DE WERELD NU

Economische aanraders 11-04-2015

Veren of Lood biedt u op zondag wekelijks een inkijkje in 10 belangrijke of informatieve artikelen en interviews die de voorafgaande 7 dagen op economisch terrein verschenen.

De kop is de link naar het oorspronkelijke artikel, waarvan de eerste (twee) alinea’s hier gegeven zijn.

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Two Fed economists tried to replicate some top economic studies — and the results are dreadful – Mike Bird
7 oktober

A new economics paper is making the rounds this week, and it’s got some pretty damning conclusions for the state of the whole subject.
Federal Reserve economists Andrew Chang and Phillip Li set about researching how many of the results published in top economics journals could be replicated — repeating the study and finding the same results.
They looked at 67 papers in 13 solid academic journals.
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No More “Free Trade” Treaties: It’s Time for Genuine Free Trade – Ferghane Azihari – Louis Rouanet
7 oktober

It is erroneous to believe that free traders have been historically in favor of free trade agreements between governments. Paradoxically, the opposite is true. Curiously, many laissez-faire advocates fall into the government-made trap by supporting “free-trade” treaties. However, as Vilfredo Pareto stated in the article “Traités de commerce of the Nouveau Dictionnaire d’Economie Politique” (1901):

If we accept free trade, treatises of commerce have no reason to exist as a goal. There is no need to have them since what they are meant to fix does not exist anymore, each nation letting come and go freely any commodity at its borders.
https://mises.org/library/no-more-free-trade-treaties-its-time-genuine-free-trade
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The Death Of Cognitive Dollar Dissonance & The Remonetization Of Gold -John Butler
10 oktober

Two years ago, prior to travelling to Sydney to present at the Annual Precious Metals Symposium, I prepared an article for the Gold Standard Institute Journal titled Cognitive Dollar Dissonance: Why a Global De-Leveraging Requires the De-Rating of the Dollar and the Remonetisation of Gold (see here). This article highlighted the growing inconsistency between those arguing on the one hand that the dollar’s role in international trade and finance was clearly diminishing; yet denying that it was in any danger of losing the near-exclusive monetary reserve status it has enjoyed since the 1940s.
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Not the “Death of the Dollar” but “Death of the Euro?” – Wolf Richter
6 oktober

The rise of the Chinese yuan as an international currency is not only unstoppable but is advancing in leaps and bounds, according to SWIFT. It comes at the expense of other currencies, though it’s not triggering the long-awaited “death of the dollar.” On the contrary. Yet the euro has stumbled into the line of fire.
SWIFT is in a position to know. The member-owned organization, based in Belgium, provides among other things a network that enables financial institutions around the globe to send and receive information about financial transactions in a standardized environment.
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Did the European Court of Justice Just Torpedo the Mother of All US Trade Agreements? – Don Quijones
8 oktober

Europe’s already rocky trading relationship with the U.S. just got a whole lot worse. Thanks to one young man’s battle against one of the world’s biggest tech companies, data traffic underpinning the world’s largest trading relationship has been thrown into jeopardy.
As the Wall Street Journal warns, hanging in the balance could be billions of dollars of trade in the online advertising business, as well as more quotidian tasks such as storing human-resources documents about European colleagues.
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Now we see that Germany, like Britain, doesn’t believe in common EU rules – Jeremy Warner
8 oktober

The British, it has been said, will only vote for Europe when they can look across the Channel and see that things are noticeably better over there than they are here. That was certainly the case in 1975, the last time there was a referendum on British membership of what was then called the European Economic Community.
It isn’t today, nor is it even remotely likely to become so within the timeframe set for the latest referendum. Even if David Cameron secures substantive concessions, which in itself seems unlikely, he’ll have a fight on his hands winning the argument. Europe’s dismal, and largely self-inflicted, condition, makes for a particularly negative backdrop.
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Welcome to the Future: Downward Mobility and Social Depression – Charles Hugh Smith
5 oktober

If you don’t think these definitions apply, please check back in a year.
The mainstream is finally waking up to the future of the American Dream: downward mobility for all but the top 10% of households. A recent Atlantic article fleshed out the zeitgeist with survey data that suggests the Great Middle Class/Nouveau Proletariat is also waking up to a future of downward mobility: The Downsizing of the American Dream: People used to believe they would someday move on up in the world. Now they’re more concerned with just holding on to what they have.
I dug into the financial and social realities of what it takes to be middle class in today’s economy: Are You Really Middle Class?
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What Happens to our Economy as Millions of People Lose the Habits of Hard Work? – Charles Hugh Smith
7 oktober

If we’re going to dig our way of what lies ahead, we need people who can work hard and start/operate new businesses.
Simply put, job growth is not keeping pace with population growth–specifically, the growth of the labor force which is generally defined as the population between the ages of 18 and 64.
So what happens to the economy as millions of people never acquire the habits of hard work or lose them due to chronic joblessness?
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Lazear on Dodd-Frank and Capital – John Cochrane
6 oktober

Ed Lazear has a nice WSJ oped, “How not to prevent the next financial meltdown.” (Also available here via Hoover.) The main points will not be new to readers of this blog, or my much longer essay but the piece is admirable for putting the basic points so clearly and concisely.
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Disclaimer: De VoL-redactie selecteert deze artikelen op interessante inzichten, of naar wij denken nuttige informatie. Wij kunnen echter geen enkele aansprakelijkheid aanvaarden voor de gevolgen van beslissingen die op grond hiervan door lezers zijn genomen, zakelijk zomin als privé.