After a full day (0930 to 1930) doing interviewing for the local Labour party, and after getting a late dinner and going out for a walk with the dogs, it was time to unwind, reading a bit of the book I just started. I turned the page and the top of the next page started […]
Entries Tagged as 'Economics'
Laffer spotting
August 4th, 2014 · Comments Off on Laffer spotting · Politics
I had a real surprise the other day. I was watching Sky News and they had an interview with Arthur Laffer, the bloke who has that curve named after him. For some reason I had always just assumed that the Laffer curve, and by implication Laffer himsef, were a lot less recent than that. I […]
Thihnking Fast and Slow
August 19th, 2012 · Comments Off on Thihnking Fast and Slow · Life
Another book I recently finished is Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. It is another one of those books that occupies the intersection of psychology and economics, so if you liked Nudge, Freakonomics, The Wisdom of Crowds, Predictably Irrational, The Black Swan or any of the other many similar books you will probably love […]
Olympics serendipity #1
July 29th, 2012 · Comments Off on Olympics serendipity #1 · Life
This week I have been reading Soccernomics by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski. It is a reprint of Why England Lose, with some revisions and updating and a title change to make it sound a bit more like the very successful Freakonomics book. It is a good read, covering all sorts of aspects of football […]
Economical enigma
July 13th, 2012 · Comments Off on Economical enigma · Life
I’m reading another of those books that covers the overlap between psychology and economics and so I’m awash with terms like cognitive ease, utility, prospect theory and regression to the mean but I’ve just realised that my own behaviour says something about perception of value. Maybe by the time I’ve finished the book I will […]
A Laffer minute
March 22nd, 2012 · Comments Off on A Laffer minute · Politics
I’m no economist. I have same ability to predict the future as economists (i.e. none) but I am disqualified as an economist because I know that I can’t predict the future. Also I don’t trust the Laffer curve. It seems to me to be a bit like the Bible – quoted by both sides of […]
The Irish economic miracle
November 16th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Politics
Two little quotes from the news. First, an article in the Times, written in 2006 by George Osborne. It starts: A generation ago, the very idea that a British politician would go to Ireland to see how to run an economy would have been laughable. The Irish Republic was seen as Britain’s poor and troubled […]
Union Atlantic
August 24th, 2010 · Comments Off on Union Atlantic · Life
I recently finished reading Union Atlantic, a debut novel by Adam Haslett – another book from Amazon’s Vine programme. I was a bit underwhelmed by it.
As recommended by economists
February 20th, 2010 · 6 Comments · Politics
I am starting to lose track of what all these economists are saying. First we have 20 of them writing to the Sunday Times to say that the Tory policies of spending cuts is the only way forward, then another 67 economists write to the FT to say that policy would be a disaster. I […]
Tags: Economics
Less than super freakonomics
October 28th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Life
After getting past the mental stumbling block of Snark I whipped through Superfreakonomics in no time at all. This was another book I received through Amazon’s Vine programme free in return for a review. I had read the authors’ first book, Freakonomics, and greatly enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately […]
