James Pethokoukis on Tackling US Debt

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Bill Petti

James Pethokoukis writes at his blog that the current sovereign debt crisis in Europe should provide Americans with an opportunity to reflect on how to deal with their own mounting debt.  In short, Pethokoukis’ argument boils down to four points: 1) Cutting spending and raising taxes is a risky formula. It doesn’t have a great [...]

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Book Review: The Bottom Billion

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Bill Petti

I was familiar with Collier’s work and those that he takes on (Bill Easterly, Jeffrey Sacks) for some time before finally picking up this highly acclaimed book. It didn’t disappoint. The Bottom Billion is an accessible summary of Collier’s work which focuses on the peculiar problem of development for the poorest countries in the world.  [...]

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Critique of The Fat Tail for IR Theory Wonks

Posted on December 7, 2009 by Bill Petti

For those that might be interested in a rather wonky, nitpicky discussion of international relations theory you can check out my narrow critique of the application of international relations theory found in Ian Bremmer and Preton Keat’s book, The Fat Tail here.

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The Next Bubble: Pirate Equity Markets?

Posted on December 2, 2009 by Bill Petti

“Chirol” of Coming Anarchy (which is a fantastic blog for those interested in global and comparative politics) comments on the recent news that Somali pirates have set up what amounts to a stock exchange to help fund their operations.  Chirol quotes from the original Reuters story: It is a lucrative business that has drawn financiers [...]

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Sovereign Debt: The Next Financial Contagion?

Posted on November 28, 2009 by Bill Petti

This week, the government of Dubai decided to delay payment on the tens of billions of dollars that it’s Dubai World holding owes to various creditors (UBS speculates as much as $80B).  Dubai World is the vehicle through which the state has invested heavily in various real estate projects around the world.  In order to [...]

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