Continue to follow me

You can now follow me on ECIPE’s Trade Matters Blog

To see what I am currently up to, do once and a while have a look at the regularly updated Publications page of this blog.

And no, not Twitter for now …:)

Time to let loose – Temps de lâcher prise

I think the time has come to come clean and admit it publicly: the time of this blog is over. I have come a long way since this blog started in November 2006.

Sometimes, finance rocks

Forget about the global crisis a moment.

Ever thought that the guy who runs this austere blog on Chinese finance (see this post), also has an extravagant Beijing rock impresario? Well, yes, it’s possible. 

We need more of those relaxed people in the international economics/finance commentariat!

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Some self-criticism from economists

In the current crisis, the economics profession is thinking about some of its failures to anticipate and grasp the underlying developments leading up to the current financial and economic crisis. A top international political economist, Daron Acemoglu, from the MIT, published an insightful and very thoughful paper over at the Centre for Economic policy Research, entitled “The crisis of 2008: structural lessons for an from economics“.

Sample of a video-audio week-end: US facing its crisis, Russian affairs, Pascal Lamy.

This blog is written by a nerd-of-sorts who hardly ever watches online videos, is still not quite familiar with YouTube, and loves one means of transmitting information above all others:  the written word. This week-end, however, I’ve decided to prioritize listening and watching. A small sample of my audio-video tour:

Aftermath of the Georgia war by Amnesty International: here. (thanks to James over at the Robert Amsterdam blog).

The US debating how to deal with Russia – CNN interview hosted by Fareed Zakaria (thanks again to the Robert Amsterdam  blog…)

Howard Rosen from The Peterson Institute in Washington on how to adapt US unemployment benefit schemes to the reality of today’s workforce. Here. To back up this interview with some written text, I do recommend to read Rosen’s latest Policy Brief on the matter.

The US is handling crisis anxiety. Obama unveiled his big plans yesterday. Here. Some more details and background (in written form…;-)) here.

And, for French speakers: Pascal Lamy, the Secretary-General of the WTO, hosting some diplomatic meetings this week-end in Geneva on a potential, highly hypothetical conclusion of a Doha Round deal, spoke to French radio (France Culture) yesterday morning. One of the questions debated was whether global finace could be regulated following a governance model similar to the WTO (oh my….! do we need a financial dispute settlement body?). No answer of course, but a few interesting thoughts tailored to a French audience on the difference between opening markets and regulating markets.

Comment of the day

Why blog? French exercise in auto-psychoanalysis.

Bon, allez, cette fois-ci je me lance. Taguée une première fois, je n’ai pas vraiment donné suite. Ce soir, histoire de procrastiner sur un dossier lourd au travail, je réponds à la question,

Nouveaux venus dans la blogosphère

Bravo à l’équipe de Cécile Philippe, Directrice de l’Institut Economique Molinari (IEM), petit think tank français qui fait son petit bonhomme de chemin et qui promeut de bonnes idées économiques. La popularisation de ces idées va certainement franchir un seuil important avec leur attribution d’un blog au Journal du Dimanche et à La Provence.

Cécile Philippe est auteur d’un livre sur comment protéger l’environnement par le marché, « C’est trop tard pour la terre », édité chez Lattès.

US, heal thyself?

The UK’s Miliband just cautioned the US Democratic candidates against taking a protectionist turn… But the US’s ills do not so much seem to lie in imports from China,  rather in its healthcare system.

Short follow-up, therefore, on my previous post and Krugman’s justified if ill-interpreted obsession with the healthcare system. Clive Crook in the FT has a good piece today on a new book by Ezekiel Emanuel, Healthcare Guaranteed.

Crook’s article starts thus:

“In US public policy, all roads lead to healthcare. Remorseless pressure on public spending? Blame Medicare. Economic insecurity? Fear of losing health benefits is a chief cause. Stagnant wages and worsening inequality? Look to the cost of employer-provided insurance. “

Blogging pause

A set of circumstances leads me to not being able to blog regularly in the coming months. Hope to be back again as soon as I can…..