Syrian English

Jeep

Dream house

Good bye

VIP

Paint

No Parking

Thanks to Raja

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What's economics

Rigotnomics has a nice post on the meaning of "economics", but I can't believe that they like Dambisa Mojo (BTW did you see who wrote her Time profile?). My other point of disagreement with Rigotnomics.
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Stress tests

Baseline scenario explains

My work on public banks: here and here

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The Ph. D. Octopus

An absurd story from 1903

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Why economists write papers and not books

The making of Economic Literature (presidential address to the American Economic Association, 1909). My favorite parts: 

A three hundred page thesis not only does not fit a man to be an economist: it really incapacitates him for work...I hold that the better the economist the clearer, shorter, and more precise are his utterances …A book is merely the trail along which its author has gone in his search for clear expression and sharp analysis. This is of great importance to the author, but of little consequence to the reader.

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Conferences I wish I had attended

Can you get better timing?

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Religion and education gender gap in Lebanon

Things are different form what you may think. (ungated version here)

My other Middle-East related papers are:

• “Macroeconomic Policies in Egypt: An Interpretation of the Past and Options for the Future,” Journal of Development and Economic Policies (December, 2002). Download Working Paper
  
•  “Fiscal Sustainability: Issues for Emerging Market Countries” (with A. Izquierdo) in A. El Galal and N. Ul. Haque (eds)Fiscal Sustainability in Emerging Markets: International Experience and Implications for Egypt. AmericanUniversity in Cairo Press (2006). Download Working Paper
  
•  “Poverty and Social Mobility in Lebanon: A Few Guesses.” (with M. El Khoury) Forum, Newsletter of the Economic Research Forum for the Arab Countries, Iran and Turkey. 8: 12- 13.  Not Available online
  
•  “Education, Childbearing, and Female Labor Market Participation: Evidence from Lebanon,” (with M. Hajj) Journal of Development and Economic Policies (June, 2002). Not available online
  
•  “Social Mobility and Religion. Evidence from Lebanon” (with M. El Khoury) Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion (Fall, 2005). Download Working Paper
  

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Very very strange buildings

Here and here.

Thanks to Sweta for the idea and dedicated to SiL Nadine, the architect

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Better LATE than nothing

Imben's response to Deaton and Heckman and Urzua. This debate is really cool. 

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Google!

Data searching and plotting

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Eichengreen on Economic research in the 21st century

Here, more on Barry here

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Chris Blattman loves Colombia (and he's right)

Here and here.  I've been to Cartagena several times (it's wonderful, but careful with aguardiente) and I may go to Medellin in August, but I haven't yet visited to Bogota (I was so sorry to miss the Economia panel a couple of weeks ago).

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A macro lesson

From PK

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Sugar count

here.

check out the shakes

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Interpreting GDP Growth

From Baseline Scenario. Another post, which I would rename French Sociology and the Education of Tim Geithner is also intersting and shold be read with the, by now classic, Atlantic piece on financila oligarcs.

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Interesting research topic

Very interesting indeed.   It starts like this: 

It used to be conventional wisdom among biologists that human beings are unique in experiencing female orgasm, but no longer. Nonetheless, female orgasm remains both a marvelous phenomenon and a contentious, unsolved mystery among evolutionary biologists.

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Polya’s rules

I am reading Polya’s Hot to Solve it. It’s an amazing book (one of the few math books that sold more than one million copies). Here are some of Polyia’s rules:

• Rules of discovery. The first rule of discovery is to have brains and good luck. The second rule of discovery is to sit tight and wait until you get a bright idea.
  
• Rules of style. The first rule of style is to have something to say. The second rule of style is to control yourself when, by chance, you have two things to say; say first one, then the other, not both at the same time. 
  
• Rules of teaching. The first rule of teaching is to know what you are supposed to teach. The second rule of teaching is to know a little more than what you are supposed to teach. 
  

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Prebisch biography

I just finished reading the Life and Times of Raul Prebisch and liked it a lot (I now understand UNCTAD and the UN much better, the book should be a required reading for all UN economics affair employees). 

However, I think that some of the statistics quoted in the book (especially those on the relative standing of Argentina) are wrong, but I will double check. 

Here is a review of the book by The Economist; Here is Tyler Cowen; Here are the 13 Prebisch lectures held so far.   

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Negative rates

From Greg Mankiw. The whole article is here.

The provocative idea in the article: So why shouldn’t the Fed just keep cutting interest rates? Why not lower the target interest rate to, say, negative 3 percent?  At that interest rate, you could borrow and spend $100 and repay $97 next year. This opportunity would surely generate more borrowing and aggregate demand. The problem with negative interest rates, however, is quickly apparent: nobody would lend on those terms. Rather than giving your money to a borrower who promises a negative return, it would be better to stick the cash in your mattress. Because holding money promises a return of exactly zero, lenders cannot offer less. Unless, that is, we figure out a way to make holding money less attractive. At one of my recent Harvard seminars, a graduate student proposed a clever scheme to do exactly that. (I will let the student remain anonymous. In case he ever wants to pursue a career as a central banker, having his name associated with this idea probably won’t help.) Imagine that the Fed were to announce that, a year from today, it would pick a digit from zero to 9 out of a hat. All currency with a serial number ending in that digit would no longer be legal tender. Suddenly, the expected return to holding currency would become negative 10 percent. That move would free the Fed to cut interest rates below zero. People would be delighted to lend money at negative 3 percent, since losing 3 percent is better than losing 10.

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Top Worldwide Sources of Eventual Economics Ph.D.s, 1997-2002

1. Seoul National University Korea
   
2. Harvard University USA
   
3. National Taiwan University Taiwan
   
4. University of Delhi India
   
5. University of California, Berkeley USA
   
6. Universita Commerciale "Luigi Bocconi" Italy
   
7. Yonsei University Korea
   
8. Stanford University USA
   
9. Beijing University China
   
10. Cornell University USA
    

Full data are here

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Financial innovation for dummies

From BLS

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The Olympics may be good for your exports

The Economist thinks that hosting the olympics is always a lousy deal (can't find the article with the exact quote), but Rose and Spiegel find that it may be good for trade.

Thanks to Salvatore

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Computing P/E ratios

Here

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4 trillion!

Toxic debt may reach $4 trillion. This is about $650 for each inhabitant of the planet, or about 10% of the income per capita of the planet (which is about $7,000). The income per capita of India is about $700 and that of China $1,700. 

The TOTAL income of China and India is about $3 trillion, if you add up the total income of Spain (about $1 trillion) you get to $4 trillion. (income data are 2005 GNI from the World Bank WDI). 

How much would Dr Evil ask?

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Change at the BWI

Here is Simon:

The managing director of the I.M.F. ... has always been a European... this is code for saying they will pick someone from an emerging-market country, such as India or Brazil...

To make matters more interesting, the I.M.F.’s managing director is expected by insiders to resign within a year, to resume his (promising) pursuit of the French presidency. 

How did the Obama administration pull this off....by volunteering to open up the selection process for the World Bank...which has always been run by an American. The next president of the World Bank is very likely to be Chinese.

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