Big Data Little Impact

While researching what to do with all those Twitter shares I bought*, I came across this interesting article in the New Yorker (pronounced NuYoikah) about how relatively little impact digital goods and services (i.e. apps, email, social media, games, storage, etc.) have on GDP.

Which makes sense when you think about it; the way the online world works means that, to quote the article's author, James Surowiecki; "free has been more the rule online than the exception". Twitter, Google, Facebook, Snapchat et al charge nowt while consumers happily do their best impression of the Cookie Monster omnomnom-ing their way through free data and information.

Even taking into account that GDP is not a perfect measurement of a nation's economic well-being it seems that a model may well need to be developed to better capture the impact the digital economy is having.

For further reading I thought this memo from Dr. Michael Mandel gave a good overview of the subject and some useful figures.










*= Seriously, guys, if any of you bought  those, sell them before the most popular hashtag on Twitter is #BurstTechBubble2.0 (see Forbes article for reasons why).

Waking Shark II: The Re-Sharkening

A "war game " styled drill was carried out across London today to see how well the City would deal with a shark cyber attack on a number of international and domestic financial institutions' computer systems....and it had the best name ever: Waking Shark II. If the Syfy channel don't come knocking for a spinoff I will eat my hat.

Details of the exercise are available here from Reuters.

Whoever came up with" Waking Shark II" deserves the 2014 Nobel Prize for Economics...or, failing that, the 2014 Nobel Prize for Naming Stuff (it's real trust me).

Details of the exercise won't be published until December 2013 and the results could be interesting considering some of the points raised by IT experts and highlighted here by Warick Ashford of Computer Weekly.


P.S. As sharks never sleep surely they're never waking but constantly awake ? The world of finance poses more intriguing questions than I ever thought possible...

Irish Government to Liquidate with Extreme Prejudice

Well, something interesting appears to be happening.

The Irish Government is to propose liquidating the IBRC, formerly Ned Stark's winter fund Anglo Irish Bank, with rumours that emergency legislation is to be brought before the Seanad and Dáil this evening as Governor of the Irish Central Bank presents this proposal to the ECB.

The main point of this is to cease the annual €3.1bn payment of interest on the €28bn promissory note used to bail out the world's most evil bank (excluding all the Swiss ones). A more long term bond will come into play and payments will be made back more gradually over a longer period of time.

RTE have the story here. With additional reports from Bloomberg and Reuters.

Minister Noonan is expected to make a speech in the Dáil at 9pm this evening.

This still poses several questions:

• How long has this been Plan B for the government after their initial proposal to park the interest for 15 years was shot down ?
• Were the ECB expecting this ?
• Will this have any effect on Irish bonds ?
• What kind of timeline on interest payments can we now expect ?
• What's a Magdalene laundry ?

Put on the popcorn, get out your beer hat things are gonna get interesting*.




*= by which I mean unclear, confusing and technical.

Estonian Soap Opera

Doubt you guys missed this...but still worth marking.

An opera has been written about the Twitter (sigh) feud between that the bearded Keynesian; Paul Krugman, and the always-dapper President of Estonia; Toomas Hendrik Ilves.


FT blog has the story here.



My favourite is President Ilves' sick burn at Krugman on his Nobel Prize, saying: "Guess a Nobel in trade means you can pontificate on fiscal matters...".


This story really raises some interesting issues: What are these people doing on bloody Twitter ? Has Estonian Opera run out of ideas ? Will Krugman be welcome at Talinn's world famous Christmas markets next year ? Should it be mandatory for presidents' of nations to wear bow ties ?

I wish the 16 minute opera well but for me the best economics-influenced music is across the sea from Estonia in Sweden.


PS. All Twitter/economics/opera puns are welcome. Could not think of any good ones for this article's headline.

Albert Hirschman (1915-2012)

Whilst reading the fantastic Crooked Timber blog (check it out people), I came across the sad news that Albert Hirschman had died.

He was an economist in my "must read more about them later" box and his passing has been the unfortunate reminder to investigate more closely his work, particularly that on unbalanced growth strategy.

Foreign Policy Obituary here.

Paul Krugman article on Hirschman here.

Patently Obvious: The Knowledge Economy

Are you Irish ?

Yes ? Good for you.


Are you hedging all your bets on an Irish recovery coming from exporting pharmaceuticals to the sick, bald, and impotent of the world ?

Well then, you probably shouldn't click on this link.

Agh!

Ok, it's not that bad really. Exports are still breaking records, in a good way, and certain factors (as always) have to be taken into account. What the Citi graph does highlight however, is that Ireland's reliance on pharmaceutical exports must not discount the effect the "patent cliff" will have on the market for medicines and other pharmaceutical goods in the near future.



Also, happy Tuesday everyone:Why Not Start Your Weekend on Wednesday ?

Neanderthal-nomics

I could try and explain my absence but I don't want to and, lets face it, you don't want to hear it.

What you are interested in however is fantasizing about how you can become a regular John A. Rockefeller without putting in nearly as much effort as the great captain of industry.

Luckily for you back in 1966 Marshall Sahlins discovered a way to do this...  become a Cave Man.

All is revealed in this link giving background to Sahlins' presentation, with further reading available here.