As recently posted by me on Twitter, here are three charts showing the evolution of Russian foreign reserves and external debt:Remember the incessant meme in the Western media about Russia eminently in danger of running out of sovereign wealth funds ba…
The great convergence of simultaneously declining global trade flows and industrial production:Via topdowncharts.comThe trend is also evident from the global manufacturing and composite PMIs (see https://trueeconomics.blogspot.com/2019/04/4419-bri…
A neat chart from Bloomberg summarizing the plight of student debt overhang in the U.S. economy:In effect, education is the most leveraged, over the recent cycle, form of household investment out there. Second to it, is only investment in health. Via&n…
I have blogged recently on BRIC and global PMIs for manufacturing and services, covering the data for 1Q 2019, as well as monthly PMIs for BRIC economies. Here are the 1Q 2019 PMIs for composite economic activity across the same:In 1Q 2019, only Brazil…
Not a fan of The Atlantic on a range of topics, especially geo-politics, but a great write up on the relationship between tax accounting industry, lobbying and U.S. tax codes (painfully and daftly complex) here: https://www.theatlantic.com/id…
There has always been a lot of debate in economics about the effects of debt (especially sovereign debt) on growth and fiscal dynamics. And, despite numerous papers on the subject, the debate is far from settled.Here is an interesting new study that lo…
The question of debt relief for households during the periods of financial crises has been a pressing one in the aftermath of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. I have written a lot on the topic in topic in the past, but to sum the arguments here in a b…
Generally, we associate skilled emigration with the phenomenon of ‘brain drain’ or a zero sum game – the loss of human capital from the country of origin and a corresponding gain to the recipient country. However, as common, the real nature of these ef…