"The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger"

That's the title of a remarkable new book by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, which presents a wealth of data on why more equal societes do better than less equal ones.

Here is the Guardian's review of the book and the authors' own presentation of some its results.

New book on "The Future of Finance: the LSE Report"

The London School of Economics has just published an interesting e-book on "The Future of Finance". Truly recommended, particularly the last chapter by Peter Boon and Simon Johnson explaining why we are likely to experience more financial crises in the future.

Also check out the newly founded Soros' economic think-tank INET for more on the world after the crisis, including papers and presentations from its amazing inaugural conference.

The fallacy of supply-side economics

Martin Wolf and Paul Krugman present (yet again) convincing evidence that cuts in taxes do not pay for themselves: they only result in a permanently lower tax revenue relative to what would have been achieved with higher taxes.

Martin Wolf quotes Greg Mankiw, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under George W. Bush, who "has responded to the view that broad-based tax cuts would pay for themselves, as follows: “I did not find such a claim credible, based on the available evidence. I never have, and I still don’t.” Indeed, he has referred to those who believe this as “charlatans and cranks”".

My quotes in the FT on Doing Business in Poland

Financial Times ran an article on June 14 on "New focus on central Europe’s business opportunities".

It has my following quotes:

“Poland is moving forward, but parts of the region are moving even faster, so Poland is no further ahead,” says Marcin Piatkowski, senior economist at the World Bank office in Warsaw. The office has been hired by the government to try to improve Poland’s business environment.

Changing the way value added tax is administered, or making it possible to register a company in a single office, may seem like dry subjects, but these changes are key to boosting the region’s productivity and returning to the faster growth rates seen before the economic crisis, says Mr Piatkowski.