Monthly Archives: 2018-02

7 published posts from 2018-02.

The French Film Festival: 2018

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Nicholas Gruen

Festival Website | Films | Schedule Top Picks C'est La Vie! (Opening Night) Over a career spanning more than 30 years, Max Angély has enjoyed a celebrated career as a caterer and event organiser. Today, it’s all hands on deck for Pierre and Héléna’s nuptials in a breathtaking...

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Posted in Films and TV

Our countries need us.

Posted on February 24, 2018 by Paul Frijters

Humanity is at a high point. What our ancestors dreamed of is slowly becoming a reality: a world without hunger in which the vast majority of mankind live peaceful and long lives. We are not there yet, but in Europe, East Asia, Latin America, and even in Africa (our cradle), m...

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Posted in Politics - national, Politics - international, Life, Philosophy, History, Education, Literature, Society, Religion, Economics and public policy, Science, Political theory, Information, Ethics, Cultural Critique, Inequality, Social Policy, Democracy

Banks, money and bootstrapping capital adequacy

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Nicholas Gruen

Below is an extract from a recent academic article setting out – rather laboriously I have to say – three 'theories' – I'd rather call them 'ways of seeing' what banks do in our financial system. One approach sees them as financial intermediators meeting the needs of those who...

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Posted in Uncategorized

Crikey! It's that time of year again: Last call

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Nicholas Gruen

If you'd like to be in this year's submission to Crikey for a group submission, please email me on ngruen AT the domain formerly known as gmail (and still known as gmail). And please spread the news far and wide using all the means – inane and otherwise – at your disposal.

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Posted in Blegs

Now is the time for complacency: RBA v Bank of England edition – Part Two

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Nicholas Gruen

Cross-posted on The Mandarin : To quote Bank of England Governor, Mervyn King in 2010 “of all the many ways of organising banking, the worst is the one we have today.” As I documented in part one , the Bank of England continues as a thoughtful critic to this day. And as we’ve...

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Posted in Economics and public policy

And now for some complete madness

Posted on February 11, 2018 by Nicholas Gruen

https://youtu.be/LHrvQ7qaadE If you're a chess player who's touched with the human weakness of impatience or just liked to be engaged and see things develop – as we almost all do on our smartphones, checking our emails over 100 times a day – it's hard not to be drawn to speed...

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Posted in Chess

How to tax the platform economy?

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Paul Frijters

In the engine room of nation states, ie the tax departments, the coming battle with platform providers is taking shape. Uber, airbnb, facebook, linkedin, ebay, jobseek, and a myriad of specialised platform providers facilitate micro-trades that are largely untaxed by the autho...

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Posted in Politics - national, Politics - international, IT and Internet, Economics and public policy, regulation, Political theory, Law, Information, Intellectual Monopoly Privileges, Innovation, Social, Intellectual Property, Public and Private Goods, Death and taxes, Employment