Here’s one solution to the eurozone crisis: Greece defaults and leaves the eurozone, returning to the drachma, enabling it to weaken its currency to compensate for any future lack of competitiveness (or strengthen in response to excess competitiveness). Existing creditors of the Greek government form an orderly queue and negotiate the existing debts. And holidays …
Continue reading ““Greece should default and abandon the euro””
“Money has no value unless it can be exchanged for goods and services. These cannot be supplied without the use of some form of energy.” “Consequently, if less energy is available in future, the existing stock of money can either lose its value gradually (through inflation). Or if inflation is resisted, [the existing stock of money] …
Continue reading “The supply of money in an energy-scarce world”
The US government has again cut its forecast for crop yields this year. This is on top of a forecast already reduced in August. On the one hand this might seem not to matter, since the crop is still expected to be the third largest in US history. But reality is that: Use of corn …
A brief post this one. Bank of America has said that it will cut 10,000 jobs (10.5% of its workforce) in the first phase of its restructuring plan. This will save the company $5bn per year. Why comment on this? It is surely a normal thing to do? Well, yes. And so it is interesting …
Following our post yesterday on how we need a new paradigm for business, it was interesting to read George Magnus (“the man who predicted the sub-prime crisis”) writing in the FT today saying almost the same thing” “Put simply, the economic model that drove the long boom from the 1980s to 2008, has broken down.” He …
In August this year, stock markets around the world crashed. Two big reasons for this were quoted by the Guardian’s Larry Elliott on 5 August. For Gavyn Davies writing in the FT, other factors were key.
Companies in the US and UK, faced with a lack of willingness from the banks to lend, have been raising money by issuing ‘mini-bonds’ direct to customers. Similar to the debentures issued by the All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, they can offer customers a mix of goods and services (tennis tickets, chocolates, shaving …
As concerns mount over the state of the economy, George Osborne has said that he sees no barriers to a further round of quantitative easing, possibly moving into riskier asset classes than gilts. Adam Posen, an external member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee, is expected to call for the Bank to do exactly …
Continue reading “Bank of England may shift QE into riskier assets”
Cities and companies are both human constructs: different ways of arranging people. But why is it that we can raze a city to the ground, and within a few decades it can recover… but all companies die? The answer seems to be built into something about the way they are organised. Both follow natural, scientifically-measurable …
In the last fifty years we have eaten more than 90% of the big fish in the sea. We have eaten more than ninety percent of the big fish in the sea: And instead we have turned the entire Pacific Ocean (the Pacific Ocean!) into a floating Garage Patch: As Charles Moore says, “We had to …