MetaFilter posts tagged with economics

A whole new China

wundermint — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:39:11 -0800

A couple recent documentaries have accurately shown how China is changing and developing at lightning speed. The People's Republic of Capitalism speaks mainly of China's all-consuming economic growth and its ramifications. I was riveted by Frontline's Young and Restless in China and Frontline World: Jesus in China. These show the struggles of the Chinese to keep up with the changes, deal with their hypocritical government and define their beliefs in a society still riddled with corruption.

There Could Be Blood

kliuless — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:36:53 -0800

Andy Grove on Our Electric Future - "Energy independence [viz.] is the wrong goal. Here is a plan Americans can stick to." Perhaps some infrastructure spending^1,2 is in order? [etc., &c., cf.] also see :P - "Tesla Motors Is Delivering Cars" - "Superconducting Power Grid Launches In New York" - "New heights reached in polymer based solar cell efficiency"

[S]pray a sheet of glass with a mixture of dyes combined with a substance called tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminium. In combination, the dyes and the glass act as the waveguide, preventing light from escaping. Meanwhile, the interaction between the different dye molecules and those of the tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminium allows a quantum-mechanical phenomenon, called Förster energy transfer, to come into play. This eliminates the reabsorption loss by ensuring that light is re-emitted at a frequency which the dye molecules cannot then reabsorb. On top of this—literally—Dr Currie and Dr Mapel have come up with another trick: placing a second sandwich of dye and glass over the first. The upper layer of dye intercepts high-energy light, such as ultraviolet. The lower one captures longer wavelengths that have passed unperturbed through the upper, and also any lower-energy light that has been re-emitted within the top layer and somehow escaped. The upshot is a device that, even as a prototype, converts ten times more of the incident light into electricity than a conventional solar cell. [and btw]

cheers!

While this is timely information bank failures are normal part of life.

Mutant — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:58:14 -0800

Worried about bank failures? First step: check if your bank is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). If so, then your first $100K is insured against loss so no worries.

Got more than $100K? Well then, you'd better speak with EDIE. EDIE (the Electronic Deposit Insurance Estimator) will tell you exactly how much FDIC insurance coverage you've got. The maximum coverage is $100K per depositor per savings account per institution. So one approach would be to distribute one's money at multiple financial institutions. But by enlisting the entire family, the apparent FDIC limits for deposits at a single institution can be circumvented. Assuming we're talking about a married couple with two children, here's how it works. Husband and wife each maintain separate savings accounts, gaining FDIC coverage on an aggregate amount greater than $100K but less than $200K. The children can help out here as well; by opening accounts in their name, and using either a living trust or what is called a Payable On Death account another $100K per child will gain FDIC protection. And IRAs, are insured to a max of $250K per account holder, regardless of other funds on deposit. Using this approach, a family of four can gain FDIC coverage totaling almost one million dollars of deposits at a single institution. What ever you do, don't make these mistakes. Troubled by trusts? Confused by all these accounts? Well, the simplest approach would be to deposit your money into one of the 73 Massachusetts based banks which is a member of both the FDIC and The Depositors Insurance Fund (DIF). After FDIC coverage has been exceeded, this private insurance covers any shortfalls. The last time we saw a large number of bank failures, the DIF covered uninsured losses of some 6,500 depositors at 19 failed member financial institutions. Since it's inception "no depositor has ever lost a penny in a bank insured by both the FDIC and the DIF".

Sir John Templeton, 1912-2008, RIP and thank you for the investing lessons.

Mutant — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:48:25 -0800

The simple phrase "it's different this time" are the four most expensive words in the English language. Sir John Templeton, 1912-2008, we thank you for this lesson and countless others. One of modern finance's greatest pioneers, in 1954 Sir John Templeton launched what was one of the first globally oriented mutual funds, Templeton Growth Fund. At that time, almost nobody invested outside The United States. However Templeton argued that by restricting choices to domestic securities, investors were denying themselves of the chance to markedly increase portfolio diversification, lower volatility while increasing overall returns. Today Templeton's approach to portfolio diversification is textbook at business schools. Ideas and theories he devised and put into practice decades ago led to such stunning performance that in 1999 Money Magazine called Sir John “arguably the greatest global stock picker of the century”. Over a period of forty years, Templeton Growth Fund returned an average of 14.5% per annum. In 1992, a month before his 80th birthday, Templeton sold his mutual fund empire for a reported $440 million to Franklin Resources Inc. of San Mateo, California. While still was active in the fund's strategic management, Templeton next turned his attention to religion and charitable endeavours, founding the John Templeton Foundation which he intended to "serve as a philanthropic catalyst for research on concepts and realities such as love, gratitude, forgiveness and creativity." Sir John did, however, leave those of us still learning how to invest with one final gift: Sir John Templeton's 16 Rules for Investment Success. [.pdf] Sir John Templeton, 1918-2008, RIP and Godspeed.

Nature's Creative Destruction

anotherpanacea — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 12:41:55 -0800

Natural disasters are good for the economy. No, they aren't. Yes, they are. Well, maybe sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't. (pdf) It helps if somebody makes a movie or a television show about it. The Broken Window fallacy.

The Economic Organisation of a P.O.W. Camp

pharm — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 07:37:42 -0800

In the latter years of the second world war, the economist RA Radford was a prisoner of war. After the war ended, he wrote this now well known (if you're an economist) article on the economic structures that emerged in the POW camps. (JSTOR link) I originally came across this article via Crooked Timber & although it was mentioned in a recent AskMefi I thought it deserved its time in the MeFi limelight.

The political-economy perspective on women's rights

kliuless — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:48:02 -0800

Women's rights: What's in it for men? - "Women in rich countries largely enjoy gender equality while those in poor countries suffer substantial discrimination. This column proposes an explanation for the relationship between economic development and female empowerment that emphasises changes in the incentives males face rather than shifts in moral sentiment. Technological change that raises demand for human capital may give men a stake in women's rights." also see "A Spontaneous Order: Women and the Invisible Fist"

All of this can happen quite naturally when a large enough minority of men choose to commit widespread, intense, random acts of violence against a large enough number of women. And it can happen quite naturally without the raping men, or the protecting men, or the women in the society ever intending for any particular large-scale social outcome to come about. But what will come about, quite naturally, is that women's social being — how women appear and act, as women, in public — will be systematically and profoundly circumscribed by a diffuse, decentralized threat of violence. And, as a natural but unintended consequence of many small, self-interested actions, some vicious and violent (as in the case of men who rape women), some worthwhile in their origins but easily and quickly corrupted (as in the case of men who try to protect women from rape), and some entirely rational responses to an irrational and dangerous situation (as in the case of women who limit their action and seek protection from men), the existence and activities of the police-blotter rapist serve to constrain women's behavior and to become dependent on some men — and thus dependent on keeping those men pleased and serving those men's priorities — for physical protection from other men. That kind of dependence can just as easily become frustrating and confining for the woman, and that kind of power can just as easily become corrupting and exploitative for the man, as any other form of dependence and power. (Libertarians and anarchists who easily see this dynamic when it comes to government police and military protection of a disarmed populace, shouldn't have any trouble seeing it, if they are willing to see it, when it comes to male protection of women.)

and btw "a book penned by a woman who lived with Roma for a time. The bare threads of Roma society are disturbing," cf.

Buy Now, It'll Only Go Higher

Xurando — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:38:08 -0800

Is speculation a prime cause of high oil prices? Yes, N o, Maybe. (Very Wonkish)

Floating university moored

divabat — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:07:37 -0800

The Scholar Ship , an international floating university stewarded by top universities in Morocco, the United Kingdom, China, Australia, Mexico, USA, and Ghana, have temporarily suspended all voyages due to lack of funds - mainly caused by the withdrawal of main sponsor and initiator Royal Caribbean International. The program ran two voyages in 2007 and 2008 before shutdown. Alumni and prospective students on Facebook and Ning are busily sourcing options to revive the organization, while Semester at Sea is offering spaces to students who were accepted for the now-cancelled voyages. This is reminiscent of 2000, when global education non-profit Up with People were also forced to shut down due to lack of funds. Efforts from UWP alumni and supporters allowed for its reform as the WorldSmart Leadership Program in 2003, before returning to its original performance-based roots in 2006. Will the alumni of The Scholar Ship be as successful in bringing back their beloved experiences? How does this reflect on the finances of international education programs in general, when the pullout of a major backer can spell life or death for the organization?

Is Ben Bernanke a finally coming out of the closet?

Mutant — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 04:01:36 -0800

While the wild crowd call it "Woodstock for Central Bankers", others get festivities off on a sour note, referring to it as "Understanding Inflation and the Implications for Monetary Policy". Regardless of what your invitation to this party reads, it starts today, Monday June 9th on the 50th anniversary of The Phillips Curve, a previously discredited forecasting tool which may be revived by Ben Bernanke at The Federal Reserve. The Phillips Curve models an inverse relationship between unemployment and the rate of inflation. Specifically, as inflation increases unemployment decreases, and vice versa. Adherents of The Philips Curve argue for a monetary policy accepting relatively high rates of inflation as a trade off for low unemployment. While we have seen The Phillips Curve hold during long periods of both American and British economic history we have also seen 1970's style stagflation invalidate this theory, and today many believe the purest form of this model to be flawed. However variants of The Phillips Curve exist and are still in use by a variety of market participants to help forecast interest rates. It was long suspected Alan Greenspan used what is known as "The Fed Model" - a comparison of the ratio of stock's earnings to prices¹ against the yield on a 10 year Treasury bond - to help guide decisions regarding monetary policy. Knowing precisely what models are used by The Fed is highly valued information to those hoping to anticipate - and thus profit from - changes in interest rates. Until now, Fed watchers could only speculate about the tools Ben Bernanke would deploy as part of his decision making process. But with his keynote address at this conference, and considering other times he's mentioned this model, it's now obvious - Ben Bernanke is a closet Phillips Curver. No doubt a large number of market participants are busily building their own Phillips Curve models. ¹That is, a ratio calculated as earning divided by price, not to be confused with the more commonly known price to earnings ratio, or PE.