Saturday, April 28, 2012

Links and Minor Thoughts

Chinese politics is complicated.  Especially as the Bo Xilai political turmoil gets more complicated, it's probably important to have somewhat of a grasp on what's going on.

What are the effect of cities on the environment, and how do new trends in manufacturing shape this?  With the past reduction in manufacturing, and now the present revival, it's likely that factories can be built in centers to improve environmental efficiency.

Tepid PMI production news from China.  The tail risk is still worrying me because I suspect that neither the actual probability nor the impact are truly calculable.

Could decentralized solar power send shockwaves through developing countries?  Recent innovations in SMS payment have led a revolution in banking; could it transfer to small scale utilities as well?
Decentralized solar, sweet...

If society is to be based on stochastic tinkering, we need patent reform.  Current patent law makes it impossible for small scale inventors to truly defend their creations.

Yves Smith points out another serious risk for banks: interest rate risk.  Especially if we decide to weight monetary policy more towards a NGDP target, there's a serious possibility for higher interest rate volatility which can wreak havoc on these banks with such long maturity bonds.

I remember perusing through Peter Diamond's paper on the Beveridge Curve after he won the Nobel Prize. I never truly grasped the significance of it, so I found Andy Harless' mini-analysis on the Beveridge curve quite interesting.

High multipliers in times of low interest rates: DSGE edition.  No surprise here, although it would likely change if monetary policy would pull more weight.  This, along with several robust pieces of evidence that austerity fails (private debt much?), all are bad news for the Eurozone.

A reminder for humility: how accurate are the national accounts anyways?  Considering precision can't be that high, don't take each decimal point that seriously.

No comments:

Post a Comment