Economics and International Affairs Blog

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Risk Premium and Interest Rates - The Case of Turkey

An excellent case study: That 16% Turkish Yield Looks Awfully Tempting

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-07-04/that-16-turkish-yield-looks-awfully-tempting

“Ten-year Turkish lira-denominated government bonds yield about 16.7 percent, a very long way from, say, German bunds at 0.3 percent, or even Russian ruble bonds at 7.7 percent. If the lira stands still, or even depreciates at a modest pace, the returns would still be substantial.”

Monday, July 2, 2018

The Humble Straw and the Evolution of American Capitalism

Disposable America: A history of modern capitalism from the perspective of the straw. Seriously.

By ALEXIS C. MADRIGAL

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/06/disposable-america/563204/

Excellent Biographies of Prominent Economists - Summer Reading

Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life by Nicholas Phillipson

Founder of Modern Economics: Paul A. Samuelson by Roger E. Backhouse

John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics by Richard Parker

John Maynard Keynes: 1883-1946: Economist, Philosopher, Statesman by Robert Skidelsky

The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas Of The Great Economic Thinkers by Robert L. Heilbroner

Lives of the Laureates: Twenty-three Nobel Economists by Roger W. Spencer and David A. Macpherson

Government Subsidies and Job Creation

An interesting case study:

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/jul/02/its-a-huge-subsidy-the-48bn-gamble-to-lure-foxconn-to-america

“…what probably sold Foxconn on Mount Pleasant were the massive tax breaks Wisconsin offered to seal the deal – breaks that could end up costing the state $4.8bn if the project hits all of its targets. It’s the latest giveaway in a series of corporate welfare cheques cut for highly profitable tech companies and the largest to a foreign firm ever in the US.”