This week on other blogs: Leftovers from December

Posted by bartlinssen on January 6, 2012 · 1 Comment 

As I said yesterday, there are some really great blog posts that I missed last december. Check them out if they interest you  

Damien, this one’s for you: Michael Spence blogs about our misconceptions concerning exchange-rates. “The focus on currencies as a cause of the West’s economic woes, while not entirely misplaced, has been excessive. Developing countries have learned over time that real income growth and employment expansion are driven by productivity gains, not exchange-rate movements. This, in turn, requires public and private investment in tangible assets, physical and telecommunications infrastructure, human capital and skills, and the knowledge and technology base of the economy“. Find it here

David Smith looks at the only two options: a green economy or a growth stop. “A study by London-based consultancy Trucost has shown that the world’s top 3,000 public companies are responsible for a third of all global environmental damage“. Find it here

Another green article: Manana Kochladze wants to green the European Investment Bank. “The EU’s goals therefore embody an inherent contradiction – energy security versus climate-change prevention – which makes it difficult for the EIB to clean up its energy portfolio“. In this article she solves this contradiction convincingly. Find it here

Qfinance published this great article on China, although this quote really struck me: “An Italian bank can borrow money from the ECB at 1.5% which it can then use to buy Italian government bonds, which have virtually zero risk capital weighting, and which generate a return for the bank of say 6.6% or higher. With returns of five percent available for no effort, why lend?“ Find it here

Henry Mitzberg asks himself who can fix the US economy. I can’t agree more with the next statement: “Above all, what the American economy needs now are managers who know and care about their businesses. Armies of MBAs who have been trained to manage everything in general but nothing in particular are part of the problem, not the solution. So are economists who study clouds without ever getting wet.” Find it here

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