USA

U.S. Deep Freeze, December 2016

14 December 2016

There had been speculation that record low temperatures would be coming to the United States in early December, and this had been framed as either evidence against global warming in general or that cold air outbreaks are increasing due to climate change. World Weather Attribution (WWA) presents a [read more]

Measuring Inequality

19 October 2016

One measure of inequality is the Gini index, according to the World Bank, this measures the extent to which the distribution of income (or, in some cases, consumption expenditure) among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. A Lorenz curve plots [read more]

Race, poverty and incarceration in the United States

11 October 2016

In the United States poverty is associated with stress factors related to economic well-being, education, health and family and community.[1] Low educational achievement is associated with low rates of marriage, race and absence of fathers. Out of the total 2.3 million people imprisoned in the [read more]

The titillating and terrifying collapse of the dollar. Again.

8 May 2016

Michael Pettis: Foreign perceptions about the Chinese economy are far more volatile than the economy itself, and are spread across a fantastic array of forecasts. On one extreme there are still many who hold the view that overwhelmingly dominated the consensus just four or five years ago, with a [read more]

Book Review: The Unravelling, High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq – Emma Sky

15 December 2015

The Unravelling, High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq – Emma Sky Atlantic Books, London, 2015 This is a remarkable book, by a remarkable woman. Anyone interested in international affairs at the beginning of the 21st century should read it. Emma Sky joined the civilian administration of [read more]

Possible threat to US Nuclear Plants from Boone Dam Failure

21 March 2015

There have been recent reports of problems at the Boone Dam in Tennessee, which is upstream of seven nuclear reactors. Although the indications are that the problems will be solved, the seepage at the dam means that the potential failure of such dams, and associated threats to nuclear facilities, [read more]

Did The Saudis And The US Collude In Dropping Oil Prices?

7 January 2015

By Andrew Topf Posted on Tue, 23 December 2014 23:40 The oil price drop that has dominated the headlines in recent weeks has been framed almost exclusively in terms of oil market economics, with most media outlets blaming Saudi Arabia, through its OPEC Trojan horse, for driving down the price, thus [read more]

The Great Rebalancing – Michael Pettis

22 November 2014

Michael Pettis has gained a reputation for his forthright articles on the Chinese economy and financial markets, which he publishes in his blog http://blog.mpettis.com (some of which are reproduced on The World in Crisis, with his kind permission) and in international media like The Wall Street [read more]

How much longer can the global trading system last? – Michael Pettis

22 November 2014

My last blog entry inspired an old Brazilian friend of mine, with whom I hadn’t had any contact for years, to comment on this section of the interview: It seems to me that the US is becoming increasingly isolationist, largely because it is increasingly uncertain that the benefits to the US of a [read more]

Hurricane Katrina, USA – failure develop the capacity to respond to “a truly catastrophic event”

14 October 2014

Hurricane Katrina formed over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005, and crossed southern Florida as a moderate Category 1 hurricane, causing some deaths and flooding there before strengthening rapidly in the Gulf of Mexico. The hurricane strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico, and [read more]

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