Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha won a surprise upset victory in the Albanian elections earlier this month.
This is not particularly welcome news for anyone outside of Albania. Berisha, who was Albania’s chief executive from 1990 to 1997, is remembered as a corrupt and erratic authoritarian who ran a government of cronies, best remembered for [...]

Following up on Edward’s post from last month.
Chinese interest has gained Unocal’s shareholders at least $400m extra from Chevron and its shareholders. Whether having regulatory clearance is worth $1.5bn (the remaining difference between the Chevron and CNOOC bids) is an open question. Since Unocal closed at $64.99 per share yesterday, $1.99 per share above Chevron’s [...]

This week seems to be China week. Everyone seems to be asking the same question: why is China so successful? ( see here and here and here.
Now maybe this is just an excuse for a bit of self-publicity, since I have just spent a day ’sprucing-up’ the China page on my website, but lets [...]

I argued recently that John Snow should check out some economics before arguing that structural reforms in Europe and Japan would resolve the problem of global economic trade imbalances. Well……….
I was thumbing through the economics working papers section of the OECD yesterday, and I found this:

[...]

Hungary risks missing its 2010 target for adopting the euro unless its government reduces the budget deficit and improves policy co-ordination with the central. This at least is the view of the OECD as expressed in its annual report on Hungary out today. According to the OECD:
“the key conclusion is that further reductions in the [...]

Begin Here
At Moody’s we spend a great deal of time studying the issue of pension burdens for countries around the world.

Read more… or Read more right here… »

To prepare for the upcoming demographic transition, [...]

Confronting Demographic Change is the title of a two day conference currently being organised by Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Commissioner Vladimir Spidla. The emphasis of the conference is on gender and family impact issues.
You can find a background briefing paper here.
This is also an interesting presentation.
Here’s a summary of the objectives. It’s very [...]

Well actually it’s called ?Treasure Hunting Ship;? in Chinese, the CNOOC bid for Unocal. Read some intersting discussion and analysis here.

I have felt for some time that Rober Maroni would not have been so outspoken without at least the tacit permission of Silvio Berlusconi, and now we have the evidence to back my hunch:
“Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called the euro a “disaster,” blaming the currency for Italy’s economic slump and seeking to use anti-euro [...]

According to Oded Galor it has become evident that in the absence of a unified growth theory that is consistent with the entire process of development, the understanding of the contemporary growth process would be limited and distorted. He quote Copernicus to the effect that:
?It is as though an artist were to gather the hands, [...]