tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-275958792007-09-09T12:56:17.804-07:00Matsnoreply@blogger.comBlogger88125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-760788766268529032007-03-22T12:14:00.000-07:002007-05-01T14:08:02.795-07:00

ST. HENRI DE LEVIS, Que. - Premier Jean Charest said Wednesday he doesn't have to ask Ottawa for permission to cut Quebecers' taxes. Charest, campaigning in a tight election race, announced he would pass on $700 million - coming Quebec's way in the form of new equalization payments - as a tax cut to middle-class Quebecers. "I am the premier of Quebec," he told reporters who questioned whether

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-68386095331463499172006-08-31T13:21:00.000-07:002007-05-01T14:07:11.513-07:00

by Virginie Montet With home sales tumbling to a two year low, real estate agents looking for innovative marketing techniques to boost sales have found that a work of art hooks a buyer better than a fresh coat of paint. From coast to coast, "staging" homes is quickly becoming the industry standard in a highly competitive real estate market, and more and more agents are hanging expensive works

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-37064211295649482792006-08-26T11:28:00.000-07:002007-03-22T11:32:12.872-07:00

When Kirk Jones jumped over the guardrail at Niagara Falls last week and fell 180 feet alongside 150,000 gallons per second of rushing water, traditional explanations for his leap were plentiful. Jones' parents said he had lost his job and was depressed. A suicide expert pointed out the appeal of dramatic farewells. And everyone called the jump suicidal: Jones is the first person to survive a

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146870929034745022006-05-02T16:14:00.000-07:002006-05-05T16:15:29.096-07:00

BCA President Michael Chaney in the WSJ, proving that international comparisons are what you make of them: We are particularly concerned that there is no overarching plan or vision for Australia’s tax system… Mr. Costello’s review, which has confirmed that key areas of the Australia’s tax system are not competitive and need immediate reform, provides the conceptual groundwork for a program of

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146870668217044682006-03-16T14:09:00.000-08:002006-05-05T16:11:08.280-07:00

Most analyses of the cost of the war in Iraq fail to take adequate account of the relevant counter-factuals. This paper by academics at the University of Chicago GSB is a notable exception. They conclude that not only are the costs of intervention on a par with the pre-war containment strategy, but that the war will lead to large improvements in the welfare of the Iraqi people. (via DBRB)

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146870551330569542006-03-12T16:07:00.000-08:002006-05-05T16:16:59.913-07:00

The FT interviews the (thankfully) retiring editor of sister publication, The Economist: One of his most embarrassing covers, according to Emmott, was in March 1999, about a subject that should have been simple Economist territory: the price of oil. It had its roots in a lunch with an oil company executive, where everybody started musing that, with the oil price at $10, what would happen if it

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146850647096401882006-01-12T22:13:00.000-08:002006-05-05T10:37:27.096-07:00

On blog@stefangeens.com, Stefan gives "A guided tour of English-language Swedish blogs": Fortunately, there are many English-language bloggers that are connected to Sweden in some way, so I thought I might take you on a guided tour of the anglo-Swedish blogosphere (Defined as blogs where a majority of the writing is in English, and thus accessible to outsiders) Thank you for a good list of

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146850750544715112006-01-10T22:27:00.000-08:002006-05-05T10:39:10.553-07:00

The Swedish Newspaper Dagens Industri this morning published an article that tried to explain the much debated weakness of the Swedish Krona during the spring. According to the article, the U.S. Homeland Investment Act could provide a useful clue. The HIA has let U.S. firms repatriate profits earned abroad during 2005 and a Dollar/Euro chart suggests that it has had a dollar positive impact.

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146864966225958532006-01-10T13:57:00.000-08:002006-05-05T14:36:06.226-07:00

Open thread, all posts except spam are most welcome. Bid for the watercolour painting below at the Swedish birdwatcher's auction. The proceeds will be used for the benefit of the "victims of the earthquake catastrophe" in South-East Asia, SOF says.

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146850940422957552006-01-05T13:01:00.000-08:002006-05-05T10:42:20.423-07:00

Good news for me: Even though the ecosystem ranking for this blog has fallen from "Flippery Fish" to god knows what slimy little organism, the blogger himself is now within the ranks of the "Other Estimated Strategists". All according to a fixed income investor survey on the Swedish bondmarket carried out and published by Dagens Industri: Other estimated strategists on the Swedish bondmarket are

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146850968110798862006-01-04T13:33:00.000-08:002006-05-05T10:42:48.113-07:00

Shortly after an earthquake occurs in the U.S. its Geological Survey reports it a list of "Recent Earthquake Activity" on its homepage. Nonetheless, a strong earthquake in the Californian Gulf occurring 9.32 CET wasn't reported by Bloomberg until over an hour thereafter, 10.36 CET (yes, I have checked the time conversion). When Bloomberg's story hit the screens, currency markets and the

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146851047295055562006-01-02T10:40:00.000-08:002006-05-05T10:44:07.296-07:00

A friend of mine recommended the site mathschallenge.net for those interested in mathematical puzzles and challenges, including programming problems. I haven't had time to try it, but it looks good, with several problems of different difficulties posted each month. Perhaps something for Abiola, on his site Foreign Dispatches such problems sometimes appear, or for Jan Nordegren posting almost

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146851074815008802005-12-21T12:33:00.000-08:002006-05-05T14:05:53.703-07:00

Per square meter prices for condos in the central Stockholm region has decreased recently, according to statistics from brokers, diagram above (SEK/m^2). A temporary effect or the impact of signals from the Riksbank, the Swedish Central Bank, that interest rates are soon going to be hiked from today's record low level of 1.5% p.a. As most households here fund their house or condo at short

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146851136605583242005-12-19T09:56:00.000-08:002006-05-05T10:45:36.606-07:00

I don't know if it is because of the headline of the latest post, or if it is the lack of policing (my bad), but comment spam relating to money-making has apparently flourished here. Furthermore, a commercial enterprise in the finance-sector has asked to place a banner on this blog, paid for on a monthly basis. I'm most fluttered. Still it's not yet clear to me about what to post on a blog, and

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146861228845216872005-08-25T14:00:00.000-07:002006-05-05T13:33:48.853-07:00

This blogger evidently took a long and unannounced vacation. It was not really vacation from writing; it was more the case that the texts I write for a living - about news with an impact on the Swedish bondmarket - got increasingly demanded and spare time hence increasingly scarce. Because of almost everyday practice from blogging in English? Maybe - anyway here is a text in Swedish by Liza

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146861317719307762005-05-18T10:40:00.000-07:002006-05-05T13:35:17.720-07:00

Amid faltering job-growth pressures have risen on the Riksbank to cut rates. There is hence a fierce debate focused on these two issues going on here in Sweden right now; the job-market and the central-bank policy (here is the latest contribution, in Swedish). Rather than adding anything to this, which seems more than fully covered by mainstream media, I would just like to comment on a very

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146861502762199422005-04-26T09:33:00.000-07:002006-05-05T13:38:22.766-07:00

As I was writing about the bond-yield conundrum from the perspective of household savings in countries that are rising or recently have risen from poverty, Institutional Economics have apparently done the same thing. There, John Quiggin is quoted as writing "there is no convincing micro story as to why people in poor countries should want to save massive amounts", in direct opposition to my

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146861725268023232005-04-25T10:39:00.000-07:002006-05-05T13:42:05.273-07:00

Interest rates for long-term gov't guaranteed loans (yields on T-Bonds in the US) having fallen back to where they were when Greenspan in February called the low rates a "conundrum". Hence an opportunity to get back to the discussion on why most countries today have such an unusually low interest rate levels, at odds with economists repeated predictions of higher rates. For us in Sweden, this

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146861813886980982005-04-15T10:11:00.000-07:002006-05-05T13:43:33.886-07:00

Some of us that are writing about the economy, especially with applications to finance, are sometimes getting away with earning almost free lunches. At least we sometimes get good paid by stating the bleeding obvious. If demand rises relative to supply, prises increase! Regions where this rise is the strongest will be net importers of the good in question! From the Wall Street Journal via

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146862034154892502005-04-06T09:10:00.000-07:002006-05-05T13:47:14.156-07:00

The number of new job vacancies were down for yet another week, according to the latest weekly report from the Labour Market Administration. Now the picture is beginning to look less optimistic than it did in the beginning of this year and in the end of last. The Riksbank wrote in its latest Inflation Report under the headline "Signs of improvement in the labour market" that "the number of new

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146862162998965182005-03-29T10:15:00.000-08:002006-05-05T13:49:23.000-07:00

Despite GPD growth above trend, the Swedish labour market has so far failed to recover. The debate on this gained new strength as business confidence weakend and household's inflation expectations plunged, according to a report released last week by the economic research institute NIER. The Central Bank, the Riksbank, was by NIER's head critizised for running a too hakish policy, a critique that

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146862393793655232005-03-21T12:01:00.000-08:002006-05-05T13:53:13.796-07:00

It's not only the USA, most large first world economies' governments are running deficits amounting to several percentage of GDP. From a bondmarket perspective, it's a conundrum why economists think that long term interest rates are 'artificially' pushed too low. Why, first world governments are holding rates up by flooding the markets with bonds. According to the Financial Times, Standard &

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146862494965694792005-03-10T09:22:00.000-08:002006-05-05T13:54:54.966-07:00

Despite the rapid growth of Swedish GDP, the employment situation fails to improve. Day before yesterday, Statistics Sweden released figures pointing to a shrinking labour-market during the last quarter of 2004, while production was lifted (although at a slightly slower pace) by a strong productivity development. Yesterday, the Labour Market Admin. reported disappointing news for the February

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146862522492456242005-03-09T12:57:00.000-08:002006-05-05T13:55:22.493-07:00

Economists have to an increasing extent tended to over-estimate the monthly inflation-rate in Sweden. Are they using an old map that lacks e.g. the recent trend towards inexpensiveness, "billighetstrenden" in retail? Here is what one analyst wrote yesterday a propos the soon to be announced Swedish February CPI: The February CPI figure, due Friday, is expected to print 0.1% according to

Matsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27595879.post-1146862628862229392005-02-28T23:48:00.000-08:002006-05-05T13:57:08.863-07:00

Retail Sales Above Expectations But Prices Decline - SCB, HUI Swedish retail sales for February increased 6.9% YoY, faster than the consensus forecast 5.2% (Bloomberg). Retail prices on mostly food fell 0.7% during the month, and on mostly durables they fell 3.6%. According to the Swedish Research Institute of Trade, HUI, whome publishes the figure together with Statistics Sweden, SCB, the fall

Matsnoreply@blogger.com