STAN HONDA
A roundup of the best economic posts on the Web
The ruinous fiscal impact of big banks
Simon Johnson, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, says threats by the big banks to leave their cozy homes on Wall Street and the City if they are regulated are hollow:
"Whatever you think of places like Grand Cayman, the Bahamas or San Marino as offshore financial centers, there is no way that a JPMorgan Chase or a Barclays could consider moving there. Poorly run casinos with completely messed-up incentives, these megabanks need a deep-pocketed and somewhat dumb sovereign to back them."
How Chinese trade boosts European innovation
A study on VoxEU offers a throws a wrench into the common belief that cheap Chinese exports are killing jobs in developed countrie:
"...[C]mpetition with Chinese exports is directly responsible for around 15 per cent of technical change and an annual benefit of almost €10-billion in these countries - the wider productivity effects may well be larger."
What's broken in Greece? Ask an entrepreneur
With a hat tip from The Economist, a look at the myriad distortions in Greece's economy:
"For decades, Greece has been a wonderful place to be a lawyer, a pharmacist, an architect, a university president or even a truck driver - all occupations protected by an array of laws that have shielded them from local and foreign competitors. Greek pharmacists are guaranteed a minimum profit on their sales and charge some of the highest prices in Europe. And because they have fixed minimum fees, the 40,000 or so lawyers in Greece receive more for their time than their peers in many other European countries."
China still looking to win the future
A look at China's plan to merge the cities in the Pearl River delta into a megacity of 42 million people:
"What the Chinese effort actually seems to entail is a significant improvement in transportation around the region, harmonised local policies, and a rationalised metropolitan system of governance. And America could learn something from this."
Follow Economy Lab on twitter