Interesting blog bits

1. Stumbling and Mumbling on The left & shareholder activism
   

   The resignations of Andrew Moss at Aviva and Sly Bailey at Trinity Mirror suggest that investors are becoming more intolerant of high pay for poor performance. However, I'm not sure if the Left should welcome this new shareholder activism.

2. The Grumpy Economist on Rajan on the world's troubles

   Raghu Rajan wrote a very thoughtful essay in Foreign Affairs. Though titled "The True Lessons of the Recession" it's really more a grand view of the last 50 years and prospects for growth ahead. The subtitle "The West Can’t Borrow and Spend Its Way to Recovery" is worth repeating.

3. Len Shackleton Over-hyped Olympics

   I’m also sure I’m not alone in wondering quite why we have needed to spend £9.3 billion (the Public Accounts Committee says over £11 billion) of public money, to use 13,500 military personnel and a selection of anti-missile weaponry to lock down London for several weeks, and to produce massive inconvenience to the general public and businesses in the capital.

4. Groping towards Bethlehem asks, A French revolution?

   Hollande defeated Sarkozy in this weekend’s presidential election in France. Reporting and commentary is amusingly mixed.

5. John Taylor on Debate and Evidence on the Weak Recovery

   Last week’s GDP release is yet more evidence that this recovery has been remarkably weak, and has been so from the start—averaging only 2.4 percent in the 11 quarters since the recovery began.

6. Matt Nolan asks A cut to the OCR, why?

   I see that my workplace came out and said that they expect the official cash rate to be cut in June – by 25 basis points to 2.25%. Unsurprisingly, I agree with the assessment of my colleagues. However, a large number of other economists – whose views I also have a lot of respect for – believe that a cut is not on the cards, at least not yet.

7. Eric Crampton on Two OCR markets go in...

   Credit Suisse has a 50-81% chance of a cut; iPredict has a 60% chance of no change. Credit Suisse is where the big money plays are tallied; iPredict is more likely to have insiders.

8. Lynne Kiesling on Green urban infrastructure can save green(backs)

   Some of the best environmental projects also save money. This post at The Atlantic’s Cities blog highlights urban green infrastructure such as permeable pavement projects, including a recent study finding that they can also be economical

9. Alex Bryson, Giambattista Rossi and Rob Simmons ask Are migrants paid more? Evidence from Italian football
   

   Are migrants paid more or less than their native colleagues? This column provides a unique insight by looking at data from an industry where there are many foreigners and where their relative quality can be easily measured – professional football in Italy.