V. Gontis: Annoying real GDP argument against Euro

Though Paul Krugman is among the most prominent critics of the Euro idea [1], there are many other professional economists and journalists criticizing the macroeconomic policy of Euro zone. The problem of Greece has become one of the most disputable because there is permanent pressure of opinions ranging from a flat denial of Euro project to the uncompromising critics of all steps in the process of its implementation. "Realize," the main problem of the European development arises from the bad idea and implementation of common currency and the whole EU project gets stuck on this idea.

Extra Credits: South sea bubble

In XVIIIth century Great Britain had rather large debts, thus some people decided to consolidate it as well as improve its administration. The South Sea Company was born. As its name implies the company was expected to trade with South America and use the profit to repay the debt as well as interest. But the problem was that South America was rules by Spain and Great Britain was at war with it. Still due to ingenious manipulations South Sea Company stock price grew to unbelievable heights. Despite the fact that it never made any profits from trading.

We invite you to see videos by Extra Credits, which tell the story with more details, but in attractive and approachable manner. You can find the playlist on YouTube by following this URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1kndKWJKB8&list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5Aq7g4bil7bnGi0A8gTsawu&index=17. Below you should the embed of the first video.

Forbes.com: Game of Thrones Economics - Why Doesn't Westeros Have A Central Bank?

Central bank is economical institution, which is seen as essential part of the contemporary economics. One of its many functions includes implementation of the monetary policy - namely regulating amount of money circulating in the market (i.e., printing of money). Most commonly it is said that first contemporary central banks emerged by the end of XVII century (starting from England), though there were attempts at creating something similar during the middle ages.

Before the central banks value of money were based on the value raw products (e.g., gold) used to produce a coin. Namely everything was based on a belief that a coin might be melted down and traded for a similar value. This principle is behind the money in Westeros, but the author of the forbes.com article considers the possibilities to create central bank in Westeros. The article is an interesting read to both fans of the show (or books) as well as to the people interested in how central banks emerge and what do they do.

Read more on forbes.com »

S. Žižek: Democracy and Capitalism Are Destined to Split Up

Slavoj Žižek is Slovenian philosopher, who writes on various topics in economics, politics and culture. In this video, recorded for Big think youtube channel, he speaks about the economical problems of the XXI century. He claims that these problems might undermine the relationship between democracy and capitalism. We invite you to watch and to think about what is being said.