Month: September 2018

1. On dealing with oceanic plastic trash.
2. On Palwankar Baloo.
3. Andy Mukherjee on the RBI’s tough love.
4. For and against Amazon.
5. Scott Sumner on how to read.

1. On the “right” level of the rupee.
2. The Economist at 175. An essay worth perusing, and savoring.
3. I’m currently reading (and thoroughly enjoying) Ruminations of a Gadfly, by Deena Khatkate.
4. Some scepticism about AI.
5. The blind men and the elephant.

1. On regulating the state, a conversation worth having.
2. On the need for more policy economists.
3. On Abdus Salam.
4. Shruthi Rajagopalan’s answer to this question on Twitter was Dr. Ambedkar, by the way.
5. Reform in electricity sector is all about getting the politics right

1. Barry Eichengreen, whi knows a thing or two about monetary systems, on cryptocurrencies.
2. FT Alphaville on wage growth, or the lack of it (Economics is Hard)
3. If you’re looking for a headache, try thinking about quarternions.
4. The slow creep to the right.
5. Worth reading, and worth disagreeing with, in my opinion.

1. Brad DeLong worries (as should all of us) about climate change.
2. I’m (very) late to the party, but just in case you haven’t heard of Google Data Search just yet.
3. After you read yesterday’s Noah Smith piece, you may want to read this, by Stephen Gordon. (Economics is Hard).
4. Excellent advice for our day and age.
5. Speaking of which…

1. Noah Smith on the challenge of monopolies (the chart on rising per capita corporate profits and hourly compensation is quite interesting)
2. On why we should (now and forever) read Adam Smith.
3. On the evolving nature of international trading agreements.
4. Speaking of which…
5. You might want to learn more about WeWork.

1. What happened in September 2008? Bookmark this link, even if you don’t understand all of it right away. Stare at the charts, and in particular the timeline on page 3 of the PDF. Watch “The Inside Job”, “Too Big to Fail”, “Margin Call”, and “The Big Short” and then come back and look at the charts and the timeline again. Repeat this exercise a couple of times to understand what happened in 2008.
2. Alright, so that’s what happened. What should we learn from September 2008?
3. Has India learnt from the crisis? This article says no.
4. Not all consequences of the 2008 crisis were financial.
5. What about the next time it hits? Are we ready better prepared?

1. Wanting India to be more like China might have consequences.
2. On rethinking “Econ 101“.
3. CapitalMind has become a good place to search for books I’d like to add to my reading list, especially from the field of finance. Here is one such review. Note that I haven’t read the book yet!
4. A useful (which usually and also in this case means practical) way to learn about dollarization.
5. Assam is a complicated story.

1. Are the economists listening? If you’ve heard about the mobile phone and Kerala fishermen paper, this might make for good reading. Also see this.
2. Practice matters, and is underrated.
3. Climate change will hurt poorer countries more. Duh.
4.  The youngest continent.
5. On the origins of ludo

1. Not all startups need VC money.
2. Freelancers on the internet could do with a bit more money.
3. Money makes us all happier.
4. Too much of it could be a bad thing, though.
5. Should we use money to value companies?

 

A suggested soundtrack to enjoy along with today’s links.