Posts Tagged ‘economist’

A joy to read

Written By: - Date published: 9:24 am, December 10th, 2020 - 18 comments

There are the odd occasions when you find a political opinion that is a joy to read and quite revealing. An analysis piece by the Bagehot columnist that refers to the Conservatives as the dysmorphic Tory party completes its transition from the natural party of government into a British version of the Taliban…

Economists support Labour forming the next UK government

Written By: - Date published: 7:10 am, November 27th, 2019 - 24 comments

One hundred and sixty three British economists have signed a letter to the Financial Times to say they believe that Labour should form the next government. The UK economy needs reform. For too long it has prioritised consumption over investment, short-term financial returns over long-term innovation, rising asset values over rising wages, and deficit reduction […]

Still making things go boom dangerously

Written By: - Date published: 5:27 pm, March 15th, 2015 - 26 comments

I have been reading Neil Sheenan’s “A fiery peace in a cold war” on the development of the US ICBM forces in the 50s. At the same time I’ve been reading last week’s Economist, including a feature on the current developing arms race in nuclear weapon systems. Quietly falling into another insane arms race.

Governments need to do some work.

Written By: - Date published: 1:30 pm, May 23rd, 2014 - 37 comments

I nearly snorted my coffee down the wrong way when the Economist arrived on my pad this morning.  “In need of new oomph” opened with the obvious, that world wide growth was stalling. But then it moved past the usual central bank mantras to the need for governments to start doing something more useful than just cutting deficits. Translated to NZ, we need investment in useful economic infrastructure.

The economic value of the internet

Written By: - Date published: 11:41 am, March 11th, 2013 - 35 comments

The innovations that drive our modern economies changes and growth these days is largely powered by the internet. It is ubiquitously embedded in most businesses these days to a fantastic degree. While I wish economists well in their continuous attempts at measuring the effect of the internet, I think that it will be a futile endeavour.

Myths and moralising – the conservative trademark

Written By: - Date published: 2:17 pm, December 29th, 2011 - 36 comments

Even smart conservatives in my experience generally  think far too short term, fail to look at history  and in the final analysis view everything from their own narrow interests rather than those of society as whole. They prefer historical mythmaking and moralizing about others rather than thinking. The Economist throws up another telling example by David Brooks.

Recovery up – living standards down

Written By: - Date published: 2:29 pm, April 1st, 2011 - 11 comments

“Workers lose in two-speed recovery” is the headline of an interesting article in today’s Business Herald print edition, sourced from “The Economist.” Living standards are declining in recovery because the share of income going to profits has far outstripped wages. Most people are not feeling better off. Some instances quoted: in the US, this is […]

Rough Justice

Written By: - Date published: 10:28 am, July 31st, 2010 - 16 comments

The Economist has a great article looking at the American propensity to deprive their citizens of their liberty for trivial offenses. We have the same stupid political ratcheting here that causes it. A large part of that is fueled by groups like the Sensible Sentencing Trust. There needs to be a broad agreement across the political spectrum about such hysterical groups before they cause more damage.

Bagehot is dead, long live Bagehot

Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, July 4th, 2010 - 6 comments

The current incumbent of the Bagehot column at The Economist is stepping down with a few relevant comments about current relationships ebtween the politicians, journos, and the public.

The opinions could have been written about the poor state of journalism here.

Brownlee: Not an ardent follower of fashion. Merely obsolete.

Written By: - Date published: 2:35 pm, November 11th, 2009 - 15 comments

One of the things that has surprised me about the government and Brownlee’s energy policy is that it is so mundane and 20th century. In every other area of their political electoral strategy we saw a pithy slogan, often pinched from overseas, substituting for policy and dumbed it down to the level of the dittoheads […]

House prices pop.

Written By: - Date published: 5:13 pm, March 25th, 2009 - 12 comments

First they go up, and then they come down. The Economist has an interesting table on the housing bubble. Those figures from the US just look outright scary. The result of the sub-prime mortgage and its consequent effects. There is also an interesting article in the Economist on the effect that increasing home ownership in […]

Police nurture a unwise form of direct democracy

Written By: - Date published: 10:00 am, January 7th, 2009 - 27 comments

 The Economist has an fascinating article “Rioters of the world unite“. It is partially about the demonstrations, protests, and outright riots in Athens and other parts of Greece at the end of last year. It is also partially concerned with a rising trend in new ways to not organize, and still be politically effective.  The […]

Evolution and Crime

Written By: - Date published: 12:19 am, December 28th, 2008 - 76 comments

The Economist is one of the few main stream media that seem to be flourishing in the days of decline for most media outlets. This is probably because it offers truly interesting comment and opinion. For instance in the current science section, they have “Darwinism:Why we are, as we are, a view on the current […]

Geek’s view

Written By: - Date published: 9:40 am, June 28th, 2008 - 24 comments

On the odd occasion I have time to read outside of the confines of The Standard and its ever increasing brawl of entertaining comments. I noticed we don’t have a external reading list, and it is within the range of my writing skills, so here are my oddities for the slow weekends…. From quote of […]