It appears that many of us have had quite a bit of a weekend these past days. Sitting here in Barcelona’s airport I can look back at some very nice dinners and conversations in the company of friends and colleagues as well as the odd stroll down La Rambla. I can also look back at some nice cul...

UPDATED: Paul Krugman makes an intellectually honest argument against the buy-America provisions that almost made it into the Obama fiscal boost program: Protectionism and stimulus (wonkish) - Paul Krugman Blog: Should we be upset about the buy-American provisions in the stimulus bill? Is there an e...

Actually my good friend Veronica Preotu beats me to it , but since I think it is important I believe an additional shout is in order. It has been a couple of months since I let my subscription lapse on the Economist, for no particularly reason really. I simply did not remember to log on to their sit...

... is getting increasingly difficult at the moment. Take Hungary for example. I take it that most economic commentators and analyst know that it is bad in Hungary and together with Ukraine I would submit that these two face the largest risk of sporting the next global macro blowout (assuming that R...

Nicholas Kristof defends sweatshops: Where Sweatshops Are a Dream, by Nicholas Kristof, Commentary, NY Times: Before Barack Obama and his team act on their talk about “labor standards,� I’d like to offer them a tour of the vast garbage dump here in Phnom Penh. This is a Dante-like vision of he...

Block trades — those that occur when an institution wants to sell a large amount of stock, and fast — are back....

Jagdish Bhagwati is disappointed with Obama’s position on multilateral trade, and with his "failure to balance his protectionist appointments with powerful trade proponents that would produce a 'team of rivals'": Multilateral free trade: The Obama letdown, by Jagdish Bhagwati, VoxEU.org:...

Negative business sentiment, a hard-hit banking system and a global downturn are working their way through Europe with a vengeance....

More and more I have been asked why we should allow immigration when there is so much domestic unemployment. It's a hard question to answer, more so when you are talking to someone who is looking for a job and having a hard time finding one. Similarly, people ask why we should allow imports on the b...

The Japanese called it a gentlemen's agreement. It looks more like collusion to me, and it's good to see the competition for good amateurs from any country. Many Japanese baseball officials are outraged that United States teams are courting Tazawa, a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher, because they ...