- The effectiveness of fiscal policy depends on the financing and monetary policy mix | vox – “The response of consumption is positive for the ‘right mix’ of accommodative monetary policy and financing by spending cuts in the future, but negative either when spending is entirely financed through higher taxes, or when the monetary reaction is non-accommodating”;
- Royal Pingdom | The world’s most super-designed data center – fit for a James Bond villain – “This underground data center has greenhouses, waterfalls, German submarine engines, simulated daylight and can withstand a hit from a hydrogen bomb. It looks like the secret HQ of a James Bond villain.
And it is real. It is a newly opened high-security data center run by one of Sweden’s largest ISPs, located in an old nuclear bunker deep below the bedrock of Stockholm city, sealed off from the world by entrance doors 40 cm thick (almost 16 inches).”;
- Lavoce.info – ARTICOLI – TORNIAMO A DARE I NUMERI SULLA PRODUTTIVITA’ – “Infine, piuttosto sorprendentemente, il dato sull’importanza esclusiva dell’andamento delle ore lavorate per la crescita del Pil vale anche per l’industria nel suo complesso. Tutto ciò è in contrasto con molte delle osservazioni sentite negli ultimi anni sulla rinnovata capacità di innovare delle imprese italiane nel biennio 2006-07. Se le imprese hanno ripreso a innovare, questo dovrebbe tradursi in buoni dati sull’andamento della produttività nel settore industriale. Invece, vediamo che la produttività mostra addirittura un andamento declinante nel biennio. O i dati Istat sono gravemente sbagliati oppure la buona o eccezionale performance di qualche impresa italiana ha in questi anni nascosto problemi di non poca entità per la maggioranza delle altre”;
- Macro policy in a liquidity trap (wonkish) – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com – “No matter how much Japan increases the monetary base now, expectations of future money supplies won’t move if people believe that the Bank of Japan will move to stabilize the price level as soon as the economy recovers. And once you realize that central banks may not be able to move expectations about future money supplies, it becomes a real possibility that the economy will be in a liquidity trap: if interest rates are near zero, money printed now just gets hoarded, and monetary policy has no traction on the real economy.”