That's Interesting
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Assessing Abenomics: Evidence from Inflation-Indexed Japanese Government Bonds
30th May, 2019Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco paper assessing the impact of news concerning the reforms associated with “Abenomics” using an arbitrage-free term structure model of nominal and real yields.
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North Korea: The Grand Tour
30th April, 2019‘Photographs of ordinary and yet extraordinary life in the last communist state from an ideological, political and cultural perspective’
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San Fran Fed: Does the Fed Know More about the Economy?
30th April, 2019‘In assessing the current or near-term state of the economy, forecasts from Federal Reserve staff seem to provide little additional information to improve commercial forecasts. However, Fed forecasts for economic growth a year or more in the future substantially enhance the accuracy of private-sector forecasts.’
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A Photo Journey Across Africa With Ostinato Records
30th April, 2019‘For the last three years, Ostinato Records has been reissuing lost classics of African music. Their journeys take them across the continent, tracking down the original artists via a network of tips and personal connections. Here, label founder Vik Sohonie brings us along for the journey, traveling to cassette shops and recording studios in search of rare gems.’
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Household Debt, Consumption, and Monetary Policy in Australia
30th April, 2019‘This paper discusses the evolution of the household debt in Australia and finds that while higher-income and higher-wealth households tend to have higher debt, lower-income households may become more vulnerable to rising debt service over time.’
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PBS: Why it will take more than basic recycling to cut back on plastic
26th March, 2019“In the 70 years that plastic has been around, humans have created 9 billion tons of it — most of which still exists. Are the existing strategies for tackling plastic pollution — namely reusing and recycling — really making any difference?”
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RBA: A Model of the Australian Housing Market
26th March, 2019“We build an empirical model of the Australian housing market that quantifies interrelationships between construction, vacancies, rents and prices. We find that low interest rates (partly reflecting lower world long-term rates) explain much of the rapid growth in housing prices and construction over the past few years. Another demand factor, high immigration, also helps explain the tight housing market and rapid growth in rents in the late 2000s. A large part of the effect of interest rates on dwelling investment, and hence GDP, works through housing prices.”
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Recreating ancient artifacts may be the future of archaeology
26th March, 2019“Have you ever heard of an archaeologist who burns, hammers or smashes artifacts? That’s what Metin Eren does, except it’s with replicas. Eren is a rising star in the field of experimental archaeology. In his lab at Kent State University, he tests recreations of early stone tools, trying to understand their purpose and design–and what those meant for human development.”
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A Brief History of Vox: The Sound of the British Invasion
09th January, 2019‘In the mid-1960s, young groups like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Yardbirds led the British Invasion, in which blues-rich rock ’n’ roll became the dominant mode of expression. While each group had its own idiosyncratic slant on the music, they all shared a powerful weapon: amplification courtesy of Vox.’
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