The number of countries involved in festering Middle East conflicts most closely resembles the situation before World War I. That's frightening....
Branko Milanovic on his new paper with Thomas Hauner and Suresh Naidu exploring inequality prior to World War I and providing empirical support for the classical theory of imperialism.ProMarket — The blog of the Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
On Christmas Eve, 102 years ago, one of the most unusual aberrations in the bloody history of the organized mass slaughter that we call war occurred. It was so profound and so disturbing to the professional war-makers that it was never to be repeated again....Consortium News
#wef14 Echoes of 1914: backlash against globalization, gilded age of inequality, rising geopolitical tensions, ignoring tail risks
— Nouriel Roubini (@Nouriel) January 23, 2014
I've been waiting for a pullback to get back into stocks and I like all this worry and fear that is building. A bit lower, say, S&P 1750 or so, and I will start buying.Money is a social construct. It also facilitates many complex, interrelated social relations. As a result, it’s difficult to pin down for the average person what the effects of a particular policy will be, especially with regard to economic policy. While inflation may have negative effects in certain times or places, it’s difficult to figure that out just by looking around a city or country. As a result when politicians or other figures with agendas want to talk about inflation, they inevitably go for the most visceral descriptions available. For some number of decades now, the example they go to do decry inflation is people carrying around “wheelbarrows full of money” to go buy something such as bread. One of their favorite examples is Weimar Germany. So let’s talk about it.Naked Capitalism