If the CAP does not fit, get rid of it
The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, is fighting the good fight on policy towards the EU’s agricultural sector. Effectively, he has called for the abolition of the Common Agricultural...
View ArticleFiscal expansion in the wrong places
Standard boil-in-the-bag open economy macroeconomics tells us that expansionary fiscal policy, under conditions of perfect international capital mobility and a floating exchange rate is an...
View ArticleIn praise of government incompetence
A monopoly is a bad thing. It invites abuse of the power it controls. Sometimes it is not the worst thing that could happen. Anarchy or the ‘state of nature’, can be worse. I don’t know whether...
View ArticleWhen all else fails, blame China
Timothy Geithner, the nominee for US Treasury Secretary, has risked damaging the global economy even before his confirmation by the full Senate. In a written answer to questions from US senators,...
View ArticleBearded old men running scared will lose, though it may take a while
Whenever the cumulative effect of the daily observation, looking out of my window or into the mirror, of human inequity and wretchedness brings me to the point that I am convinced the human race is an...
View ArticleDoes poverty give a country the right to pollute the atmosphere?
In the current worldwide debate about greenhouse gas emissions, the political leaders of the new big polluters (NBPs, especially China and India) attempt to shift the burden of reducing the global flow...
View ArticleExpect little and you may yet be disappointed
Until yesterday’s defeat of Roger Federer in the final of the US Open at Flushing Meadows, the most disappointing development this year was the performance of president Barack Obama and his...
View ArticleA stronger US economy requires a weaker dollar
Sometimes economics can be helpful even if it does not allow you to make point predictions with any degree of confidence. This is the case, for instance, when it can rule out certain combinations of...
View ArticleBeware asset market & credit booms bubbles & busts in emerging markets
I spent the past weekend in Istanbul at the seminar jamboree that precedes the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings. Ministers of finance, central bankers, government officials and international civil...
View ArticleWho speaks for Europe in the G-whatever?
The G-7 (USA, Japan, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Canada) was taken off life support at the IMF – World Bank Annual Meetings. So was the G-8 (the G-7 plus Russia), although even fewer observers noticed...
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