Written by Among economists, the real world is often a special case.
Horngren
Posts tagged Economy
Economist and humor
Economists state their GNP growth projections to the nearest tenth of a percentage point to prove they have a sense of humor.
Edgar R. Fiedler
Skills and style
Lack of skill dictates economy of style.
Joey Ramone
Economists
Ask five economists and you’ll get five different explanations (six if one went to Harvard).
Edgar R. Fiedler
Beware of startups. Long live the startups
Eliot Van Buskirk (http://www.wired.com/epicenter/author/eliotvb/) at Wired writes an article telling us that “[...] The financial giants of New York City may have crashed spectacularly after betting the world’s economy on worthless home mortgages, but the city is now bursting with technology startups, who just a short year ago wouldn’t have been considered worth risk or attention from the money men.” (full article at http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/10/startups-rise-from-the-wreckage-of-new-yorks-financial-system/).
I think that all those startups are of course a sign of some kind of economy new deal, but we all should be aware in order not to come again back i 2000, where with only an idea and no basis you could become a millionaire.
IMHO consistent and stable growth passes through a selection of which startup deserve to continue and those who don’t.
Not everybody is an entepreneur or is able to be so. Even if you’re one of the best and brightest mind.
This post as a comment also at http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/10/startups-rise-from-the-wreckage-of-new-yorks-financial-system/comment-page-1/#comment-36186
Free of charge: economy enabler or disabler?
Christian Zibreg at Geek.com writs an article on so called App Store economy that using free applications can bring up to more than 900$ a day of possible earnings (full article at http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/the-app-store-economy-how-to-make-900-a-day-with-free-apps-20091014/.
I think that App store strategy of having low cost and at same time high value apps is a winning one, because enables customers buying more at lower prices and helps programmers having well diffused applications to sell.
On the other side I’m quite convinced that if free could be the key for earning more money, at same time is not the key for having internet cleaned of malicious or unwanted ads. I agree on the fact that some providers pay for in applications ads, but some people don’t like having ads shown everywhere. I prefer to pay a little bit rather than having ads everywhere.
I know it could be very personal, but I think that “free” is not the way economy goes on.
This comment as a post also at http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/the-app-store-economy-how-to-make-900-a-day-with-free-apps-20091014/comment-page-1/#comment-2357671
High tech adoption and growth attempt
John Timmer at Ars Technica writes an article reporting a study by some economists assigning to high tech adoption a primary role in GDP growth (full article at http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/09/high-tech-adoption-happening-faster-driving-economic-growth.ars, original study at http://www.hbs.edu/research/pdf/08-093.pdf).
I think is real that high tech adoption has a stimulus role within growth in a nation. Seems to me quite simple to understand this because I see technology and high tech as something “infrastructural” in the sense of something that is a facilitator in accellerating growth.
I ask my self another point that is which is the level where this “facilitator” effects stops or slows down: I can understand the effect if we are talking of no (or less) technologized countries where the accelleration effect of technology is disruptive; but in my opinion in a modern and fully alligned (on a tech point of view) country, tech is a facilitator only if is a real breakthrough (such as introdiuction of iphone or Wimax).
This post as a comment also at http://digg.com/business_finance/High_tech_adoption_happening_faster_driving_economic_growth
Pay per byte and digital divide
Matthew Lasar at Ars Technica (http://arstechnica.com/authors/matthew-lasar/) writes an article reporting that “Two economists (among them Robert J. Shapiro) say that if consumers with the biggest taste for bandwidth don’t pay “a little more” for their appetite, it will take too long to bridge the digital divide. ” (full article at http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/09/can-flexible-broadband-pricing-fix-the-digital-divide.ars).
I consider this as a good idea, but quite uthopistic.
It’s not only a problem of bandwith use (where could be correct to have people demanding more paying the most, despite the fact I’m quite skeptic of type of measurement to be taken), but of how we changed our lives having bandwith available: who, among those having acces to bandwidth and interested in using VAS (Value Added Services) will accept to pay 2-3 or more times the price they pay?
Most of us moved to “digital” life (e.g. mail, tv,…) and allocated a budget on this. I think that if pricing changes, most of the services and commodities that now sustain market development (You tube, Google and all is applications,…) will decline and so less investments will be available, less quality of service and, at the end, no justification for paying a higher rate.
This post as a comment also at http://arstechnica.com/telecom/news/2009/09/can-flexible-broadband-pricing-fix-the-digital-divide.ars?comments=1&comment_id=147004621041
If you know, speak. If you don’t know shut up.
What really is making me strange in this days, is that everyone feels entitled to speak on everything.
I have been taught that if you’re confident in something and you have an opinion, you can express it. But it’s not something good if you speak just for the pleasure of speaking.
Could be that in this days I’ve got a little bit more time to spend reading, but I hear everybody speaking on everything: on Opel and Magna, on World economy, on pensions, on stem cells,…..
Everybody has an opinion, but little have this opinion with knowledge of what are they speaking.
But the worst thing is that some people deserve some credibility to not so bright ideas and opinions.
I respect other opinions (also if they come without knowledge), but I don’t necessarily need to give them credit.
Freedom of speech is a gift we have sometimes, that deserves respect and doesn’t need to be abused.
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