On the importance of paper books for those who can't afford gadgets.

"there’s a solid argument for spending money while you have it, because deferring gratification now for gratification later on is intrinsically something of a gamble."

Pete speculates about the crisis.

"A number of commentators seem shocked at how unreasonable Republicans are being. “Has the G.O.P. gone insane?” they ask. Why, yes, it has. But this isn’t something that just happened, it’s the culmination of a process that has been going on for decades. Anyone surprised by the extremism and irresponsibility now on display either hasn’t been …

I don't expect my colleague to share all my beliefs about how to weigh the political equality of citizens against the freedom of billionaires to spend their money on politics. But I do think that if we don't agree that rich people have more political power than poor people and that they use that power to pursue their economic interests, …

"Americans, I have some bad news for you: You have the worst quality of life in the developed world – by a wide margin. If you had any idea of how people really lived in Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many parts of Asia, you’d be rioting in the streets calling for a better life. In fact, the average Australian or Singapore…

"The crisis at Fukushima has converted me to the cause of nuclear power."

:Why is Barnes and Noble performing well as a business while Borders has filed for bankruptcy? What is so different about how they are run? This is a question that many of us at Borders asked ourselves frequently and I think the answer is not a simple one. As someone who has given this a tremendous amount of thought and was Director of Merchandise…

"Of course ordinary French and German taxpayers are going to be angry at lending their money to an insolvent state with lower tax rates than their own. Why wouldn’t they be? Of course ordinary Irish taxpayers are going to be angry at having to pay for high interest loans designed to bail out foreign banks. Why wouldn’t they be? And while ordi…

"In a blog post which has gathered a certain notoriety, Paul Krugman recently sent the Estonians his condolences. I will send them, not my condolences, but my congratulations, and these not for the somewhat dubious honour of being allowed to join the Eurozone, or even for having carried out a highly successful “internal devaluation” (this out…

"...why don’t people at the 90th percentile of the income distribution feel particularly rich? The answer is simple: because any Americans who are richer than this cohort are so *much* richer."

Yes, this explains it.

Our main conclusion is that Africa is reducing poverty, and doing it much faster than many thought. * The growth from the period 1995-2006, far from benefiting only the elites, has been sufficiently widely spread that both total African inequality and African within-country inequality actually declined over this period. * The speed at which Africa…

Me old friend Kevin has his analysis

Achilles and the Tortoise discuss Gini coefficients and New Labour's record

Soros speaks. NB that he tends to get things right. If he is right this time, we euro-users are in trouble...