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
While awaiting the outcome of the Greek elections this coming weekend, the focus has been shifting in the blogosphere and on Bloomberg to the world’s most indebted government by far, Japan. Japan’s debt to GDP ratio is about 220%, around double … Continued
Michael Sandel’s recent book “What Money Can’t Buy” has been selling well. He has put his finger on something that many people feel very uncomfortable about, the increasing number of activities that are subject to market-like forces. Examples including people … Continued
Listening to BBC Radio Four earlier, while doing the ironing (it makes the time pass better) I heard a woman describe Iran as having a very long history. We hear similar things said about China, Egypt and other countries which … Continued
By way of a counterbalance to my earlier blog link to Tim Judah’s argument that Greece isn’t really European (I’m simplifying a lot), here is a link to a Stratfor article that argues Greece cannot so easily be dumped by Europe. Robert Kaplan … Continued
Introduction Conventional finance theory is based on the microeconomic theory of consumer choice under uncertainty. This is a long established theory with some serious weaknesses. On the MFin we have a core course called “Economic foundations of finance” which shows … Continued
Ridley Scott’s latest film Prometheus has been heavily pre-marketed but someone of my age group, who remembers the brilliant original Alien, just had to go and see it. A prequel to Alien, Prometheus is visually striking (like all of Scott’s films, … Continued
In recent years there has been a fierce debate about the effectiveness of foreign aid, with opponents such as William Easterly arguing that most is wasted and that it often props up regimes that harm their population’s long term future. … Continued
Thanks to a blog at The Guardian, I’ve just come across a fascinating report from the British charity The Sutton Trust, which aims to increase social mobility through education, a goal that is badly needed in the UK and US. … Continued