Category Archives: History

Transportation costs and local manufacturing

Posted on April 26, 2008 by NC

A question from Yahoo! Answers: Will higher fuel prices lead to more manufacturing and agriculture in the US.? For decades cheap transportation has made globalization possible. Quality manufacturers were always global. You still have to go to Italy to get … Continue reading →

Posted in Answers, Economics, History | 1 Comment

Paul Krugman’s backstory of “Limits to Growth”

Posted on April 24, 2008 by NC

Paul Krugman writes: I’ve been getting some correspondence asking me where today’s resource concerns fit with the old “Limits to growth” stuff that received a lot of publicity 30+ years ago. Actually, there’s a bit of a backstory there. In … Continue reading →

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Murat Iyigun on Luther and Suleyman

Posted on April 10, 2008 by NC

Murat Iyigun has an interesting paper forthcoming in the Quarterly Journal of Economics: Luther and Suleyman Abstract Various historical accounts have suggested that the Ottomans’ rise helped the Protestant Reform movement as well as its offshoots, such as Zwinglianism, Anabaptism, … Continue reading →

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Jan de Vries slides

Posted on April 3, 2008 by NC

Brad DeLong posts some really interesting presentation slides on pre-WWI colonialism, imperialism, and globalization prepared by Jan de Vries. And here’s a local copy.

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Bank failures in historical perspective

Posted on April 2, 2008 by NC

Since its foundation in 1933, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has been collecting data on bank failures. Here’s a snapshot of this data from 1980 onwards: So far, it appears that the U.S. banking system is holding up pretty well compared … Continue reading →

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Fruit-inspired computing

Posted on March 31, 2008 by NC

A question from Askville: Have there been other computers (other than Apple) named after a fruit? Yes. A British company called Applied Computer Techniques (ACT) released a PC-compatible Apricot in 1983. Around 1995, a company called Orange Micro offered a … Continue reading →

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Brad DeLong on trade, inequality, and China

Posted on March 24, 2008 by NC

Brad DeLong makes some very interesting points: One of them, however, looks debatable: There is a good chance that China is now on the same path to world preeminence that America walked 130 years ago. Come 2047 and again in … Continue reading →

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Life after the IPO

Posted on March 20, 2008 by NC

Between 1980 and 2005, 7,454 American companies went public. Of these, 2,019 have gone out of business 5,048 have not reached $1 billion annual revenue threshold 387 have reached $1 billion annual revenue threshold and as of 2005, accounted for … Continue reading →

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The longest aircraft in the world?

Posted on February 1, 2008 by NC

A question from FunAdvice: can some one tell me which is the longest aircraft in the world? is it airbus 340-600 (OR) is it boeing 777ER? or is there any other aircraft longer than these two? Depends on how you … Continue reading →

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Quotes from Keynes

Posted on December 21, 2007 by NC

This page will probably expand over time, but here’s a first couple. While I am at it, here’s a link to the full text of The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money at University of Adelaida in Australia… To … Continue reading →

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