Some Interesting May Articles/Books

Before I post my June reading list and the much delayed first article in my series of posts on business cycles, I will post some of the most interesting articles and of course, a couple of interesting econ-related literature that I have found for this month:

1. Professor Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago, one of the top theorists in the field of behavioral economics/finance, has released his latest book on behavioral economics, entitled Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics. You can pick up your copy on Amazon, but also consider reading several reviews of the book at the Chicago Tribune and the New York Times. I have not read the book, but it looks like a great compact introductory to the field that Professor Thaler has greatly pioneered.

2. Greek Crisis: Everyone is following the Greek crisis as the situation is getting extremely tense between Greece, the creditors and everyone who is following this great Greek disaster unfolding. Now Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, believes that a Grexit of the Eurozone is possible, which will trigger a tsunami-like effect on the financial markets. I believe it might be still too early on a possible Grexit, as there are reports that Greece is trying to find a compromise with its creditors. But as I had described in an older blog post and posited here by Mohamed El-Erian, Greece needs to act cooperatively with the IMF and vice versa versus playing hardball with the Troika, which is postulated in the late John Nash's non-cooperative game. Let's hope that everything gets resolved in an orderly fashion that does not throw both the Greek people and the world financial markets under the bus.

3. Raj Chetty's Study on Income inequality with several other economists: There was a recent New York Times article on it and here's the related academic literature. A great study on how income effects economic outcomes for the next generation.

4. China's New Silk Road: While Greece and other economic developments have been getting a lot of media coverage, here's a Council on Foreign Relations opinion article about how China is building a politically-based economic network through the former regions where the previous Chinese dynasties had trade routes. There are several other pieces on this particular subject, most notably opinion pieces from all perspectives: Pepe Escobar at Russia Today, Liu Xiaoming at Financial Times and finally Jean-Pierre Lehmann at Forbes. The most important piece of information we can derive from these articles on this subject is that the economic relationships that China have in this region will change global commerce.

Rest In Peace John Forbes Nash

Here is a special post about the death of the mathematician, John Forbes Nash. While he is most well known for his theory in the field of game theory, most notably the non-cooperative game and the Nash equilibrium, he also published papers in the field of partial differential equations and geometry. While his theories in the field of game theory are quite impressive and has had an enormous impact from disciplines such as economics and biology, his works on pure mathematics are not to be underestimated. He had been traveling back from Norway after receiving the Abel Prize in Mathematics from the King of Norway. Up to this date, he is the only mathematician to have won the Nobel Prize, which is says something about the versatility of his intellect. I will go to sleep tonight reading his brilliant 27 page dissertation that is among one of my favorite math-related literature. He will surely be remembered for his brilliance in the field of economics and mathematics and not just for the fame that the Academy Award-winning movie that Russell Crowe starred in had brought him.