAQ: A detailed guide to how cryptocurrency works
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/14/bitcoin-cryptocurrency-faq/

at
Labels: , , , , , ,

Saturday, June 12, 2021

Global Trade and Competition


The U.S. needs to learn from its TPP mistake — and get its seat back at the table
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/13/dont-cede-asia-pacific-china-us-must-learn-its-tpp-mistake/ 

at
Labels: , , , ,

Friday, June 11, 2021

Meme Stocks and the Efficient Market Hypothesis


Background Readings:
The Price Is Right? Has the Financial Crisis Provided a Fatal Blow to the Efficient Market Hypothesis?
https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/historical/frbrich/focus/frbrich_focus_200904.pdf
Malkiel, Burton, G. 2003. "The Efficient Market Hypothesis and Its Critics." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 17 (1): 59-82.
https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/pdf/doi/10.1257/089533003321164958
The Predictions of the Efficient Market Hypothesis
https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/rdp/2000/pdf/rdp2000-01.pdf 

at
Labels: ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)