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by Agnes Horvath

Once computers were large machines operated by technical staff working in specially constructed centers. Today, computers are used by everybody and microprocessors have become ubiquitous, present on desktops, automobiles all through to greeting cards.

Still, as Robert Solow from MIT put it: “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics”. It seems that the digital revolution does not seem to deliver in terms of increased productivity performances. What we see is that businesses had been making massive capital investments in IT, but at the very same time macro-level productivity growth was stagnant or even declining in most of the advanced countries – a concept economists define as the ‘productivity puzzle’.

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by Agnes Horvath and Ana Kecman

It has been only a week ago that the ratification of the Paris Agreement got into the headlines and environmentalists all over the world could celebrate a clear turning point in global climate policy. While there were countries that put the emission of greenhouse gases on their agenda in the past, without a global response these individual efforts were deemed to fail. Greenhouse gases remain in the atmosphere long enough to become well mixed and for this reason the amount that is measured in the atmosphere is roughly the same all over the world, regardless of the source of the emissions. Moreover, the most important achievement of the Paris Agreement was that the two largest polluters of the world, China and the US – who account for more than 40% of total carbon dioxide emissions – also ratified the agreement. Still, the sense of relief may be short-lived.

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The “city trilemma” may separate the winners and loser of globalization and could also partially explain Brexit voting patterns…

By Csaba Pogonyi and Istvan Zsoldos […]

If over 10 million migrants started off to Europe we would probably need new and bold solutions. This is one such idea. […]

We close the year with our usual “wild predictions”. These should not be taken literally, they are more like extreme scenarios (partly tongue-in-cheek) that are unlikely to actually occur, but would have a large impact and they highlight some real-life trends. Black swans, in other words.

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Humans are not natural born killers. They are born to do what works. […]

The economic crisis may have dented the increase in life expectancy a bit, but it is still the crisis-ridden Mediterranean regions of the EU that fare the best… […]

It’s the season to redraw maps. […]

• A Venture Capital Firm Just Named An Algorithm To Its Board Of Directors — Here’s What It Actually Does | Business Insider (Business Insider)

• Job hunting is a matter of Big Data, not how you perform at an interview (Guardian)

• Putin Screwed Up – Ukraine built about 600 of Russia’s ICBMs carrying about 5000 nuclear bombs and Ukraine can Give Codes to NATO and Cripple Russia’s Nuclear Capability (Next Big Future)

• The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Is Another Unknown Country with an Uncertain Future (Vice)

• US overtakes France as world’s biggest wine market (BBC)

• Follow the Money, China-Style (NY Times)

• Teeth Whitening, Occupational Licensing, and Antitrust (Conversable Econ)

• “Interesting opportunity” = 2 years. Corporate Time Equivalents. (McSweeney’s)

• Chinese architecture: The best new hotels designs – (CNN)

Using plastic surgery and botox among the world’s most feared leaders: fashion or rational choice?

  The trendsetter in Moscow: Vladimir Vladimirovich (61)
Source: Celebchanges.com

Putin’s testosterone is bad for democracy – we wrote in a post on Ukraine a few weeks ago. That testosterone level has kept us thinking. […]