Some articles I've been reading and my quick take-aways...


http://blogs.reuters.com/chrystia-freeland/2012/11/30/income-inequality-government-warren-buffett-and-growth/

Trickle-down economics wouldn't have a rival if had worked. The fact is, there is no, none, zero, zip zilch empirical evidence that supply-side economic policy works. When I worked in economic policy research, we were more focused on smaller economic effects, but there was lesson in there that I learned is profoundly applicable to the macroeconomy. When government contracts were cut up into smaller pieces so that smaller contractor could bid for them, the total cost (not just the value of the contracts, but also the final administrative cost of managing more contractors) was significantly lower than awarding large contracts. We used numerous statistical tests, not just anecdotal data, to measure the validity of these results and found our results to be robust and statistically significant. Yet the march toward large consolidated public contracts continued everywhere from local to federal levels.

Democratizing of the economy is not about a socialist utopia, it's actually about avoiding it. No one, other than the nuts would argue for income congruency, what is being talked about is equity instead. That means a truly level playing field of opportunity.

-----------
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/21/singapore-least-emotional-country-poll

Within months of arriving in Singapore, I confided in Anggred that I while I rarely saw things like homeless and utter despair in Singapore, what troubled me was the fact that I saw very little joy. Certainly, there is plenty of safety, comfort and satisfaction here, but there is precious little rhapsody or spontaneity. I don't mind watching Leave it to Beaver on TV, but I wouldn't want to live in that world, yet that is what the engineers who built Singapore have done. They've constructed the most highly engineered society with on a company set.

-----------
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20544108

I'm cautiously nervous about US growth, use a little play on words... The fact that the economy was largely lifted due to inventory restocking is not entirely surprising since this is expected when economies recover and because it happens every year before Christmas. But what causes me to worry is how much of the growth was fueled by restocking. If there isn't corresponding demand and consumption, then we will may see a big drop off in factory orders and increase in idol manufacturing.