Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Dec 4, 2009, 1:39 pm
This question arose as I was thinking about the relationship between the determinants of happiness (i.e. survey measures of subjective well-being or SWB) and human flourishing at a national level. Re...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Dec 4, 2009, 10:35 am
From Alberto Alesina and Silvia Ardagna (link): “We examine the evidence on episodes of large stances in fiscal policy, both in cases of fiscal stimuli and in that of fiscal adjustments in OECD...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Dec 4, 2009, 8:32 am
The Economist published a thorough discussion (link) of China’s currency policy and reasons why yuan is unlikely to re-valuate any soon. Related posts:U.S. Financial Crisis: Why China Has Much ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Dec 4, 2009, 6:31 am
From Politico 44: You’re invited — On the jobs summit list … “CONFIRMED ATTENDEES INCLUDE: Eric Schmidt, Google; Randall Stevenson, AT&T; Surya Mohapatra, Qwest ; Frederick S...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Dec 3, 2009, 2:23 pm
Reserve Bank of Australia decided to continue the increase in benchmark interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.75 percent in the light of short-term inflationary expectations (link). Here (link) is a ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Dec 3, 2009, 10:18 am
If the theoretical discussion in the context of monetary policy, through most of 2009, has been centered on the different tools disposable to central banks in the form of unconvetional measures it see...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Dec 3, 2009, 7:12 am
On Wednesday the Fed released its summary of comments received from its 12 regional districts in the November time-frame. The notes represent a collection of comments from businesses and other contact...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Dec 2, 2009, 1:53 pm
The Economist discussed the return of deflation in Japan (link). Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan has published an interesting publication of macroeconomic overview of the Japanese economy (link). Relate...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Dec 2, 2009, 9:50 am
What a difference a few days have made in the mainstream headlines. Overblown concerns about Dubai defaults are quickly shifting to the into the shadows. On Tuesday clarity on the extent of the loan ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Dec 2, 2009, 6:50 am
In India, in the fields of health and education, an impressive rise of a private ecosystem has come about. In these fields, the State has tried hard to get back in the game, particularly after the UPA...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Dec 1, 2009, 1:30 pm
Although I certainly would not rank it alongside Macro Man’s dreaded vacation indicator or the incipient increase in the USD if and when the Economist finally decides to slot its decline on the ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Dec 1, 2009, 9:56 am
Some of the gifts you receive this holiday season may seem inexpensive, but that doesn’t mean they will not be incredibly valuable one day. In fact you might just have something valuable kicking...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Dec 1, 2009, 6:56 am
The problem The main source of funding for microfinance in India has been through banks, primarily through the forced `priority sector lending’. Over the years, the demand for funds in the micr...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 30, 2009, 2:34 pm
The ‘gold bugs’ assert that at all times and in all circumstances gold remains money.  For some irrational reason the ‘paper bugs’ cling to their increasingly worthless colored coupons assert...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 30, 2009, 11:31 am
I dropped in on the St. Louis Tea Party event Saturday at Kiener Plaza in St. Louis. Typical sub-par cell phone photo with special glare augmentation A crowd photo by Julie Stone: My guesstimate R...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 30, 2009, 9:28 am
Sheikh Makhtoum won’t go to debtor’s prison, but short of that, Dubai’s all-but-sovereign default is an epochal event in its story. I wrote a column in Financial Express titled Dubai...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 25, 2009, 3:09 pm
MOF has setup a working group on foreign investment: To review the existing policy on foreign inflows, other than Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), such as foreign portfolio investments by Foreign in...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 25, 2009, 10:07 am
Recent days have seen continued rebounds in housing, corporate profit reports and consumer confidence. Two reports early this week point to continued progress in residential housing resales. On Monda...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 25, 2009, 7:32 am
On 26 November 2009 the State Bank of Vietnam devalued the dong by about 5%.  This is the third instance of currency devaluation in two years.  The FRN$ is likewise being devalued against gold. A f...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 24, 2009, 1:53 pm
A study by June O’Neill and Dave M. O’Neill (link) suggests that the U.S health care system provides more choice, efficiency, better delivery and capacity than the Canadian system: “...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 24, 2009, 9:49 am
The authors of ‘Governance Matters’, Daniel Kauffman, Aart Kraay and Massimo Mastruzzi, tell us that the World Bank’s rule of law index captures “perceptions of the extent to which agents have...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 24, 2009, 7:00 am
The Economist updated the report on the Japanese economy which again suffered from monthly deflation (link). The forecasts for the end of the year forsee deflation as a structural problem of the Japan...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 23, 2009, 2:35 pm
“In my view … it is impossible to understand this crisis without reference to the global imbalances in trade and capital flows that began in the latter half of the 1990s.” Bernanke (2009...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 23, 2009, 11:33 am
Daron Acemoglu wrote a marvelous article discussing the supportive role of incentives and institutions in global poverty reduction and economic development (link): “If we know why nations are p...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 23, 2009, 9:32 am
Tackling systemic risk is no job for the status quo by William Donaldson and Arthur Levitt, in the Financial Times. Short-Selling Bans around the World: Evidence from the 2007-09 C...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 23, 2009, 7:10 am
The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation announced this week that it will grant one of the largest privately sponsored school improvement programs in recent memory — several teacher performance imp...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 20, 2009, 2:01 pm
Russia’s recessionary contraction has been marked with several distinct features. First, capital account deteriorated significantly. In Q3:2009 it posted a $23.7 billion deficit, reflecting net ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 20, 2009, 11:59 am
In Wednesday’s edition of WSJ, Johnny Munkhammar and Nima Sanandaji wrote a well-argued dissussion (link) on how Eastern Europe’s advantage in terms of competitive tax rates, low tax burde...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 20, 2009, 9:20 am
This week saw addition signs that this recovery will be anything but a jobless one. On Monday the Empire State Manufacturing Survey was released. Amidst a report that shows continued manufacturing gr...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 20, 2009, 6:47 am
If you are unfamiliar with hawala banking then I recommend reading Hawala Banking And Currency Controls Part I to become familiar with the concept before reading further.  If you are familiar with ho...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 19, 2009, 1:39 pm
Earlier in the week, Lowe’s Cos. (LOW) said in the third quarter it saw improved sales in several major big-ticket categories, including major appliances and flooring projects. Same-store-sales...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 19, 2009, 11:00 am
Given the massive volume of ridiculous news stories revealing the travesties occurring in this country on a daily basis, I have decided to start regularly posting my thoughts on selected pieces each d...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 19, 2009, 9:37 am
I wrote an article in Financial Express titled The problem of big banks. On this subject, also see: In the world of banks, bigger can be better, Charles Calomiris in the Wall Street Journa...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 19, 2009, 7:15 am
... of U-6 shows the nation running unemployment at a Depression-like 17.5%. In response to these numbers, Barack Obama has ... artificial boom. Only neanderthals (i.e. policymakers in the pre-Dep...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 18, 2009, 11:39 am
On HowToVanish many people have been asking questions in response to an article I posted about hawala banking. It is a great topic and one that I enjoy talking about so I thought I would respond by f...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 18, 2009, 7:38 am
On Monday UPS announced that its projections show it will handle more parcel deliveries this holiday season than it did last year. UPS will deliver about 400 million packages worldwide between Thanks...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 12, 2009, 11:33 am
In October the number of U.S. properties for which a foreclosure filing was received declined for the third month sequentially according to a RealtyTrac report released on Wednesday. The report is a ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 12, 2009, 9:00 am
What’s A Trillion Dollars? Economists are anticipating that the federal budget deficits will be in the trillions of dollars for a number of years. There are estimates that, with all federal effort...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 12, 2009, 6:32 am
Norges Bank has recently published Monetary Policy Report 3/2009 (link) and a comprehensive list of figures and charts including major macroeconomic trends in Norway and abroad (link). Time series on ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 11, 2009, 10:45 am
Sales of previously owned homes rose across the country during the third quarter, according to a report released Tuesday by the National Association of Realtors. Nationally, sales were up 5.9 percent...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 11, 2009, 6:45 am
David O. Meltzer and Zhuo Chen explored the relationship between minimum wage rate in the U.S and body weight (link): “Growing consumption of increasingly less expensive food, and especially â€...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 10, 2009, 1:18 pm
Update: Mr. Singh posts the third and, as far as I know, last installment in the series on Asia’s outlook written on the basis of the Regional Economic Outlook for the Asian and Pacific Region. ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 10, 2009, 10:13 am
The CMIE Consumer Pyramids data shows that in all their income categories, more than 50% of households have a mobile phone. It is only in their bottom category `Lower Middle Income – II’ t...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 10, 2009, 7:11 am
The whole health care reform thing totally baffles me. Where do all these idiots (and yes, you ARE idiots) who support health care reform think the money is going to come from for all these improveme...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 9, 2009, 1:59 pm
Now that the US recovery is in full swing, many continue to asked “when will this newfound economic growth produce new jobs?” This past week all eyes were on job numbers. And there were ...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 9, 2009, 9:57 am
I have an article in Financial Express where I look back economic development in Eastern Europe in the last 20 years, and compare and contrast with India. In recent weeks, a lot of very interesting w...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 5, 2009, 7:31 am
There is a major flaw in Soros’ justification for spending $50m on a new think-tank. He derides “unchecked free markets” when in fact no such thing exists. You either have free marke...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 4, 2009, 1:31 pm
Here’s a short brief (link) by The Economist on effective tax rates around the world. At a stunning 55 percent effective tax rate on annual gross earning of $100,000, Slovenia is the most heavil...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 4, 2009, 10:21 am
On Tuesday major auto manufacturers indicated that their October sales rebounded significantly following a weak September. The increase to the US annualized sales rate was nearly 20 percent better th...
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Anthony L. posted an article on Citizen Economists - Nov 4, 2009, 7:14 am
American populist angst has been rising for some time now. The optimist in me hopes that the Tea Party movement, and with it the rekindling within Americans of the vision of the founders and the defen...
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