The Hindu Business Line : Eighty-one basic economic concepts

What is inflation? How are the world’s economies compared? What is free trade? How does international trade work? What are the world’s major currencies? How do central banks regulate an economy? What is GNP/GDP? How are interest rates used to control economic growth? What is globalisation? How can the Internet help investors keep track of foreign markets? What is a balance sheet? How do investors buy foreign shares? What is e-commerce? How can new economy companies be compared to traditional economies? What causes the income gap between rich and poor countries? What is a stock index? How is gold part of the world economy? For answers to these and more, catch up with Randy Charles Epping’s A Beginner’s Guide to the World Economy (www.crosswordbookstores. com). It discusses ‘eighty-one basic economic concepts that will change the way you see the world’.

Indispensable read.

An expensive war

Seventeenth century… The armed conflict took a toll of nearly eight lakh people, the majority of them in Ireland. “One in four of all men served in the armies on one side or the other… The war was not a clean and tidy affair of sabres and dashing cavalry charges; it was a bloody business largely driven by guns — cannons and muskets and pistols — which at times appears to have combined the worst aspects of the American Civil War and Vietnam. Both sides used soft lead bullets that did terrible damage to flesh. For years afterwards, the London streets were full of one-legged beggars. Cities and castles were razed to the ground. There were atrocities involving civilians, again especially in Ireland. The war was expensive, and individual families were ruined…”

Thus reads a poignant snatch in The English Civil War: A People’s History by Diane Purkiss.

A book I’d trade HP-7 for!

Sugar scam

Rewind to 1994. Sugar scam was in the news. “One afternoon, suddenly the sugar price soared from Rs 8 to Rs 16-17 per kg. After great hue and cry, the price settled back at Rs 14-15 per kg,” narrates B. R. Lall in Who Owns CBI: The Naked Truth ( www.manaspublications.com).

“The facts unfolded that some nominal shortage was expected; so one shipload was imported at a high rate of Rs 16 per kg around May, when 70-lakh tonnes of sugar were in stock,” he explains. “Since sugar production season was complete by April, all the costing had been completed and the issue price was also fixed. Subsequently when sugar was imported at such a high cost, the inland prices of stock were made to jump to the same level.” An additional Rs 6 per kg to the existing stock meant a neat Rs 4,200 crore! Eerie. About a week ago the central bank asked all commercial banks to sanction additional loan limits of Rs 420 crore to sugar mills for creating buffer stock.

Tailpiece

“He makes too much noise!”

“A case of empty vessel…?”

“And the emptiness seems to keep expanding!”

D. MURALI

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com