I write about long run economic growth, cool companies and a variety of miscellaneous economic ideas. I also run a podcast on the same topics.
What you should read
Economic growth
I’ve a four part series on Chinese economic growth.
Post #1: What went right in China? About Chinese agricultural reforms and the slow opening of the market to small businesses
Post #2: What went right in China (Part 2)? About small business formation in the early reform days and battle of ideas about the Special Economic Zones
Post #3: How do you govern an new country? About how governance in quickly growing countries is hard and about local governments making industrial parks
Post #4: Ideology, mistakes and Tiananmen About the large switch in the Chinese government’s ideology from communism to state led capitalism and the Tiananmen Square Massacre
Gambling on Development Review: I also have a book review on Stefan Dercon’s book Gambling on Development which talks about the elite bargains that lead to rapid growth in developing countries
Indian climate change policy. About why political economy constraints make it hard for India to have a rapid green transition
International finance
Why is the US Dollar a reserve currency?
Bitcoin is a risk asset, not a reserve currency
Economic crises
Russian crisis of 1998 - About whom to blame for the default and currency crisis of 1998
Pakistan’s economic crisis in 2021 - Why Pakistan has repeated economic crises
Alternative financing arrangements
GDP linked bonds: I proposed that governments should issue bonds whose payments are linked to their GDP.
Companies
A Tale of Three Billionaires: My book review of Joe Studwell’s Asian Godfathers talks about how the nature of billionaires in South East Asia have changed from the 19th century to today
Voda-gone: I chronicle the rise and fall of Vodafone in India
What was Shkreli’s Crime?: My analysis of Martin Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals.
Bitcoin and the Macroeconomy
You should not run your country on Bitcoin
Bitcoin is a risk asset, not a reserve currency
Uncategorized
The Cultural Superpowers of 2072: An essay on how the world’s culture will be different in 2022
Some book recommendations: A short summary of two books about semiconductors and the Napoleonic Wars, and some musings about the Great Man Theory of history
Supporters
A very big thank you to supporters of this blog and the related podcast
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