Deflation the symptom, Demographics & Debt the disease; Default the cure?
You should fear deflation, or so the story goes, as it puts a brake on the economy: In a deflationary environment, people expect the same amount of money to be worth […]
You should fear deflation, or so the story goes, as it puts a brake on the economy: In a deflationary environment, people expect the same amount of money to be worth […]
Have you ever wondered why it’s become so difficult to open, or even just simply operate, a bank account these days? Why your bank treats you in a way that […]
Another little game theory for you: People behave differently in polls than in actual elections. Polls have only signalling value, while votes have a definite outcome. When you vote you have […]
Part 1: Why Big Data can spell Big Trouble Confusing significant-looking results with meaningful results in statistics, and how this gets worse in the age of Big Data is […]
[note: this is the original post. There is an important update at the bottom; sadly the event was not ‘real’, but I leave the text here for some time for […]
Punchy title, eh? But when there’s something nobody talks about, but everyone agrees when I mention it, it scares me. So here it is. In the aftermath of the financial […]
When internet-shopping, you can’t look your retailer in the eye. You lose a deeply intuitive (and largely effective) indicator of whether you and your seller are a good match. So […]
The title of this post is not a political statement, but will simply be a statistical truth, if the not-so-recent revelations lead to a step away from “just-in-case” wholesale data collection […]
Forget Big Data. Here is the Next Big Thing in computing. First, the central fact: We are hitting the physical limits of processor speed. This ought to reset your expectations of future […]
Fighting Entropy takes Energy (photo: Printemps, flickr) Can we give hard currency to the terms ‘renewable’ and ‘sustainable’? An excellent book by Guy Deutscher, a physicist from Tel Aviv University, […]
The idea of applying game theory to the debt ceiling debate isn’t exactly new. In fact, I did exactly that, back in March. The FT just ran an article on […]
My opinions on the EU-11 Financial Transactions tax have been reported extensively in this blog, in May, April, and February this year. The legal advisor to EU finance ministers — the “Council legal service” […]
Chatting with one of Europe’s former central bankers recently, we discussed how Cyprus could have been handled differently, and what it all means for European banking integration and deposit insurance. […]
If nations care about food security, their first concern should be sustainability of freshwater supplies. Here is the logic: The world’s fresh water supply is largely inaccessible for water production: […]
Moody’s is putting Greece on credit watch negative because of the threat to government stability following the unilateral shock decision to dissolve the government broadcaster ERT in its current form […]
Greece, at alarming speed, is digging itself into an ever deeper political hole. The government, or more precisely the Nea Demokratia faction of it, shut down Greece’s national broadcaster on six […]
Is finding a solution to Global Warming really like solving a Prisoner’s Dilemma? Most real-world problems of cooperation and coordination, even if they are said to be one, are really […]
In an old post, I speculated that the EU transaction tax (FTT) will quietly go away. I feel endorsed now that Mervin King hints that Europe would use delaying tactics to kick […]
My blog has been silent for a while, as I got ready to speak in Bangalore, India, where my friends at AMBA put on a great conference on offshore outsourcing […]
We should envy the UK for having the House of Lords! For they have given us a useful reminder of the consequences of an ageing society. But, like most such […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.