Friday, May 31, 2013

Where Has Izabella Kaminska Been?

You have probably noticed she hasn't posted at Alphaville this week.
From her personal blog, Dizzynomics:

Generation clash
After my panel yesterday I was approached by a gentleman who was greatly offended by my proposition that a) the Roman Empire collapsed because it failed to make the next great technological leap into a more sophisticated fuel economy and b) felt necessary to lecture me about the inflation problems of the 80s and that my suggestion that QE didn’t have to end badly was naive as a result.

On the latter point I felt that he really thought I needed to be educated about the 70-80s inflations, that I had obviously never heard of the episode and that this was the single most important lesson in all economic history. He was very patronising, dismissive, accusatory and arrogant in his manner.
I countered with the point that inflation can not be a major issue if there is no shortage of goods or wage pressures due to unemployment. Second, hyperinflation is almost always associated with countries which have liabilities denominated in foreign currencies.

He retaliated a bit with some repetition of the same points he originally made as if he had not actually listened. I repeated. I think he finally got the point. Changed subject to something else gold buggy.
Before that there was the Roman confrontation, which involved him preaching to me (BA ancient history) that the Romans were the best technologists in the ancient world and then.. In the weirdest statement of all time… That i was being stupid because how could the Romans have invented combustion or an oil-based economy because that didn’t get invented till the 19th century. Like this invention was always set in stone for the 19th....MORE
Here's the homepage.

Ms Iz is defining the term "Multi-platform".
She has this Wordpress blog, she has a Tumblr, She has FT Alphaville, She has a Financial Times column e.g. "The property illusion":
One man’s wealth tax becomes another man’s wealth confiscation 
And she has the podcasts.
I'm just waiting to see her take the FT off Pearson's hands and start writing editorials.