Interesting Sites on Economy

I stumble on so many websites on economics by googling. Planning to keep a list of those I would refer periodically. Something like a delicious link.

http://www.econbrowser.com/
http://www.forecasts.org/
http://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/homtoc.htm
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_25/b4039010.htm
http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/oecon/chap4.htm

Let me know if there are other handy ones that keep up with the current happenings with a perspective.

Thinking Economically

'Thinking Economically' by Maurice Levi is a light read if you are well versed with the basic economic concepts. I have completed 4/16 chapters currently. He has tried to introduce concepts that would reach a lay man and not jumping on the traditional supply, demand curve right away.

One interesting area that caught my attention is an illustration where a fast, roaring, expensive car is being perceived by different people differently. An environmentalist criticizing the pollution, a physicist thinking about the horsepower and the pickup, a social person pondering the status of the person driving the car and an economist calculating the cost benefit or the value of possessing the car. This makes an interesting relation between how market demand is driven by the consumer taste and how marketing, psychology and economics are interwoven.

I have temporarily stopped continuing with the remaining chapters and saving it for the train ride.

China Shakes the World - Part 2

After finally completing this book, it is a good eye opener to realize how China is like Japan during its boom period and how China is different in avoiding the mistake Japan made. It is also interesting in how China capitalizes energy commitments from countries like Venezuela, Sudan, Iran that are already try to look for safe-havens other than US. It is also a dichotomy that China's bulk of the population is still to come out of the poverty zone while the country has close to 1 Trillian dollars in its reserve.

While hot discussions around global warming grow hot on one side, it is also scary that China and India are just on their initial stages of enjoying the economic fruits that is positioned on a different tangent to the environment needs. It's ironic that time, usually a medicine for most of the issues, could be a threat to today's unanswered complicated issues. The economic weapon controlling neo world is well buttressed by the internet that grows faster, wider and deeper demeaning the physical national boundaries.

As the book says, it takes countries like China and India to develop in half the time that it took for America. And it is natural that these changes reflect themselves on the business cycles that orient around them.

China Shakes the World

Started reading this book "China Shakes the world" by James Kynge. As with other Chinese books, this book shares some of the common facts on the history and the evolution of China post 1978 and overviews the Mao and Deng times.

Though I have not completed it fully, this has triggered the buds by covering some of the recent strategic moves like China National Offshore Oil Corporation's (CNOOC) bid for Unocol and Dalian's almost done acquisition of Ingersoll Milling Machine, which was working on few of America's sensitive projects.

The book also goes in length about how China were able to leverage the lessons learned from the world and pick the best brains in an amazingly short time before pumping the gas on their juggernaut economy. That's the gist for now.

Note: The next book I plan to read is "The Elephant and the Dragon" by Robyn Meredith unless I hear if there is something else that is more interesting.

Nice read

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1645150,00.html

The Rise of India

Recently finished the book 'The Rise of India' by Niranjan Rajadhyaksha. Very interesting read that gave a vivid picture of the Indian economic history ( on a high level) and the realistic issues the country faces ranging from corruption to population to poor government reforms etc. It is a good read for young MBA students to get a fast track view on the past and current bottlenecks that the country faces.

The author also talks in detail on how India missed the Asian race post independence till early 90's and how the energetic Indian youth is catching up currently and also talks about future projections. It was definitely an enjoyable read.

It is certainly encouraging that prominent leaders like Nandan M. Nilekani (one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine, 2006.) have read this book and acknowledged it.
As a part of continuous learning, corporates and political parties should enforce that leaders read these kind of books for the benefit of those that they serve.

From Wall Street to the Great Wall

Marc Faber's 'From Wall Street to Great Wall' was the first of his books I had completed a few days back. Since I like the meat and not beating around the bush, the initial few pages repelled me from proceeding as the content was around his life-hood background etc etc. It was a light read until the contents started focusing on how different eras lead to the waves of developments that ultimately resulted in unbalanced growth on this planet.

For those interested in economic and history trends and how they are closely linked, this book is a good read offering a stratum of perspectives. For amateurs, this can help connect the social, political, economical dots from a history as well as contemporary standpoint.

In addition, it is imperative that while financial analysts' detail dashboard is the day to day numbers and the book driven financial stats, the macro-economic barometers are to be viewed with utmost diligence as well, as exemplified by Dr.Doom.