Category: Uncategorized

A good start (the auction culture that is France)

by  Tyler Cowen in

The city of Dijon has just sold off half of its prized municipal wine cellar to help fund local social spending – including a bottle of 1999 Burgundy knocked down at auction for €4,800 to a Chinese buyer.

In total, the capital of the Burgundy region raised €151,620 from the “historic sale” of 3,500 bottles that were part of a collection built up since the 1960s, it announced in a statement on Monday.

François Rebsamen, the Socialist mayor who ordered Sunday’s auction, explained: “We have overall a good budget this year, but the social action spending of the city just keeps going up. There are more and more of our co-citizens who are appealing for social aid.”

From the FT, here is more.  Apparently they are listening to Alex.

This seems underreported

by  Tyler Cowen in

So I will link to it here:

Israel has admitted for the first time that it has been giving Ethiopian Jewish immigrants birth-control injections, often without their knowledge or consent.

The government had previously denied the practice but the Israeli Health Ministry’s director-general has now ordered gynaecologists to stop administering the drugs. According a report in Haaretz, suspicions were first raised by an investigative journalist, Gal Gabbay, who interviewed more than 30 women from Ethiopia in an attempt to discover why birth rates in the community had fallen dramatically.

I’ve read through a number of alternative accounts and this seems to be true.  If you feel this is in error, however, please do give me another source to check out.

Assorted links

by  Tyler Cowen

1. What does Brexit look like?

2. Not everyone is living longer.

3. Profile of Kristin Forbes.

4. Markets in everything: “He is the only person in the world who makes a living at stair racing (his sponsors include a German health care company), which makes him the lord of an obscure but nonetheless codified sport.”

5. In defense of management consultants.

6. Rajan on stimulus and sectoral shifts.

Are free and charter cities making a comeback in Honduras?

by  Tyler Cowen in

By a large majority (110 votes to 128), the Honduran Congress approved the modification of three articles of the country’s constitution, giving powers to Congress to create areas subject to special arrangements, referred to as “Model Cities” that were declared unconstitutional last October for being considered “states within a state.”

Laprensa.hn reports that “The law consists of two approved articles. The first amending Articles 294, 303 and 329 of Decree 131 of January 11, 1982 containing the Constitution, which divided the country into departments. These ‘are divided into autonomous municipalities administered by corporations elected by the people, in accordance with the law’.

Without prejudice to the provisions of the preceding two paragraphs, Congress can create areas under special schemes in accordance with Article 329 of this Constitution ‘.

Here is more, and here is a related article of explanation.   I am still told, however, that yet another piece of legislation needs to be passed.  I don’t pretend to understand any of this (for one thing, how much do these developments represent genuine suspense?), but at least one insider seems to think it represents a breakthrough of sorts.

The multiplier and the rate of return on aid

by  Tyler Cowen in

Critics of “austerity” are often weak or a bit mumbly on what is the relevant alternative or counterfactual.  When it comes to the U.S., the relevant alternative is borrowing more, but in many cases, such as in the European periphery, the alternative is/was more aid.

So, in these cases, a multiplier of one means that a dollar of aid — the alternative to the fiscal consolidation — is worth a dollar.  I find that easy to believe.  It’s not really a claim about fiscal policy or Keynesian economics.

A multiplier of 1.4 means that a dollar of aid brings $1.40 in benefits.  Imagine receiving aid, and not just benefiting from the dollar, but avoiding a fire sale of your assets or investing the money wisely or maybe just avoiding a civil collapse.  That’s more of a stretch, but also not outside the realm of the possible.

As the IMF becomes more critical of austerity, the IMF therefore should believe in higher rates of return to aid.  But does it?

@Yannikouts nailed it here:

It’s one thing IMF economists to argue for softer austerity and a totally other thing to convince IMF Board members to commit to extra funds

Few people believe in austerity when it is someone else’s money on the line.  Here is my earlier post How emigrants try to run their fiscal policies.

Assorted links

by  Tyler Cowen

1. Belief in the great stagnation is the new normal.

2. The brutality of English leisure gardeners.

3. Are too many people photographing their meals?  And can you surreptitiously film inside Disney World?

4. Is the (published) claim that most published results are wrong itself…wrong?

5. Is the Zara guy the third richest man in the world?  On average they open a new store every day.

6. Why Cameron’s referendum talk doesn’t make much sense.

Assorted links

by  Tyler Cowen

1. Russ Roberts speaks with Kevin Kelly.

2. Fuchsia Dunlop has a blog.

3. There is no great stagnation (moisturizing jeans).

4. Scott Sumner explains his views on price inflation.  And here is Arnold Kling on the Greek Phillips Curve.

5. More on whether there is a new Icelandic housing bubble.

6. Goodhart, Baker, and Ashworth on nominal gdp targeting.

7. Error, retraction, second thoughts, translation mistake or what, George Church issues a further statement.