Archives
Anybody Want To Go Shares?
Tuesday, February 24 2009
Room with a view: a country estate outside Florence Villa Serena, a country house within walking distance from Florence is for sale for £8.73 million.
Thomas Sowell: Upside Down Economics
Thursday, February 19 2009
From television specials to newspaper editorials, the media are pushing the idea that current economic problems were caused by the market and that only the government can rescue us. What was lacking in the housing market, they say, was government regulation of the market's "greed." That makes great moral melodrama, but it turns the facts upside down. It was precisely government intervention which turned a thriving industry into a basket case. An economist specializing in financial markets gave a glimpse…
Steve Forbes: Classic Capitalism
Wednesday, February 18 2009
At the World Economic Forum this year, "the new capitalism" was on everybody's mind. How do we put the financial crisis behind us and get growing again? The answer is rediscovering the essence of entrepreneurial capitalism. There are bull and bear markets. There are calamities that shake our faith. But the principles that support economic growth endure. Democratic capitalism requires: The rule of law, especially property rights. Money that is stable in value. Low tax rates. Minimal impediments to doing…
The Dangerous Return to Keynesian Economics
Thursday, February 12 2009
by Steven Kates February 3, 2009 A preview from Quadrant Magazine, March 2009 The Great Depression, in most places, began with the share market crash in 1929 and by the end of 1933 was already receding into history. In 1936, well after the Great Depression had reached its lowest point and recovery had begun, a book was published that remains to this day the most influential economics treatise written during the whole of the twentieth century. The book was The…
Thomas Sowell: De-Programming Students
Thursday, February 12 2009
Letters from parents often complain of a sense of futility in trying to argue with their own children, who have been fed a steady diet of the politically correct vision of the world, from elementary school to the university. Some ask for suggestions of particular books that might make a dent in the know-it-all attitude of some young people who have heard only one side of the story in classrooms all their lives. That is one way of going about…
Milutin Milankovitch (1879-1958)
Thursday, February 12 2009
Orbital Variations Changes in orbital eccentricity affect the Earth-sun distance. Currently, a difference of only 3 percent (5 million kilometers) exists between closest approach (perihelion), which occurs on or about January 3, and furthest departure (aphelion), which occurs on or about July 4. This difference in distance amounts to about a 6 percent increase in incoming solar radiation (insolation) from July to January. The shape of the Earth?s orbit changes from being elliptical (high eccentricity) to being nearly circular (low…
REVIEWS
BOOKS with Doris Mousdale
Valvona and Crolla A Year at an Italian Table
From Distant Villages - The Lives and Times of Croatian Settlers in New Zealand 1858-1958
Big Star — the new New Zealand website for children's reading and books.
www.bigstar.co.nz