September 2011
12 posts
Martin Wolf, "What do banks' target returns on... →
“The conclusion is quite simple. If a bank says it needs a real return on equity of 15 per cent, to obtain funds from investors, it is telling you that it is running an enormously risky business.”
Deutsche Bank Research - Labour mobility in the... →
“In a Eurobarometer survey of 15 to 35 year-olds conducted in 2011 53% said that in view of the poor employment prospects they wished to work temporarily or permanently in another European country. A disproportionately high number of these were young Spaniards (68%), Irish (67%), Greeks (64%) and Portuguese (57%). The higher the level of education the greater is the wish to work in...
Erik Hurst and Benjamin Wild Pugsley, "What Do... →
“In this paper, we show that substantial differences exists among U.S. small businesses owners with respect to their ex-ante expectations of future performance, their ex-ante desire for future growth, and their initial motives for starting a business. Specifically, using new data that samples early stage entrepreneurs just prior to business start up, we show that few small businesses intend...
Lluís Bassets, "Catalanes, mediterráneos,... →
“La capitalidad mediterránea hoy no es discutible. Todavía. Si el rumbo y el ritmo de las revoluciones árabes es similar al que tomaron los países del centro y del Este de Europa a partir de 1989 no es nada seguro que Cataluña pueda seguir reivindicando entonces el mayor atractivo de toda la cuenca y ni siquiera que Barcelona siga albergando las instituciones de integración regional. Por...
Paul Krugman, "An Impeccable Disaster" →
“What Mr. Trichet and his colleagues should be doing right now is buying up Spanish and Italian debt — that is, doing what these countries would be doing for themselves if they still had their own currencies. In fact, the E.C.B. started doing just that a few weeks ago, and produced a temporary respite for those nations. But the E.C.B. immediately found itself under severe pressure from the...
Andrea Hasenbank, "Mass-Observation and the Praxis... →
A fascinating piece written by my friend Andrea:
“Centrally, this article is concerned with how Mass-Observation engages with the materiality of lived experience through print institutions and practices of writing. Mass-Observation’s collective project of transformation through knowledge rests on the work of its individual writers, whose private reflections are telescoped through the ...
UBS Investment Research - Euro break-up - the... →
“…it is virtually impossible to consider a break-up scenario without some serious social consequences. With this degree of social dislocation, the historical parallels are unappealing. Past instances of monetary union break-ups have tended to produce one of two results. Either there was a more authoritarian government response to contain or repress the social disorder (a scenario that...
Juan Cole, "Top Ten Good News Green Energy... →
Quienes se obsesionan por el déficit estructural...
Por todos lados nos explican que se limitará el déficit estructural al 0,4% para asegurar la sostenibilidad de la deuda pública a medio y largo plazo. El déficit estructural tiene algo que ver, pero se puede ver que el techo del 0,4% es optar por una cifra arbitraria, más ligada a una ideología determinada que a criterios sólidos. Una obsesión por el déficit estructural supone olvidar la...
España se pone las esposas
Este artículo es una traducción de mi último post en Social Europe Journal:
George Irvin y Andrew Watt ya han señalado la locura del techo de déficit para Europa en general y España en particular. Veremos si la propuesta española de limitar su déficit estructural al 0,4% del PIB aguanta hasta 2020 (cuando debe tomar efecto). Veremos si el estado español realmente renunciará a su capacidad de...
A few interesting links
Richard W. Caperton and Bracken Hendricks (from the Center for for American Progress), “A Green Bank Is The Right Tool For Jobs”
Wolfgang Münchau, “The worst of the euro crisis is yet to come”
Nicholas Nassim Taleb and Mark Spitznagel, “The Great Bank Robbery”
Yanis Varoufakis and Stuart Holland, “Eurobonds: Not a question of ‘whether’ but...
