Whoever thought that randomness could play so cruel a joke on us intelligent creatures? We thought we had it all under control, with our own set of rules, twisting and twirling to suit every perverse detour. We lived through an age of decadence, arrogance and vulgarity, with our egos pumping in all the nitrous oxide we need. However like all good things, this too must end. And like all things obnoxious, this too must have a teeny weeny pin prick before it slips from the fingers and hovers into the air in unsteady gallantry, losing air, zooming higher and higher tracing an irregular trajectory before it descends to mortal land with nothing but nothingness.

 

Was this a golden age? Were we but Hedonists bathing in milk, honey and our custom-crafted ethics? Some call it consumerism, some materialism and some say it’s the spirit of human enterprise. Oh, how poetic!

 

 

What is it that I intend to convey, you ask? For you have no time to dwell upon silly convoluted fabrications. You want the gist.

 

Okay. Here’s the short of it.

 

You are the problem. 

The same old same old

Here's an interesting piece of writing by Paul Krugman.

And here's the piece by Lou Uchitelle that inspired the above article.

Enjoy.

The Man Behind It All: John Maynard Keynes

Cairncross on Keynes

The Doha Debate

The Doha Summit organized by the WTO has been the talk of the table for a while now. What is it all about then? Here is an excerpt form the Yaleglobal Online.
The collapse of the Doha trade talks suggest that the motivation for global cooperation is waning. The goal of the Doha round was to eliminate special subsidies and tariffs on agricultural products to boost economies of the world’s poorest nations. WTO rules require that all 153 members reach consensus on such trade decisions. But the emerging economies of China and India looked to protect their economic status, as evidenced by demands for the right to re-impose or raise tariffs should food imports increase. “In terms of impact on economic growth, the issues at stake in the round were fairly small compared to the global-warming debate,” report Bob Davis and John Miller for the Wall Street Journal. “Limiting the rise of greenhouse gases could hit growth by forcing industry to retool factories and consumers to alter lifestyles. That sacrifice could prompt an even fiercer reaction from New Delhi and Beijing.” The globe is burdened with a national system of selfish players, all pursuing economic growth and expecting “others” to accept limits. – YaleGlobal

Te following are a collection of articles and writeups on the topic.
The Economist: Defrosting Doha
The Economist: The Doha round...and round...and round
Yaleglobal Online: Trade Talks' Failure Weighs on Other Issues

The Sino-Indian Centaur

Deng Xiaopings liberal economic policies propelled China into the Road to El Dorado around thrity years back. In the early 90's, the Indian Economy under Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh opened out the shutters and has been on the gowth trajectory ever since. The Chindia growth story assumed even greater importance after Goldman Sach's published its BRIC report.

So what was it that the economies did right? Where did they go wrong? And more importantly, where are they heading?

Here are a few articles on the subject. ( From Yaleglobal Online)

China's Rumble With Globalization I
China's Rumble With Globalization II
China's Peaceful Ascendancy
China Ascendant II
Peaceful Rise Strategy?
Globalization and the markets

And here are some other articles, on the China growth story, from other sources.
Capital Account Liberalisation in China:International Perspectives

To be or not to be

Greg Mankiw dishes out some advice for undergraduate students of economics.

Here is some advice for, say, an undergraduate considering a career as an economist.

1. Take as many math and statistics courses as you can stomach.

2. Choose your economics courses from professors who are passionate about the field and care about teaching. Ignore the particular topics covered when choosing courses. All parts of economics can be made interesting, or deadly dull, depending on the instructor.

3. Use your summers to experience economics from different perspectives. Spend one working as a research assistant for a professor, one working in a policy job in government, and one working in the private sector.

4. Read economics for fun in your spare time. To get you started, here is a list of recommended readings.

5. Follow economics news. The best weekly is The Economist. The best daily is the Wall Street Journal.

6. If you are at a research university, attend the economic research seminars at your school about once a week. You may not understand the discussions at first, because they may seem too technical, but you will pick up more than you know, and eventually you’ll be giving the seminar yourself.

Fat Book of Economics

The NBER ( National Bureau of Economic Research ) published an interesting article on the Economics of Obesity. Here's the article.

An excerpt:
The authors ask whether the relatively recent change in the proportion of severely overweight individuals suggests that environmental factors, not genetics, play a central
role in the increase in overweight. They note that technological change has reduced the amount of physical effort that people expend in their jobs, and that “the ready availability
of inexpensive restaurants has not only caused people to consume more, but has made them less active — less likely to prepare food at home or travel further distances to obtain a healthy meal.” The cigarette tax and smoking prohibition laws are included to account for the possibility that the increase in U.S. BMI may be related to the success of public health efforts to decrease smoking. When people quit smoking they often gain weight.