According to a new report over 17% of Singaporean households qualify as millionaires:
http://www.bloomberg.com/money-gallery/2012-05-31/where-the-world-s-millionaires-live.html#slide16
Monday, June 4, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
What is Wrong With the Indian Economy?
What is wrong with the Indian economy?
Economist, Arvind Subramanian, offers some excellent insights
regarding the challenges afflicting the Indian economy in this op-ed:
In particular, Subramanian suggests:
“In the last few
years, the Indian economy has become increasingly afflicted by the curse of
rents. There have been terrestrial rents (from the allocation of land),
subterranean rents (from the allocation of rights to coal mining and oil and
gas exploration), and ethereal rents (from the allocation of spectrum). The
curse has not just been the unfair sharing of the rents between the government
and private sector at the expense of the consumer. It has really been the
resulting efficiency cost, whereby corruption has impaired the supply capacity
of the economy. Rent-seeking in land has affected the provision of
infrastructure. Rent-seeking in coal has affected power generation capacity.
Rent-seeking in spectrum nearly paralyzed the process of government itself. The
private sector is far from blameless for the surge in rent-seeking, but this
government is its root cause because it decides and controls the allocation of
scarce resources.”
Is the Global Economy Slowing Down?
It does look like the annual Springtime economic swoon is back (as we saw in 2010 and 2011). This year, however, the emerging markets are slowing down rather sharply. Figures released recently by Brazil, India and China are all indicating a rather sharp economic slowdown amongst the largest emerging markets.
Eurozone unemployment rate hit a record 11%, which, when combined with zero regional economic growth for Q1, makes for a gloomy 2012 for much of Europe. It is worth noting that a non-eurozone member, Britain, is currently in throes of a double-dip recession.
US 2012Q1 real GDP rate was revised downward (to less than 2%) and May labor market figures were dismal.
All in all, very few bright spots (no big natural disasters so far in 2012 may be one) in the global economy.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Dispelling Myths Regarding International Trade
McKinsey Global Institute report does an excellent job in
dispelling widely held myths regarding international trade
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Explaining the Sudden Collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization
Explaining the Sudden Collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization
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