Until this year, China has been a major consumer of US soybeans. But Trump’s trade war with China has resulted in a shutdown of that major market for American farmers and billions of dollars in lost sales. Trump has promised federal dollars to farmers to compensate for the loss of the Chinese markets. So taxpayers […]

Modern Argentina has had a problematic and sometimes sordid history. From the dirty war of the 1970s to hyperinflation, the South American nation has been ill-served by most of its leaders. Javier Milei was elected president of Argentina in October 2023 after campaigning to overturn the status quo and transform the economy and politics of […]

I believe that I have caught a typographical error in the New York Times. The article is interesting, it alleges that Taylor Swift fans may decide the Argentinian presidential runoff (voting for the center left Sergio Massa and not for the right wing Javier Milie). A pop singer with actual measurable political influence (in a […]

by Mike Kimel I haven’t written anything about Greece, largely because I’ve never been there, haven’t looked at Greek data, and otherwise until now have had no reason to think I have something useful to say about it. But reading this Tyler Cowen post, I realized that perhaps I have an insight to share because […]

I politely disagree with the conclusions of the article written by my Angry Bear colleague, Kash, where he envisages Greece defaulting in 2011 similarly to Argentina in 2001. I do agree, that the macroeconomic initial conditions in Greece scream default (actually, if you focus just on the measurable factors, like the current account, debt levels, […]