I recently read Michael Lewis’ The Big Short, a very instructive book on the recent financial that looks at the crisis from the point of view those who made money from it. So when I learnt from the Planet Money blog that he has written a piece for Vanity Fair on the country I now call… Read More »
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 »
…is the title of a piece by Knox Chitiyo for the Guardian. An excerpt: The UK’s engagement with Africa is often expressed in terms of a “new scramble for Africa“, but this misses out what Africa wants. Certainly Africa wants partnerships with the west, but these need to be equal partnerships that also serve Africa’s… Read More »
From the Guardian, HT naked capitalism. Enjoy!
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 »
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 »
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 »
From a four part article in Der Spiegel: … now those who in the past showed very little interest for the European Commission, the Parliament and the bureaucracy in Brussels — because they assumed that they weren’t expected to be interested in these things — are reading daily about the strange things European statesmen have… Read More »
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 »
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.