EconAir

Russian T-72 Tank Seen in Ukraine   HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Most of what is now Ukraine came under Russian control in the 1700s, due to the expansionist policies of Catherine the Great.   Part of western Ukraine (Galicia) was a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.   With the collapse of the Romanov regime in 1917 and Austria-Hungary in 1918, Ukrainians attempted to establish an independent republic.   During the Russian Civil War, Ukrainian nationalist groups fought on the side of the Communist Red Army because they knew that if the monarchy were reestablished, Ukraine would be forced back into the Russian Empire.   Their hopes for independence were crushed as the triumphant Communist regime absorbed Ukraine into the Soviet Union. Ukrainians suffered under the Stalinist regime.   Because the Ukraine was the “bread basket” of the Soviet Union, grain and other crops were systematically confiscated by the Communist government to feed in...

Janet in Wonderland Anyone who believes that financial markets are rational is not looking at the current government bond markets.    The U.S. 10-year government bond is paying around 2.5%.    Believe it or not, the 10-year Spanish government bond is paying less.   The German 10-year government bond is paying a little over 1%, less than a 2-year U.S. bond. If you were not a finance major, skip this paragraph.   The yield curve is incredibly flat.   It is only this way because the Fed hasn’t realized yet the Great Recession has been over for five years.   More sinister explanations rely on conspiracy theories.   When given the choice, I always go with stupidity. According to CNBC (yes, I’m still addicted to my financial soap opera), the interest rates on German and Spanish 10-year bonds are at a 200-year low.   I don’t know how they know that.   Germany didn’t exist 200 years ago but Prussian war bonds probably did. ...

  Strategic and Tactical Planning For thirteen years, I was a corporate economist and a corporate planner manager for three Fortune 500 companies.   I discovered that I could do my job as a corporate economist while ignoring all but the simplest of economic concepts.   As a corporate planner, I learned that the planning processes of large corporations were, at best, mostly a waste of time and resources, and at worst, contributed to the relative demise of the companies.   Of the three companies I worked for, one has been sold three times, one has gone through a bankruptcy, and the other merged with (actually sold to) A Brazilian company.   This is becoming typical; the failure rate of large corporations is accelerating. Other disciplines in business are no better.   Marketing is still based on ideas, usually summarized by the four P’s, that are a formula for stagnation at best and decline at worst.   Mass-media advertising, born at the beginn...