1. Eurozone breakup is bullish. The conventional wisdom sees eurozone breakup as calamitous. This view has even been supported by scholars who should know better. In my private discussions with “2nd tier” scholars (i.e. people well below the radar), our only conclusion is that these high-profile scholars are trapped. They’re in a predicament familiar to […]
Monthly Archives: January 2011
Reconsidering the American strip mall
This image and the text that follows are taken from Erik Hancock’s proposal to the Terreform ONE design competition for creating productive green space in cities, sponsored by the City of New York Parks and Recreation office and the American Society of Landscape Architects. This part of his proposal is called ‘Reconsidering the American strip mall‘ […]
Risk of unilateral default/devaluation (crude but intriguing)
Indicator Change between 2009 and 2010, % row variable proxy Greece Ireland Italy Portugal Spain a Growth outlook real-effective exchange rate* -0.3 -6.9 -3.6 -2.5 -2.7 b Primary budget primary budget/GDP** 6.3 -2.0 0.1 2.0 2.4 c Continent liabilities house prices*** -4.3 -15 -0.3 1.6 -1.0 d Political pressure unemployment rate** 3.0 1.1 0.4 0.8 […]