Love him or loathe him, Robert Skidelsky’s prose always makes for a good read.
His latest offering comes by way of Project Syndicate and relates to the issue of robots and the rise of automation. To what degree are we really approaching a leisure society and how best to respond to the changes afoot? Read more
Christine Lagarde has urged countries to put a brake on austerity measures amid signs that the IMF is becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of government cutbacks on growth. Ms Lagarde, IMF managing director, cautioned against countries front-loading spending cuts and tax increases. “It’s sometimes better to have a bit more time,” she said at the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank on Thursday.
The fund warned earlier this week that governments around the world had systematically underestimated the damage done to growth by austerity. Read more
Alternative working title: When Orson Welles meets finance.
We discussed Fantasy Fed options on Wednesday. But here’s one from Paul Krugman, which we definitely overlooked — ironically, possibly the most fantastical of all. Read more
Remember that time we said economists were fractious creatures? Forgive us, we misspoke. They’re *really* fractious creatures.
Exhibit A – Paul Krugman’s blog post of July 2 at 7:47am, and headlined: Read more
It was bound to happen – the return of the anti-Keynesians en force. Their case: mass government stimuli are no solution to a) a global crisis and b) a crisis of debt that transcends all previous crises of debt in terms of size. There’s also the fact that Keynes wasn’t always right on everything. Hence his famous quote: “When the facts change, I change my mind…”
Don’t get us wrong, we know there have always been anti-stimulus mumblings. But we feel it is only now that the concept is really picking up any noticeable momentum – the mainstream press having largely lapped up the concept of ‘stimulus’ spending as an economic fait accompli. Read more
1Man walks into a gold bar. Au!
2The end of QE?
3The persistent supply-side constraints in US housing
4Bird, plane, Abe
5Bove vs Bloomberg, redux
Show more6A glorious episode in the history of the Revenue
7Stress you next year
8An unusual bear market
9The short arm of the SEC
10Breaking up is hard to do - Rio Tinto edition
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