Tag: economics

Against HMID

by giving a tax subsidy to housing, it distorts investment decisions toward houses and away from assets like factories and equipment that are more productive at the margin.

It is nothing short of a farce that those chiefly responsible for the mortgage mess, i.e., the deadbeat borrowers themselves, have enjoyed a tax subsidy at the expense of the responsible parties (renters) who did not participate in the housing bubble.

Immigration trends

As the Poles pack their bags, those who came to rely on them to paint their walls or fix their computers are feeling the loss. Reinforcements could be on the way: Romanians and Bulgarians will be able to work freely in Britain from 2013 and could come earlier if the economy picks up. But Ms Chappell points out that those countries have strong links with Italy and Spain, and other western European countries have more open labour markets than they did in 2004. Britain may not look as attractive a destination a second time around.

calling the free movement of people within the EU “immigration” is ridiculous. good to see it happening at this scale, that sclerotic place needs it bad.

Emerging Entrepreneurship

Endeavor is a non-profit group based in New York dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship in emerging economies. Endeavor’s entrepreneurs—who collectively now control companies with combined revenues of $2.4b and 91k employees, earning on average 10x the minimum wage in their country—rarely say they would not have succeeded without Endeavor. But they all believe they got bigger much sooner thanks to its endorsement and support. Endeavor has “created islands of hope”. Now it must find ways to “change continents, not just little islands.” This has been recognized by Endeavor’s global board, which recently adopted an ambitious plan to expand to 25 countries by 2015. Endeavor is confident that it now knows how to adapt its model to new countries, having learnt from early stumbles in Chile, South Africa and Turkey. Fadi Ghandour, the Jordanian boss of Aramex, a logistics firm, believes there is much potential in the Arab world, which is full of young would-be entrepreneurs who have “discovered the new thing, that it pays to have an idea, not rely on land or investing.”

endeavor.org gets a nice write up.