Low taxes do not attract investment
It appears that cutting corporate taxes does not make a country more attractive to investors. I do not find this surprising. The long term benefits of the right government expenditure (on education, infrastructure and health, for example) are obvious. So why are governments so keen on tax cuts? (more…)
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Can Woolworths recover?
I have never liked Woolworths, with its weak brand, unfocused retail format, and uncertain wholesale business. Now, at a time when things could not look worse, I am changing my mind. (more…)
Silliest blog post
This has got to be one of the silliest statements ever made on any of the blogs I read regularly. (more…)
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So much for free speech
I do not normally blog on American politics, but this deserves attention. A former professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton, who has also been a US Marine colonel and who has been injured in action and decorated, is on a terrorist watch list. This is apparently that he has publicly criticised George Bush. This is not an isolated incident. (more…)
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The future of newspapers
Judging by this interview, it appears that at least one major investor in newspapers in the US is over-optimistic about the impact of the internet. It reflects the same problem as the trends we have seen in British newspaper circulation. (more…)
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Technology subverts more markets
It looks like it is not just consumers who are unable to make informed rational decisions when faced with technology. It appears that Indian cotton farmers have a similar problem when faced with choosing GM seed varieties. In this case as they would clearly wish to choose according to rational criteria, but they cannot.
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Innumerate Polly
Anyone even vague numerate reading this article by Polly Toynbee would would have probably spotted where it went wrong. It is very hard to read it without thinking “surely that £5bn must be a reccuring annual amount whereas as she is comparing it to one off amounts”. David Smith confirms that this is the case. (more…)
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Is The Economist still worth reading?
This post on The Economist’s rather bizarre liking for the Bush government (found via Brad DeLong’s post) only highlights what is wrong with The Economist. While it is still often better than the competition, but nothing like as good as it once was.
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Where’s the perfect competition?
This post at Economist’s View touches on a problem that bothers me. The assumption by economists and policy makers that markets are competitive and efficient. (more…)
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Free market hypocrisy: Part 2
My previous post on hypocrisy about free markets may given the impression that I am opposed to free markets. My problem is not with free markets per se, but with inconsistency and hypocrisy in advocating them, and with regarding free markets as a panacea. (more…)
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