MetaFilter posts tagged with trade

Cobra Mk 3

Artw — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 09:51:39 -0800

This month marks the 25th aniversary of Elite, the groundbreaking 3D space trading game. The making of Elite. More on the making of Elite from The Backroom Boys. Emulate the original BBC Micro version. The Dark Wheel.

Crystal Lee Sutton

Fiasco da Gama — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:14:52 -0800

Crystal Lee Sutton was fired for trying to organise a union. The incident was made into the 1979 film Norma Rae. Last week she died at the age of 68.

Assuming bullets sell in Somalia for USD 0.75

Fiasco da Gama — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:02:57 -0800

The Adventures Of A Would Be Arms Dealer (PDF) is an eight-page comic illustrating how an illegal arms deal works in practice. Via.

I can has ham and cheese.

longsleeves — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:34:24 -0800

The Obama administration has reversed the past administration's plan for retaliatory import tarriffs on various luxury commodities, such as Rocquefort cheese and gourmet Spanish hams. The tarriffs were a response to the EU's ban on imports of hormone treated beef from the US.

Trading goods along social networks since 2003

furtive — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:49:08 -0800

Kate Rich has run the Feral Trade grocery business trading goods along social networks since 2003. Feral Trade forges new, 'wild' trade routes between art, business and social interaction. Goods hitchhike on other sources of movement, harnessing the surplus freight potential of social and cultural travel to haul grocery items intercity, often using other artists and curators as mules. An online courier database provides a live, public view of all movements in the network.

The history of the experimentalization of life.

tellurian — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:52:23 -0800

The Virtual Laboratory - A collection of essays, biographies, instruments and trade catalogues (e.g. experiment kit) from between 1830 and 1930. I must warn you that some of the films are a bit disturbing. Check out the eerie sounding vowel experiments in the audio section too.

It’s 1929 again

Abiezer — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:47:32 -0800

Can China Adjust to the US Adjustment? Prof. Michael Pettis of Beijing University on the macroeconomic parallels between the present crisis and that of the 1930s, with China playing the role today that the US played back then.

The $1.4 Trillion Question

afu — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:30:14 -0800

"Through the quarter-century in which China has been opening to world trade, Chinese leaders have deliberately held down living standards for their own people and propped them up in the United States. This is the real meaning of the vast trade surplus—$1.4 trillion and counting, going up by about $1 billion per day—that the Chinese government has mostly parked in U.S. Treasury notes. In effect, every person in the (rich) United States has over the past 10 years or so borrowed about $4,000 from someone in the (poor) People’s Republic of China." James Fallows on how the trade deficit between China and America works and what it means for the future.

Obligatory accreditation system for IT security products

caddis — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:12:41 -0800

Give us your secrets. The Chinese government plans order foreign manufacturers to reveal information about their digital products, a Japanese newspaper reported on Friday. It will introduce rules requiring foreign firms to disclose secret information about digital household appliances and other products from May next year, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, citing unnamed sources. If a company refuses to disclose information, China would ban it from exporting the product to the Chinese market or producing or selling it in China, the paper said. This is lightly sourced, so, lacking a second independent source, it is offered in the spirit of Drudge. Anyway, if true this could seriously harm trade. From the Yomiuri article:

Specifically, foreign companies will be obliged to disclose relevant products' source code, or a sequence of statements written in computer programming language designed to control digital appliances and other high-tech products. The system, whereby manufacturers will be allowed to sell their products on the Chinese market only after they pass tests based on disclosed source code and inspections by an accreditation body, is said to be unprecedented. Products expected to be subject to the system are those equipped with secret coding, such as the Felica contactless smart card system developed by Sony Corp., digital copiers and computer servers. The Chinese government said it needs the source code to prevent computer viruses taking advantage of software vulnerabilities and to shut out hackers. However, this explanation is unlikely to satisfy concerns that disclosed information might be handed from the Chinese government to Chinese companies.

Considering the propensity for knockoffs from some Chinese manufacturers one can understand the fears. Unprecedented though? I have seen them make similar requests of highly proprietary validation testing procedures for chemical and biological processes. If this story holds true, expect fireworks from the US and Japan among others.

New Trade Theory

grobstein — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 12:38:50 -0800

Where no economist had gone before . Paul Krugman posts a type-written paper on interstellar trade which he wrote as "an oppressed assistant professor" in the '70s. I do not propose to develop a theory which is universally valid, but it may at least have some galactic relevance. [pdf link]

Queue for the soup kitchen may start here

ClanvidHorse — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:03:16 -0800

"What we are now seeing is the break up of Bretton Woods mark 2." The Guardian's economics editor, Larry Elliot, on growing fears of a global depression. [single link op-ed alert]

The Bicycle of Your Youth or Bike of your Dreams

snsranch — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 17:41:24 -0800

BikeIcons isn't the best site, but it has the best bikes! Just cruise around and look at old bicycles.

Save vs. Recession +5

boo_radley — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 10:59:26 -0800

Fantasy Stock Market Limit Break Go! A literal interpretation of fantasy stock market trading in Dungeons and Day Traders reg. req. Start with the rules and get trading in a week long mishmash of pyrolisks and porkbellies, mushrooms and margins, dragons and drawdowns...

Made in China

srboisvert — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 07:49:25 -0800

Made in China. A look inside the world’s manufacturing center. Flash video slideshow of the port of Shenzhen (7:00 minutes with sound)

As slippery as an eel

SaintCynr — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:44:41 -0800

5 types of Chinese fish subject to temporary import ban. Melamine in farmed fish. The safety of fish farming in question. Are we risking a trade war with China over food? Some see an upside to food globalization. China's loss may be the Gulf Coast's gain. Previously on Mefi

Tradecards

hama7 — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 17:15:24 -0800

Tradecards.

The Fund in Flux

parmanparman — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 08:25:58 -0800

The Trade Surplus and the Olive Tree The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has seen its loan portfolio drop 73 per cent since 2003. Nobody seems to be defaulting on their loans lately, and there hasn't been a big bailout since 2001. The IMF's summit this week in Singapore will look at this issue and how to better the world balance of trade betweed the developing world and the industrial economies of the west. But is there really a place (warning: PDF) for the IMF in the trade agreements between China and the US?

The ties that bind

blahblahblah — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 12:12:13 -0800

The International Networks Archive is an effort by a group of sociologists to understand 2,000 years of globalization through mapping the network of transactions that link the world, rather than geography. The project is still ongoing, but you can see some of the results: an interactive map that uses travel time to visualize the world; a graphic of the growth of Starbucks and McDonalds; the distribution of government jobs (apparently the 3,412 postal inspectors can carry firearms); the cashflows of movies and tobacco; and, of course, the world at night. There is also access to a lot of detailed data, as well as more maps and information at the Mapping Globalization wiki.

Artist trading cards

bigmusic — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 11:12:58 -0800

Artist trading cards (ATC's) have three rules they shouldn't be sold, they are to measure exactly 2.5" by 3.5", and on the back they must have the artist's name, contact information, title of the ATC and it's number in the series. Since M. Vanci Stirnemann started this hobby in 1997 it has spread the world over. [previously on metafilter]

Is it really time to upgrade your mobile phone?

nthdegx — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 11:37:40 -0800

Dead Ringers: the Science Museum asks us the question "should we upgrade our mobile phone?" "No" and "no" say the Times and the Observer, but we still do: on average every 18 months. What's the problem? Well it isn't just the lead, arsenic, beryllium and brominated fire-retardant cases (pollutants all) disappearing into our land fills (which are not covered by the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive [WEEE] in Europe). Coltan also goes into our phones. It occurs mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and as such our demand for upgrades has been contributing to a war (despite mobile phone companies' claims to the contrary, coltan is not regulated like timber). If we must upgrade, we can at least recycle or hack our old phones.

I'll give you an Oprah selection for that Austen.

ferociouskitty — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 08:40:59 -0800

Bookmooch lets you give away your old books to a loving, caring home. Oh, and you can get used books for free too. Everyone wins! via

farm subsidies good?

afu — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 22:22:46 -0800

Africa does not need more expensive food. As the Doha trade rounds collapse largely due to disagreements about farm subsidies, Daniel Davies challenges the conventional view that farm subsidies hurt the poor.

One Red Paperclip turns into a house!

cerebus19 — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 07:15:26 -0800

One red paperclip has, after 14 trades, been turned into a farmhouse in Kipling, Saskatchewan. Previously, previously.

Tuna, Esq.

monju_bosatsu — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 10:53:07 -0800

The Tuna Court: Law and Norms in the World's Premier Fish Market. [more inside]

Bulk shopping at Alibaba

stbalbach — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 22:26:50 -0800

Alibaba regularly ranks as one of the top destination web sites in the world, currently higher than Wikipedia or CNN, it is a mind boggling Bazaar of bulk items available for import and export, mainly from China. A popular site rarely heard about, it is for those who buy by the shipping container or become lost in the bewildering variety and possibilities of generic bulk commodities.