Instead of mutualising, or sharing, risks, EU member states only share procedures and follow common rules. But the risks remain within member states. There are many areas where this approach is pragmatic and sensible. A sudden spike in immigration is not one of them. A quota system is far too crude, and politically as unsustainable as fiscal transfers between countries. Such policies breed resentment, and ultimately fail. In a quota system you do not kick cans down the road, but people.
Category: Politics
How to Catch Spoofers Who Manipulate Markets
Of course, honest traders change their minds all the time and cancel orders as economic conditions change. That’s not illegal. To demonstrate spoofing, prosecutors or regulators must show the trader entered orders he never intended to execute. That’s a high burden of proof in any market.
Journalists, Repression And The Global Conspiracy That Never Was
Now I know who is to blame for the global jitters. Whether it’s the Chinese economic wobble dragging down world markets and panicking investors, or wars in the Middle East flooding European shores with refugees, the same global conspiracy is at work. It is journalists, with pens and keyboards, cameras and smart phones, wielding their extraordinary power of destruction on an otherwise orderly, prosperous world.
That’s what an increasing number of governments would have you believe.
Why I Don’t Believe Chinese GDP Data
No less than the second in command of China, the Premier Li Keqiang, has stated that Chinese GDP data is unreliable and “man-made”. To put this in perspective, the current Premier of China, second in command for the entire country, leading economic policy formulation, a Phd in economics, having spent essentially all his career inside public administration in various posts throughout China advises you not to trust GDP figures or the economics professor in the United States who has never lived in China and has no specific expertise in China.
China Blames a Different Boogeyman Each Time the Economy Stumbles
In a humiliating televised confession, Wang acknowledged that “I acquired the news from private conversations, which is an abnormal way, and added my personal judgment and subjective views to finish this story” (which, you know, is how journalism usually works). In the United States when someone accurately predicts a downturn or policy change, we practically throw him a ticker-tape parade; in China, they throw him in jail.
Abnormal Capitalist 