The Coronavirus pandemic has upended the entire global economy. It also appears to have upended — for the time being, at least — some core economic principles. So we thought we'd take the opportunity to get back to basics, and reintroduce ourselves to some of the fundamental concepts of economics, first identified — or at least recorded — in the 8th century, BC.
Steven Medema, author of The Economics Book: From Xenophon to Cryptocurrency, 250 Milestones in the History of Economics, reveals the first airing of those fundamentals in Works and Days, an 8th century B.C. poem by Hesiod.
And here's another article:
How to improve AI economics by taming the long tail of data | VentureBeat
As the CTO of one late-stage data startup put it, AI development often feels "closer to molecule discovery in pharma" than software engineering.
This is because AI development is a process of experimenting , much like chemistry or physics. The job of an AI developer is to fit a statistical model to a dataset, test how well the model performs on new data, and repeat. This is essentially an attempt to reign in the complexity of the real world.
Software development, on the other hand, is a process of building and engineering. Once the spec and overall architecture for an application have been defined, new features and functionality can be added incrementally – one line of code, library, or API call at a time – until the full vision takes shape.
Spurring Economic Activity Will Be - And Must Be - The Hardest Task Ahead Of Us
After nearly six months of continually adjusted degrees of lockdown, the spirit of careful, ever ... [+] hastening economic forward momentum has never seemed more urgent.
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Yet it is the silent scream in all of the government communiques and catchphrases that is the most urgent and frightening aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the scream of countries, not least Great Britain, waging a war against the coronavirus based on the dynamics of a game of chance. This in turn produces considerable anxiety about the economy, people's jobs and the duration of the terrifyingly large slump that COVID-19 has precipitated.
Congress exits with no deal, leaving economists flabbergasted | TheHill
A wide range of economists are expressing exasperation that Congress would leave town without first finishing work on a new coronavirus relief package they say is critical to the country's recovery, and to millions depending on help from the government.
More than 28 million Americans on some form of unemployment insurance lost a crucial source of income after a $600 weekly boost to those benefits lapsed last month.
Those households now have far less money to cover basic expenses, including rent and home payments they can no longer forgo after the expiration of federal bans on evictions and foreclosures.
Quite a lot has been going on:
About That Deficit: Value-Added Tax Dreams And Virus Economics
This article is based on a reader's suggestion: Design a VAT regime to help the U.S. fisc recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Challenge accepted.
The concept isn't as outlandish as it first sounds. A review of U.S. history shows that radical tax reform often follows economic catastrophe. Viewed through the lens of our fiscal past, it would not be outside the norm for Congress to attempt a major tinkering with the tax code after the pandemic.
The Chinese economic model - Xi Jinping is reinventing state capitalism.
A MERICA'S CONFRONTATION with China is escalating dangerously. In the past week the White House has announced what may amount to an imminent ban on TikTok and WeChat (two Chinese apps), imposed sanctions on Hong Kong's leaders and sent a cabinet member to Taiwan. This ratcheting up of pressure partly reflects electioneering: being tough on China is a key strut of President Donald Trump's campaign.
The logic is alluringly simple. Yes, China has delivered growth, but only by relying on an unsustainable formula of debt, subsidies, cronyism and intellectual-property theft. Press hard enough and its economy could buckle, forcing its leaders to make concessions and, eventually, to liberalise their state-led system. As the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, puts it, "Freedom-loving nations of the world must induce China to change."
As Britain Climbs Out of an Economic Pit, Tough Questions Loom - The New York Times
LONDON — To understand why Britain has spiraled into the deepest recession of its modern history, go for a stroll in central London, no longer a ghost town but still a shadow of its once-bustling self.
Shuttered storefronts pock the shopping promenade on Oxford Street. Theaters in the West End are dark, office towers deserted. Below ground, the tube is a grim parade of signs warning passengers to wear face masks and keep their distance. With traffic at barely a quarter of last year's levels, that is not hard.
Financial alchemy - In India, gold-based finance is booming | Finance & economics | The
The greatest virtue of gold-backed finance, though, is how neatly it fits with India's long-standing love for the yellow metal. In the past decade, despite high tariffs, India has imported 8,400 tonnes of it, more than the holdings of America's Federal Reserve, the world's largest repository. Windfalls are often channelled into gold. Jewellery bought in times of plenty becomes collateral when things go wrong—"the poor person's insurance", says Mr Muthoot.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline "Financial alchemy"
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