Lars P. Syll

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Les dangers d’une guerre des monnaies Pour le moment, l’escalade est surtout verbale, mais elle présage le pire. En laissant – un peu – filer le yuan, lundi 5 août, Pékin a déclenché l’ire de Washington, qui a aussitôt formellement accusé la Chine de manipuler sa monnaie. Un tel reproche risque de « perturber gravement l’ordre financier international et de provoquer le chaos sur les marchés financiers », a répliqué la Chine, dès le lendemain. Les tensions...

Garrett Hardin — the man behind the ‘tragedy of the commons’ Fifty years ago, University of California professor Garrett Hardin penned an influential essay in the journal Science. Hardin saw all humans as selfish herders: we worry that our neighbors’ cattle will graze the best grass. So, we send more of our cows out to consume that grass first. We take it first, before someone else steals our share. This creates a vicious cycle of environmental degradation...

Debunking the myth of the self-made individual  [embedded content]

Top 10 Economics Blog Posts Dumb and dumber in modern macroeconomics Krugman vs Kelton on the fiscal-monetary tradeoff The wisdom of crowds How money is created Paul Samuelson — a case of badly invested intelligence Keynes’ critique of econometrics The real debt problem Is macroeconomics for real? MMT — Krugman still doesn’t get it! What is ergodicity?

Inequality within countries — getting worse or better? In a recent Twitter post, Max Roser of Our World In Data claimed that the narrative about rising inequality within countries is incorrect. Inequality has been falling in as many countries as it has been rising, he said, “which should be really embarrassing for many news stories that suggest the opposite with great certainty” … What Roser doesn’t mention in his tweet is that the Gini index used here is...

Zum 50. Todestag von Theodor W. Adorno DW: 20 Jahre nach dem Untergang des sogenannten Dritten Reichs zogen Rechtsradikale wieder in die Parlamente ein, in Deutschland die NPD. Wie erklärte Adorno den Erfolg rechtsextremistischer Philosophie? Volker Weiß: Bemerkens-werterweise sieht Adorno als Ursachen mehr die Defizite der westlichen Demokratien und weniger das Treiben der alten Nazis, die in den sechziger Jahren noch sehr präsent waren. Er wusste, dass...

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August 6, 1945 — a date which will live in infamy  [embedded content]

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