David Graeber on the History of Debt (video)
Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know. I am currently reading the book – just finished the first two chapters. Will write some more about it when I’m done.
Category Archives: economics
In the spirit of debt ceilings and triple-A ratings
Just so you don’t forget that there are countries where these issues really do matter. Remember Cote d’Ivoire and the civil war that was ended with the help of France? Well, in January this year, the country defaulted on its Eurobond that was issued only last year. They’ve also decided that they won’t start servicing… Read More »
Why economics needs the history of thought
An interview with Bruce Caldwell, Director of the Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University. A description of the interview: Who is going to teach fields like economic methodology and the history of economic thought if these fields aren’t taught to current graduate students? Bruce Caldwell is filling this hole in the… Read More »
Friday links
1. Another one strikes black gold (trying desperately to resist using the line from Queen’s popular song) 2. Can stocks be safer than bonds (strange times, right?) 3. Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, formerly of World Bank, then of Nigeria’s finance ministry, then of World Bank, returns to take charge of Nigeria’s economy 4. Commentary on Islamic finance… Read More »
Germany and the Eurozone crisis
John Lanchester in LRB: If European monetary policy is run according to German national interests, huge structural imbalances will accumulate. The Germans will then either have to pay to correct those imbalances, or agree that the euro should not be run primarily according to German national interests. If they are unwilling to do either of… Read More »
On the history of the corporation
I was at a talk by Joel Bakan, writer and co-creator of the documentary The Corporation today here in Berlin. In the spirit of all that, let me share this story that has been sitting on my desktop for the past couple of days. By Venkatesh Rao: On 8 June, a Scottish banker named Alexander… Read More »
On financial services in Africa
From a new Accenture report titled At the tipping point: Financial services in Africa comes of age: The Accenture research study… highlights new growth triggers for financial services, pointing to rapid market development in some countries. While the paths to growth vary, these triggers often include innovation through (very) low-cost offerings and distribution, dramatically opening up… Read More »
Ha-Joon Chang – Economics Upside Down
I read Ha-Joon Chang’s 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism last week and I found it very interesting and instructive. Here is a video of him discussing the book. For the book I thank Baz; for the Video HT to the Naked Capitalism blog.
On Bitcoin
The Economist’s Babbage blog describes it in great details. If you are still interested in more, listen to this hour-long Econtalk podcast with Gavin Andresen, Principal of the BitCoin Virtual Currency Project.
How flat is the world?
The Economist reviews a book, World 3.0, by Pankaj Ghemawat of IESE Business School in Spain: Mr Ghemawat points out that many indicators of global integration are surprisingly low. Only 2% of students are at universities outside their home countries; and only 3% of people live outside their country of birth. Only 7% of rice… Read More »