Red alert: financial markets facing possible derivatives crisis (again!)
byThere is a significant risk that the financial effects of the collapse in the oil price could spread through the financial system. Already there…
Economics
Models, Damn Models and Statistics, or Math Gone Mad
byParliamentary committees are not especially noted for entertainment, but the November Treasury Select Committee hearing on the Bank of England’s Inflation Report is a…
We seem to have miscalculated
by“What will futurity make of the Ph.D. standard ? Likely, it will be even more baffled than we are. Imagine trying to explain the…
Commodities and the dollar
byEach commodity market has its own story to tell: oil prices are falling because OPEC can’t agree production cuts, steel faces a glut from…
How the ‘Reserve’ Dollar Harms America
by[Editor’s Note: this piece, by Lewis E. Lehrman And John D. Mueller, first appeared in the Wall Street Journal http://online.wsj.com/articles/how-the-reserve-dollar-harms-america-1416527644. It was kindly brought to…
Segregated Cash Accounts
by[Editor’s Note: this piece, by John Cochrane, first appeared here http://johnhcochrane.blogspot.ie/2014/11/segregated-cash-accounts.html] An important little item from the just released minutes of the October Federal…
Total Output grew by 2.17% in 2012
byOctober 31st saw the belated release of the 2014 Input-Output Supply and Use Data. This is important because it incorporates a larger amount of…
Are major economies suffering from the deficiency of demand?
byIn his article “The curse of weak global demand”, Financial Times November 18, 2014, the economics columnist Martin Wolf wrote that today’s most important…
“Smacking a skunk with a tennis racket”
by“Finally, as expectations of rapid inflation evaporate, I want to contribute to the debate about the November 15, 2010 letter signed by 23 US…
Should economics emulate natural sciences?
byEconomists have always been envious of the practitioners of the natural and exact sciences. They have thought that introducing the methods of natural sciences…