I was recently asked the difference between a Ponzi scheme and a pyramid scheme. They are closely related but there is a key difference, which is that a pyramid scheme is not necessarily fraudulent, though it frequently is marketed with … Continued
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is the one organisation that has come out of the financial crisis of 2007-09 in better shape than it went in. Set up to police the system of fixed exchange rates that was the basis … Continued
Australia is often known as the lucky country. Not that all of its history has been lucky but in the last twenty years it has been one of the largest beneficiaries of fast Chinese economic growth. About a quarter of … Continued
The summer lull is a time for conspiracy theories and wacky ideas to be rolled out to fill space in the media. But one current topic of discussion has a deadly seriousness: the probability of an Israeli attack on Iran’s … Continued
…is perfectly expressed in yesterday’s column by the chief political commentator of The Observer newspaper, Andrew Rawnsley. The title is more negative than the rest of the article. I’m indifferent rather than hostile to the Olympics (unlike many of my … Continued
London is permanently in the news in Britain. But a number of recent stories get to the heart of what London is and should be, the subject of increasing disagreement among Londoners themselves. First we have the imminent Olympics, a … Continued
Here is a letter from a US professor who is retiring after 40 years of teaching. He complains of the sense of entitlement among today’s students and says he “grew increasingly weary of all the whining, crying, excuse-making, and general lack … Continued
Pink Floyd, in their great middle period, are one of my favourite bands. Like millions of people around the world I was first turned into a Floyd fan by hearing their huge selling Dark Side of the Moon in 1974 … Continued
A phrase that pops up regularly in Chinese financial and economic commentary is the internationalisation of the RMB (renminbi – the people’s currency). What does this actually mean? Internationalisation is not an official or recognised economics term but China uses … Continued
When you study economics at Cambridge you are forced to get your hands dirty with some actual economic data. My colleagues and I were confined to programmable calculators and manual entry of data in those days. But the point was … Continued
The myth of the scheming woman is one that pops up in many cultures. In the UK, for example, we talk of Lady Macbeth when we want to describe a devious woman who is held responsible for a hapless mere … Continued
It has been a long time since I walked the streets of the United States capital. Like Cambridge, much remains unchanged, but there are some telling alterations. I thought it was a sign of the times that on K street, … Continued
Steve Levene’s excellent blog on oil and gas at Foreign Policy magazine told me that the world’s largest oil reserves are now no longer in Saudi Arabia, but in Venezuela, according to the authoritative BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2012. … Continued
I’ve been accused of being rather pessimistic about the Euro mess and the risk of Europe’s historic tensions rising to the surface again. But here is a really bleak imagining of the next few years from Harvard’s Dani Rodrik. It’s unlikely … Continued