The graph above comes from Is US economic growth over? Faltering innovation confronts the six headwinds by Robert J Gordon. He points out that growth of GDP in the UK between 1300 and 1750 was extremely low, and the growth … Continue reading
I came across these two postings on the internet yesterday evening: Italy – Europe’s Next Debt Casualty? Using a 2011 GDP of €1.826 trillion from the CIA World Factbook, Italy’s 2011 debt-to-GDP rings in at just over 132 percent, just … Continue reading
When we tell friends in the UK that property prices in Germany have been essentially flat since we have been here (1980) and that we actually lost money on two out of three property investments we made between 1982 and … Continue reading
I had been asking myself how on earth the Greeks could have amassed debt of €30 million per citizen until last night talking to someone in German (and using “Milliarden” the German for US-billions) I realized I had been working … Continue reading
The Daily Telegraph, yesterday: Euro bail-out in doubt as ‘hysteria’ sweeps Germany German Chancellor Angela Merkel no longer has enough coalition votes in the Bundestag to secure backing for Europe’s revamped rescue machinery, threatening a consitutional crisis in Germany and … Continue reading
Ronald Sherman, the president of the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, which represents 28 large fleet owners, said he had seen would-be taxi passengers ignore Chevrolet Malibu or Ford Escape cabs, opting for a longer wait in order to grab … Continue reading
If global warming hasn’t frightened your socks off yet, then take a look at these two news items: 1. The UK is likely to run out of soil in the next 60 years. Other countries are similarly affected: An estimated … Continue reading
Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, gave a speech at the University of Exeter this week. He uses an example of “Sudoku for Economists” (pdf file, 47 kB) to illustrate why the mess the world economy is … Continue reading
I noticed an article in the Daily Mail today about what Spanish air traffic controllers earn (here). I thought that must be typical exaggeration by the popular press, but decided to see if I find out what they “really” earn. … Continue reading
Wal-Mart gave up trying to compete in Germany in 2006, unable to compete effectively against Aldi and Lidl. Nonetheless, I was surprised to read in the latest Harvard Business Review (link to a summary of the article), that six German … Continue reading