The Recession Dating Game

The point at which the economy stops growing is called the "peak", and the point at which it stops contracting, the "trough". The period from the point at which the economy starts to grow again until the point at which it reaches the previous peak is called the "recovery". Thereafter, growth is labeled an "expansion".

Michael Boskin

McDonalds-ization of cannabis

"The Oakland city council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to set up and license four major marijuana factories in the financially strapped California city. [...] The factories would also produce marijuana for medical purposes, cannabis body oil, and baked goods"

Source: Slate

Double Dip? Seven Reasons Why Not

Milton Ezrati offers seven reasons why the Double-Dip scenario is unlikely.

1. The Consumer Seems Firm Enough
2. Housing Data Are Misleading on Two Sides
3. Business Spending and Exports Are Awfully Strong for a Dip
4. Overall Production Levels Look Fairly Good, Too
5. Employment Does Not Look Threatening, Either
6. Financial Markets Are Healthier Than the Headlines Imply
7. China Continues to Grow

Nouriel Roubini recommended: "Fasten your seat belts for the very bumpy ride"

"as the optimists' delusional hopes for a rapid V-shaped recovery evaporate, the advanced world will be at best in a long U-shaped recovery, which in some cases – the eurozone and Japan – may be long enough to stretch into an L-shaped near-depression. Avoiding double dip recession will be difficult."

"[R]ecovery in emerging markets - the great hope for the global economy - will suffer, because no country is an island economically. Indeed, growth in many emerging-markets - starting with China - is highly dependent on retrenching advanced economies."

Confidence Bugaboo

In his Communist Manifesto, Marx went on to say that it is "high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the specter of Communism with a Manifesto of the party itself." Similarly, it would be nice if markets would clarify what they mean by "confidence" so that we would all know what we are really dealing with.

Rodrik

Taming Finance / Inequality & Crisis

Taming Finance in an Age of Austerity by Stiglitz

How Inequality Fueled the Crisis by Rajan

El Fútbol es una Guerra

"El Fútbol es una oportunidad de vivir la emoción del combate sin arriesgar mucho más que unos cuantos huesos quebrados" - Ian Bruma

Cuéntame

Are those items cute?

"That $3 pair of adorable lace-up sandals? The price – given the human costs – really is too good to be true" by Naomi Wolf