A big proportion of wealth is a fiction. Before your natural instincts kick in, take a look at how much of finance works. Let’s use the example of Bitcoin, which until January 2009 did not exist. As of today, the total market capitalisation is over half a trillion US$[1]Bitcoin. And yet it’s nothing. It all… Continue reading We’re still not over the 2008 financial crises
Category: Economics
Buying votes
In August 2005, Raghuram Rajan, at the time a virtually unknown economist at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, predicted the financial crisis[1]Larry Summers vs. the long-termers. He was at a conference of high-powered economists who had convened in part to honor Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Larry Summers[2]Served as 71st United States… Continue reading Buying votes
The dependency ratio: it is changing governments
It’s impressive to see how the great minds of the 18th century understood today’s more pressing problems. In his opening chapters to the Wealth of Nations,[1]The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith explains in detail how the proportion of economically active people to those who are inactive is an important determinant in the wealth of a… Continue reading The dependency ratio: it is changing governments