Setelinleikkaus: When Finns snipped their cash in half to curb inflation

On the last day of 1945, with World War II finally behind it, Finland’s government announced a new and very strange policy.All Finns were required  to take out a pair of scissors and snip their banknotes in half. This was known in Finland as setelinleikkaus, or banknote cutting. Anyone who owned any of the three…

Setelinleikkaus: When Finns snipped their cash in half to curb inflation

Trump’s victory: Golden age or fiscal reckoning?

Oliver Hartwich writes –  In his victory speech, Donald Trump promised Americans a new “golden age”. While he had the numbers to win the election, the economic realities he faces will make delivering on his promise challenging.   Trump’s victory reflects many Americans’ frustrations with living standards and inflation during the Biden-Harris administration. Vice President Kamala […]

Trump’s victory: Golden age or fiscal reckoning?

Environmental Levies To Cost £108 Billion By 2029/30

By Paul Homewood   The OBR is very explicit about the new budget!! Spending up by £70 billion (so much for “black holes”!), tax up by £36 billion and borrowing by £32 billion.   https://obr.uk/ But the bit we are concerned with is their updated projections for Environmental Levies, aka subsidies for renewable energy.

Environmental Levies To Cost £108 Billion By 2029/30

Creative destruction

Reeves to make Bank of England put climate change and growth on equal footing

By Paul Homewood So much for the Bank’s much vaunted independence!     Rachel Reeves is planning to make the Bank of England take climate change as seriously as growth, as the Chancellor seeks to use her maiden Budget to overhaul the economy. In a letter to Governor Andrew Bailey on Wednesday, Ms Reeves is […]

Reeves to make Bank of England put climate change and growth on equal footing

Biden-Harris policies and their consequences were no surprise to those paying attention

Milton Friedman used to advise researchers to focus on large policy changes rather than attempting to separate a small change’s signal from the noise. In this sense, the “ambitious” policy agenda of the Biden-Harris administration was expected to be a gift to the research community. Accepting this gift, since 2020 I have been making forecasts…

Biden-Harris policies and their consequences were no surprise to those paying attention

The Shinkansen and Japan’s Lost Decades

Japan is known for many things, but two of them are the Shinkansen high-speed trains and the nation’s three Lost Decades of slow economic growth. Unfortunately, most tourists who go to Japan see the former and don’t see the latter and especially don’t see the connection between the two. The … Continue reading →

The Shinkansen and Japan’s Lost Decades

The Puzzle of Japan’s Economy: When Productivity Gains Are Outside National Borders

In total size, Japan’s economy is fourth-largest in the world, just behind Germany for third-largest. In per capita GDP, Japan is ahead of Spain and South Korea, although well behind Italy and France. With a life expectancy at birth of 84 years, ,Japan has one of the highest levels in the world. Clearly, Japan has…

The Puzzle of Japan’s Economy: When Productivity Gains Are Outside National Borders

Scott Alexander on the Progress Studies conference

Here is one excerpt: Over-regulation was the enemy at many presentations, but this wasn’t a libertarian conference. Everyone agreed that safety, quality, the environment, etc, were important and should be regulated for. They just thought existing regulations were colossally stupid, so much so that they made everything worse including safety, the environment, etc. With enough political will, […]

Scott Alexander on the Progress Studies conference

Reflections on India

I’m back from my first trip to India, where I visited Mumbai, Delhi, Agra, and Amritsar. I enjoyed fine company in all four cities. In Mumbai, my new friend Sachin Aggarwal, head of the local EconTalk Club, rolled out the red carpet — and ACX Mumbai joined the festivities. (Thank you, Scott Alexander, for creating…

Reflections on India

Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson Win Nobel Prize for Institutions and Prosperity

The Nobel prize goes to Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson for their work on institutions, prosperity, and economic growth. Here is a key piece summarizing their work: Institutions as a Fundamental Cause of Long-Run Growth. This paper develops the empirical and theoretical case that differences in economic institutions are the fundamental cause of […]

Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson Win Nobel Prize for Institutions and Prosperity

US Productivity Growth: Downside, Upside

Over time, a rising US standard of living is driven by productivity growth. Michael Peters succinctly describes the problem in “America Must Rediscover Its Dynamism” (Finance & Development, September 2024). He writes: The US economy has a multitrillion-dollar problem. It’s the dramatic slowdown in productivity growth over the past couple of decades. Between 1947 and…

US Productivity Growth: Downside, Upside

Inquiring into banking

Hard on the heels of the Commerce Commission’s inquiry into some aspects of banking competition, Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee is also holding an inquiry. Submissions weren’t open for very long and have now closed, but the full terms of reference are here. It is a select committee inquiry, so it is hard to be […]

Inquiring into banking

Canada Is Part of the Anti-Convergence Club

Economists widely agree with the theory of “convergence,” which is the (mostly true) idea that poor nations should grow faster than rich nations as they catch up (converge). But there are exceptions. Sometimes a richer country will grow faster than a poorer country over a significant period of time, and we can learn from these examples. This is […]

Canada Is Part of the Anti-Convergence Club

Another zero lower bound prediction bites the dust

Popular New Keynesian macroeconomic models predict that cuts in various types of distortionary taxes are contractionary when monetary policy is constrained at the zero lower bound. We turn to a long span of history in the United Kingdom to test this hypothesis. Using a new long-run dataset of narrative-identified tax changes from 1918to 2020, we […]

Another zero lower bound prediction bites the dust

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