Monday, November 15, 2010

Daily Links, Nov 16, 2010


Things are a tangle this week. Lots of good stuff on the blogs, though...

BLOGS:
MEDIA:
WAY COOL: This animation of European borders: 10 centuries in 5 mins
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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

That animation is great! You should see the one the CCP produced a couple a while back. [Map Unchanged].

Anonymous said...

Then there's something wrong with the calculation of PPP. Japan is really expensive to live in, but Taiwan surpassing Japan in per capita GDP (even PPP-adjusted) is a bit more than hard to believe.

Okami said...

Something I'd like your input or any sources on about what I put up on Frozen Garlic's blog:

An interesting dig would be how much of the Taipei Floral Expo scandal and his election of president and KMT chairmanship are connected since it was his office who ok'd it if I'm understanding correctly. If you look at a map, his closest challenger was Wang Jingping(sp?) who is based in Kaoshiung. Ma's base is in the north, but if we look at the center we see a huge agriculture and flower business stretching from Taichung to Chiayi that could easily be bought. It's just my idle speculation about 2 events with an interesting link.

Michael Turton said...

Okami, I never want to play Diplomacy with you!

That's an excellent question. During the "long stay" Ma was active in this area. It makes me wonder.

Anonymous said...

The IMF did the research, and this is now widely reported across a number of publications (including the Economist). If you find it a bit more than hard to believe, then it's your world-view that needs adjusting, not the calculation.

To emphasize (as the Economist head line reads): Taiwan's standard of living has just passed Japan's.

Michael Turton said...

Right, because everyone knows that calculations are like perfect reflections of reality. That's why nobody ever does empirical research.

Okami said...

About Taiwan surpassing Japan in PPP related to GDP. I'd buy this just from what I know. If you think the Taiwanese economy is nepotistic and mercantilist just take a look at the Japanese economy a little deeper and you find some really weird anomalies.
-In order for a Costco or Walmart like store to open you have to get permission from the mom and pop shops in the area. I don't believe they have Costco or any wholesale clubs in Japan and Walmart has really struggled there, but Walmart struggles in all foreign countries except Mexico. The busiest Costco in the world is in South Korea with Taiwan's Neihu store being 2nd or 3rd.
-Japan has a grey economy that is as percentage of GDP, twice that of Italy's
-Japanese distribution networks, as some who pays attention to farming related matters this is eye-opening. China got into the market because they would sell direct to supermarkets produce that looked better because it hadn't changed so many hands. It's also illegal for a corp to own farmland in Japan. The whole wet market selling cheaper than Costco or any grocery store, just doesn't happen in Japan.
-It's cheaper to start a corp to do business in Japan in Hawaii than it is to start it in Japan. It's like $50,000 US in Japan. For a fifth of that, you can get a corp started in Hawaii that can do the same things and have a really kick ass vacation
-High tech tariffs and trade regulations. One of the reasons Japanese companies can sell cheaper electronics overseas is because they can gouge their own people at home. Basically Japanese consumers subsidize the purchase price of electronics sold in America.

Japanese consumers just face less choice, higher tariffs on imported goods and less efficient distribution networks causing them to pay more for things then we do in Taiwan. Their pay is also normally 50% bonus probably due to tax issues, and very few companies are paying bonuses nowadays like they did in the past. Don't even get me started about Japanese corps and the literal mountains of cash they are sitting on.

Michael Turton said...

Let's put it this way. I'm sure there are a range of reasonable constructions of PPP that could put Taiwan ahead of Japan. But "standard of living" is more than just how much a gadget costs.