Alan Greenspan’s The Age of Turbulence contains a chapter titled The Modes of Capitalism which is full of revelations which Mr. Greenspan unfortunately failes to recognize. The chapter describes the various forms Capitalism has taken in a number of countries, mostly North American and European. Of course, that such various forms of Capitalism have been implemented in different countries is not news. But what Mr. Greenspan fails to notice is that similar chapters could not be written about physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, astronomy, physiology, botany, astronomy, etc. but could easily be written about Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and even astrology. The point is, science does not have sects, but ideologies do. Of course, economists shun the word sect, preferring instead the euphemism school in an attempt to gloss over the non-scientific nature of economics. Mr. Greenspan’s modes of Capitalism are nothing more than sects, and no endeavor that is comprised of sects is a science.

Mr. Greenspan’s attempts to explain the existence of these sects begins to reveal just how unscientific economists can be. He writes, “To me, the degree of willingness to take risks is in the end, the major defining characteristic that separates countries into the various (more…)

It is not the end…yet. Dark clouds of recession are certainly hovering around the financial horizon. The economic indicators point towards a downtrend in business, which means problems for real estate investors, job seekers and what have you. Gas prices have hit an all time high. It is certainly time to prepare for a rainy day.

Banks are reeling under subprime losses. Real estate seems so unreal. The U.S. Government is finally seeing red in their economic predictions. What options do individuals, investors and regular employees have in this economy? What should small businesses do to prepare for the recession? Certainly none of us can afford to take things lightly.

Survival tips for employees

Recession means the axe will fall on the employees first. What we are going to witness is an exodus of sorts. Keeping our job intact will itself be a full time job. The best advice during recession is to find ways to make yourself indispensable. You should take on some more work load which ultimately would mean savings for the company. Your job would pay for itself and would make sound financial sense. It is another matter that someone else’s job would become (more…)

For most of the past 300 years or so Ireland has had the dubious distinction of being a country more known for the hardships suffered by its inhabitants than for its beautiful countryside. While people in other parts of the United Kingdom and in Europe enjoyed a relatively high standard of living Ireland lagged far behind. Up until the early 1970’s the average income in Ireland was approximately one half of that of the rest of the UK. Over the next 35 years that status would change dramatically.

Today Ireland is rated one of the best countries in the world in which to live. Ireland boasts the fourth highest gross domestic product per person and very low unemployment. University tuition is free and there are a high percentage of skilled positions available.

How did Ireland accomplish such a dramatic turnaround?

New Economic Policies

Economists who have analyzed the emergence of the “Celtic Tiger” (a popular nickname for this period of unprecedented economic growth) have identified economic policies that encouraged growth. Beginning in the 50’s and 60”s Ireland began to shift away from protectionism and started to plan long-term for expansion and to increase international trade. (more…)

Economic Justice and Democratization of Economy to create Ideal Society

By
Prof Viswanathan,
Director,
International Socio-Economic Research Bureau
(E Mail Id : economist@dataone.in)

DECLARATION OF JUSTICE AND HUMAN RIGHTS

We, the people of all the countries, in harmony with the sovereignty of the Universal Justice hold these truths to be self-evident that every creator has inalienable ‘Right to Ownership’ on his creations and the Natural laws empowers the creators that only he should use his creations exclusively for the welfare and uplift of the human society as a whole, in which he is an inseparable member.

We declare with all judicial power derived from Natural laws that among all creations of man, his creation of capital alone has enormous ‘economic power’ capable of transforming all the socio-economic-political structures and reconstitute them to suit the aspirations of the owners of capital.

We further declare in unequivocal terms since the capital is created by the collective labor of the people as a whole it should be directly owned by the people and then only the people would secure equal ‘Economic power’ and requisite ‘Fundamental Economic Rights’ with which they could establish (more…)

Panic and fear are everywhere in early 2008. An economic recession in the United States is now the topic on everyone’s mind. Most of the world’s stock markets have already lost more than twenty percent of their value in the last couple of months. This dramatic drop in stock market values signals a new bear market for domestic and international equities.

Many pundits on the financial channels blame Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke for this economic downturn. The belief is that the Fed did not lower interest rates enough in response to the housing lenders sub prime mortgage problems in 2007. Indeed the massive write-off’s of bad loans by Citibank and other mortgage lenders are enough to give anyone pause.

Recently, to head off an economic downturn, the Bush administration proposed an economic stimulus package of tax rebates to increase the consumers’ ability to spend. Consumer spending is vital for the United States to avoid a prolonged economic downturn. The Congress (which is now back in session) has promised fast bi-partisan consideration to that stimulus package as soon as possible. Giving back taxpayers their money, without having to cut government spending, is what politicians love to (more…)

Haven’t heard of evolutionary economics? It’s not surprising. This is a new area of study that looks into the biological and evolutionary forces that shape our economic decisions. It is related to behavioral economics, another discipline you don’t hear much about.

The behavioral perspective is more about describing what we do, while the evolutionary perspective is all about hypothesizing why we do it. For example, let’s look at an experiment that economists call the “Ultimatum Game.” It is typically played with two subjects.

The pair is given $100 to split between them. Player one is allowed to propose any division of the money. He can suggest that he gets $75, for example, while the other “player” gets $25. Whatever he proposes, Player two can say yes or no, and then each will get his or her designated share, or he can say no, in which case neither gets a penny.

Now, if you understood what was just explained, you can see that rationally, player two should always say yes. After all, even if the split proposed is $95 and $5, the $5 is still better than nothing, right? Financially speaking, there is nothing to be gained by (more…)

“India is shining” and “India is rising” are the slogans by various political parties in India to highlight  the achievements of the economic reforms initiated in India in 1991.The economic reforms initiated in 1991 are also known as the new economic policy-1991.These reforms were initiated by then prime minister late sri P.V.Narasimha rao under the finance minister ship of the present prime minister,sri.Dr.Manmohan Singh.These reforms were initiated with the hope of transformimg India into a developed nation from a developing nation.The economic growth and economic development of a nation depend on the economic policies of the government,the availability of natural resources,the quality and the quantity of the population,the availability of efficient technology and the availability of credit and proficient and efficient management.In other words these are also known as the factors of production,viz Land,Labour,Capital and Organisation.Economic growth is defined as the increase in the per capita availability of goods and services,and the economic development means the overlall development of a nation including the improvements in infrastructural facilities such as the economical and social infrastructural facilities.    

 
                                     At present there are:1.Cars from different foreign countries plying on the Indian roads,2.Different  new retail stores like reliance,spencers,etc.,3.Several private airlines operators like jet,King fisher,Airdeccan,Paramount,Sahara etc 4.Many TV channels like BBC,Zee,Etv,Gemini,Teja,Maa Tv,Sony TV, (more…)

As anglers, I doubt we even realize the impact we have on our nations economy. Hopefully this will give you some insight on the positive cash flow we create by just doing what we are so passionate about.

In the past I’ve designed a couple of websites for tournament anglers and in the process I wanted to collect data to present to potential supporters and sponsors to make them aware of impact and participation. I recently “re-discovered” that data and thought you might find it interesting. So below is some of the numbers I collected from various sources that paint a pretty good picture of how fishing has evolved in to a money making, national past time.

Right now, the only ripple of interest to your angling friend is the one made by the fish as it surfaces at the end of the line. But all around, the money spent to buy tackle, gas for the boat and film to record the one that didn’t get away, is having a tremendous, positive impact on the economy. On average, an angler spends over $1,200 every year on the sport. Hidden, but none-the-less real, is a multiplying factor that effectively triples what (more…)