894 Posts Found

For years, Peterson, secretary of commerce under Nixon and author of Gray Down, has been a compelling Cassandra, warning that the mix of growing debt, an aging population, and deficits in Social Security and Medicare portend disaster. Now, he laments, Republicans pursue reckless supply-side economics and Democrats, assuming a repeal of Bush’s tax cuts would enable new government spending, are unwilling to consider limits on … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Peter G. Peterson | Subject: Economics

As long as nations care what they make, as long as they believe that potato chips and computer chips are not the same thing, and as long as differences in national policies and industrial structures exist such that one nation’s efforts in these areas are facilitated at the expense of another, trade will be managed.

Content: Quotation | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Economics, International

The world economic system is like a global highway – a network of linkages and laws that allows ideas, goods and capital to circulate quickly. But there is one big problem with this highway: it does not have enough access roads. It bypasses too many poor and marginalised communities and there are not enough institutions – economic, social, legal and political – to enable people … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Economics, International

In two separate talks at Wharton recently, Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Pete Peterson, chairman of The Blackstone Group, lamented what they see as the sorry state of the U.S. economy, and then presented their views on how to fix it. Not surprisingly, the answers offered by Stiglitz, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Clinton, and Peterson, former Secretary of … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Economics, People

The economic case for free trade is that it produces mutual gains for countries. These gains arise from the workings of the principle of comparative advantage. Comparative advantage results from different countries having different opportunity costs of producing one traded good in terms of another; for example, the cost of a gallon of wine in terms of yards of cloth. The ratios of wine to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Economics, International

Economists are blind to the loss of US industries and occupations, because they believe these results reflect the beneficial workings of free trade. Whatever is being lost, they think, is being replaced by something as good or better. They are unable to identify what the replacement industries and occupations are, but they are certain they are out there somewhere. It does not occur to them … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Economics, Outsourcing / BPO

Globalisation offers short-term opportunities: economies of scale, efficiencies from larger markets, and cost savings from cheaper production or services. But with the ‘quick buck’ comes greater vulnerability. As the business chain lengthens, the risk of failure from one weak link increases. Risks – structural and reputational – are compounded as business extends around the world.

Content: Quotation | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Economics, International

Lewis, founding director of the McKinsey Global Institute and former partner at McKinsey & Company, offers a detailed look at the local economies in several parts of the world including the U.S., Japan, India and Brazil. Based on the Institute’s 12-year survey and analysis, Lewis concludes that the great economic disparity between rich and poor countries will ultimately have a negative impact on all nations. … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: William W. Lewis | Subjects: Economics, International

In our economy, more and more of the output is in quality, variety, customer service, timeliness, and components of output other than the number of units produced at a given cost. As a result, the nature of our GDP is changing; the nature of our competition is changing on the output side.

The same thing is happening on the input side, where more and more … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Optimize Magazine | Subjects: Economics, Trends / Analysis

Dan Ariely, director of the MIT Media Lab’s e-rationality research group, studies how people make decisions in real life and why their decisions often deviate from classical economic models, which assume that people act rationally and in their own best interests.

Content: Article | Authors: Dan Ariely, Meridith Levinson | Source: CIO Magazine | Subjects: Economics, Organizational Behavior

Big businesses have enthusiastically embraced globalisation, seeking out and profiting from new opportunities – wherever their brands, capabilities and technology have taken them. point. As moderate voices join the dialogue, the anti-globalisation lobby can no longer be dismissed as street protest culture or theatre.

Important questions remain:
– Can business compromise or should it simply back laissez-faire capitalism?
– How can business appeal … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Economics, International

In this elegant book, one of the world’s preeminent economists distills his thinking about globalization for the lay reader. Bhagwati, a former adviser to the U.N. on globalization, sets out to show that “this process has a human face, but we need to make that face more agreeable.” Armed with a wit uncharacteristic of most writing on economics and drawing on references from history, philosophy … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Jagdish Bhagwati | Subjects: Economics, International

While American firms often talk as if they are investing vast amounts in their work forces, they in fact invest less in the skills of their workers than either Japanese or German firms. The investment they do make tends to be highly focused on professional and managerial employees. And the limited investments that are made in average workers are narrowly focused on the specific skills … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Economics, International

Let me suggest that the military metaphors should be replaced with the language of sports. Despite the desire to win, all sports have a cooperative element as well as a competitive element. One has to agree on the rules of the game, the referees, and what trophies go to the winners. One can want to win, yet remain friends both during and after the game. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Competition, Economics

Put bluntly, those with the best work forces will win the competitive game of the 21st century. The quality of the work force is the key strategic competitive weapon for the individual, the firm, and the nation. In a global economy, those without skills have to face what economists know as “factor price equalization.” The unskilled who live in a rich society can make no … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Economics, International

The purpose of this site, which is a companion to a Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) series, “is to promote better understanding of globalization, world trade and economic development, including the forces, values, events, and ideas that have shaped the present global economic system.” The site features the complete six-hour television program, a timeline from 1911 through 2003, dozens of country reports, material about key individuals, … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Sources: Heights Productions, PBS | Subjects: Economics, International

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If the winners are the inventors of products, the education of the top 2 5 percent of the labor force is critical, because someone in that group will invent the new products. If the winners are the cheapest and best producers of products, the education of the bottom 50 percent of the population moves center stage, because this part of the work force must master … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Economics, Education

[In the past,] a new product gave the inventor a monopoly power to set higher prices and earn higher profits. The inventor had a new product that others did not have. In contrast, a new process still left the inventor in a competitive business making a competitive product. The inventor’s competitors knew how to make the product, and they could always lower their prices to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Prism (Arthur D. Little) | Subjects: Competition, Economics

At least in the United States, most policymakers understand that in the long run, economic growth requires productivity growth: For per-capita living standards to increase, so must per-capita output. What is less well understood is that productivity growth requires the creation and satisfaction of new wants, not just the more efficient provision of existing wants.

Currently, discussions of productivity tend to focus on increases in efficiency … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Across the Board (ATB) | Subjects: Economics, Outsourcing / BPO