Here are the weekend's links on the world, economics and a bit more relaxing off-topic reading.
Previously
on MoreLiver’s:
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EUROPE
Rise of
Extreme Political Parties * Aging Population* Susceptibility to External Shocks
* Labor Mobility & Capital Mobility * Asymmetric Adjustment * Great Recession
Response * Eurozone isn't a Fiscal Union * Banking Union: The Eurozone's
Stumbling Block * Political Union — And Democratic Legitimacy in the Eurozone
Eurozone
fiscal policy - still not getting it – Simon
Wren-Lewis
The
European Union has taken democratic integration – driven by the free will of
its members, rather than military force – to unprecedented levels, securing its
place at the forefront of institutional innovation. But today, sentiment in the
EU seems to lean toward “conflict," rather than “cooperation."
Andrés
Velasco: The Perilous Politics of the Euro – Project
Syndicate
Bad
economics easily turns into bad politics. Owing to its flawed design, the
common currency now threatens to abort the very project of political union that
it was meant to advance.
Italy’s labour market: Marching to a
different tune – The
Economist
Spanish
politics: Ghosts at the feast – The
Economist
U.K. Election Preview – BCA
Sweden: Swedish economy grows swiftly – Nordea
GREECE
Should
other countries worry about a reduced Greek primary surplus target? – Bruegel
Greece Should Ponder the Benefits of
Devaluation – PIIE
Greece’s Pension System Isn’t That
Generous After All – WSJ
Greece and the euro: Doing the splits – The
Economist
Jean
Pisani-Ferry: The Costs of Grexit – Project
Syndicate
EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK
Euro
inflation set to increase in February - but to remain in deflation – Danske
Bank
Vítor
Constâncio: Central banks with large balance sheets (slides) – ECB
ECB’s
Constancio Sees Stock of €4 Trillion Eligible for QE Purchases – WSJ
UNITED STATES
Q4 GDP
Revised
Down to 2.2% Annual Rate – Calculated
Risk
Revised
Down To 2.2% From 5.0%: Full Breakdown – ZH
Takeaways
from the Revised GDP – WSJ
Economists
React ‘The Underlying Picture Remains Good’ – WSJ
FINNISH
Saatavalliset säkeet – Allan Seuri
Suomen valtio voisi ottaa eläkerahastojen varat ja maksaa
niillä pois valtionvelan. Velkaantumisongelma olisi ratkaistu, mutta mistä ne
eläkkeet sitten maksettaisiin?
Suhteellisten hintojen muutos ja deflaatio – Roger
Wessman
SOININVAARA
Hallitus historian huonoin – demarit lytätään täysin – MTV
Suomi menettänyt kriisissä yli sata miljardia euroa –
"tuki Kreikalle vähäisiä ropoja" – MTV
Varoittaa Sipilän kelkkaan hyppääviä: Eduskuntaan tulee mukana
59 aitoa kepulaista – MTV
Tämä kaikki mättää poliittisessa päätöksenteossa – MTV
EU
”Kreikka ei tule maksamaan velkojaan” – TE
”Jos olisin poliitikko, niin en suin surminkaan haluaisi
katsoa totuutta silmiin juuri nyt”, sanoo professori Vesa Puttonen
EU ja Kreikan kriisi – YLE
Taloustieteen professori Hannu Laurila Tampereen
Yliopistosta keskustelee Kreikan talouden ja talouspolitiikan suhteesta EU:n
talouteen ja talouspolitiikkaan. Professori Hannu Laurila on johtamansa
työryhmän kanssa kääntänyt viime kesänä suomeksi ilmestyneen Kreikan uuden
valtiovarainministerin Yanis Varoufakisin tekeman kirjan Maailmantalouden
minotaurus. Ohjelmassa puhutaan myös siitä, minkälaisia ovat tuossa kirjassa
esitetyt talouspoliittiset ajatukset.
Uutisanalyysi: Kohti Kreikan kolmatta tukipakettia – Verkkouutiset
Kreikka-teatteri ei pääty vielä vuosikausiin, vaikka maa
saakin tukipaketin määräajan pidennyksen.
EU ja terrorin uhat – YLE
Terrorismista ja sen torjunnan keinoista EU:ssa keskustelee
yliopistonlehtori Leena Malkki Helsingin yliopiston Eurooppa-tutkimuksen
verkostosta
Vasemmistopolitiikkaa EU:ssa – Yle
Europarlamentaarikko Merja Kyllönen keskustelee siitä mitä
asioita hänen ryhmänsä ja hän itse EU:ssa ajavat ja siitä miltä vasemmiston
tilanne vaikuttaa Kreikassa ja muissa EU-jäsenmaissa.
OFF-TOPIC
Shareholder
letter 2014 – Berkshire Hathaway
Irving
Kahn, Investor Who Profited in ’29 Crash, Dies at 109 – BB
Antoine
Deltour sees himself as “just a little auditor” who copied some tax files. Now
he may face jail after those documents helped send a shock wave through Luxembourg that is reverberating across the
European Union.
The unit
will create trading algorithms that make predictions based on historical data
and statistical probabilities, said the person, who asked not to be identified
because the information is private. The programs will learn as markets change
and adapt to new information, as opposed to those that follow static
instructions.
When he was
seven years old, Max-Hervé George was given a magic ticket by his father. It
lets him turn back the clock, to invest with perfect hindsight week after week,
steadily accumulating a fortune. The ticket is a life insurance contract and Mr
George, now 25, has fought for years in the French courts to preserve its
magic.
Mass
extinctions: Did dark matter do in the dinosaurs? – The
Economist
One
scientific mystery may have caused another
In 1971,
William Powell published The Anarchist Cookbook, a guide to making bombs and
drugs at home. He spent the next four decades fighting to take it out of print.
How to
make people listen –
FT
‘Anyone with anything to sell needs a
story . . . but the first thing to grasp is that the person you’re trying to
persuade is bored with you already’
The Key
to Facebook’s Productivity – WSJ
CIO Timothy
Campos says the secret is custom-built software tools
Extreme
left and right voters far more likely to believe in conspiracy theories – Europp
/ LSE
Outing
A.I.: Beyond the Turing Test – NYT
A mature
A.I. is not necessarily a humanlike intelligence, or one that is at our
disposal. If we look for A.I. in the wrong ways, it may emerge in forms that
are needlessly difficult to recognize, amplifying its risks and retarding its
benefits.
Google
Invents an AI System That Plays Video Games on Its Own – BB
A
generation ago, a tool unleashed the power of business modeling — and created
the entrepreneurial boom that has transformed our economy
Ahead of a
retrospective, the German director talks about the draw of the US throughout his 50 years of
film-making
HSBC,
the bank that ran aground while overseas – FT
To anyone
who witnessed its rise to become a global bank, the entire thing is baffling
Henry
Miller on the Mystery of the Universe and the Meaning of Life – Brain
Pickings
“This is the greatest damn thing about the
universe. That we can know so much, recognize so much, dissect, do everything,
and we can’t grasp it.”
TERRORISM
Islam and
extremism: Looking within – The
Economist
UK puts 3,000 extremists on ‘Jihadi
John’ watchlist – FT
ECONOMICS
Credit
supply and the housing boom – vox
The
fundamental factor behind that boom was an increase in the supply of mortgage
credit. This rise was brought about by the diffusion of securitisation and
shadow banking, and by a surge in foreign capital inflows.
The
failure of macroeconomics – Frances
Coppola
Can
helicopter money be democratic? – Simon
Wren-Lewis
The
Asymmetric Effects of Deflation on Consumption Spending: Evidence from the
Great Depression – FED
The
Global Component of Local Inflation: Revisiting the Empirical Content of the
Global Slack Hypothesis with Bayesian Methods – FED
Bank and
Sovereign Risk Feedback Loops – FED
Nobody
understands that nobody understands supply and demand – Scott Sumner
Fiscal
multipliers in downturns and the effects of Eurozone consolidation – vox
DEBATE
[2010] Long
and Variable LEADS – Scott
Sumner
Market
monetarists and the ‘myth’ of long and variable lags – Tony
Yates
Long and
variable leads (a reply to Tony Yates) – Scott Sumner
DEBATE II
Central
banks are straying from their own dominion into political territory – FT
One wrong
Sentance after another – Tony
Yates