The Wisdom in Fifty Economics Classics

          
       By Bayo Ogunmupe
    Just published in May,
> the 50 Economics Classics is the latest in the series of
> great books distilled into one volume; written by Tom
> Butler-Bowdon, an accomplished author and literary critic.
> Previously published volumes in the series include 50
> Philosophy Classics; 50 politics Classics; 50 Prosperity
> Classics and 50 Success Classics. Published by Nicholas
> Brealey Publishing, London, 50 Economics Classics is your
> shortcut to the most important ideas on capitalism, finance
> and the world economy.
>      In paperback,it has 50
> chapters, 360 pages; seven pages of 50 More Economics
> Classics for those in need of further inquiry; then two
> pages of chronological list of titles; three pages of book
> editions used in researching this book and finally, a page
> of acknowledgements. The 50 Classics series has sold over
> 300,000 copies. This Economics volume is the smart person's
> guide to two centuries of conversation on the global
> economy.
>      From Adam Smith's Wealth
> of Nations to Thomas Piketty's best selling Capital in the
> Twenty First century, here are the great bards, seminal
> ideas and    texts clarified and illuminated for
> all. This book is all the more relevant, coming as it did in
> Nigeria's period of economic turmoil and depression.
> Economics may drive the modern world but sadly, we lack the
> knowledge of the ideas, thinkers and writings which
> constitute the discipline.
>      Spanning 50 books,
> hundreds of ideas and two centuries in time, 50 Economics
> Classics is an enquirer's guide to the global economy;
> taking you on a journey from the Industrial Revolution to
> the second machine age of the internet  and artificial
> intelligence. This is neither a history nor an encyclopedia
> of economics. This is only a guide to the great thinkers and
> their seminal ideas old and new.
>      When in 1765, Edmund
> Burke (1729- 1797) said: "The age of Chivalry is gone; that
> of sophisters, economists and calculators has succeeded," he
> was right that economics, finance and money  are at the
> heart of modern civilization; in the way honor, chivalry and
> religion were to the Middle Ages. If in the past, a person's
> fate was settled by the social circumstances of his birth,
> today each of us is at the mercy of economics, for we must
> produce things of market value if we are to survive and
> thrive. "All your life," Economist Paul Samuelson said,
> "from cradle to grave and beyond- you will run up against
> the brutal truths of economics."
>      The importance of
> economics is that it is at the root of human prosperity. If
> voting gives freedom and power in theory; in practice it
> means little if we cannot even sustain ourselves and our
> families. Which is why cracking the code of economic
> prosperity for a person, firm or nation is crucial to peace
> and well-being of the people. Fifty Economics Classics gives
> you the knowledge to make you prosperous as a person or
> nation. John Maynard Keynes, the creator of the Keynesian
> economic superstructure, thought economics was built so we
> could enjoy the good things in life.
>      To Keynes, this was only
> possible with a stable and growing economy in which the
> damaging cycles of boom and bust were ironed out.
> Economists, Keynes said, are the trustees, not of
> civilization but of the possibility of civilization. The
> economist Hyman Minsky warned that, unless it is well
> regulated, capitalism will eventually go to extremes and
> produce instability. He went on to say that only an
> economics that is critical of capitalism can be a guide to
> successful policy making. Until economic policy stops being
> a tool for one group's advantage, it will be hard for
> capitalism to fully realize its goal of increasing the
> well-being of all.
>      This book by Tom
> Butler-Bowdon is a terrific compendium of the greatest books
> ever written on finance, economics and prosperity from
> famous classics to the hidden; distilled to the point of
> poignant clarity. Tom was the one who announced to the world
> in 50 Prosperity Classics the arrival of Donald Trump on the
> world stage as the 47th greatest thinker on prosperity. And
> by his victory as the 45th president of the United States
> Trump validated Tom's foresight.
>      The only African writer
> on the pack is Liaquat Ahamed, author of The Lords of
> Finance. In 2010, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve
> Bank, Ben Bernanke, was asked by the Financial Crisis
> Inquiry Commission what books he would recommend to
> understand the crisis. He mentioned just one, Lords of
> Finance, a work of economic history which won the Pulitzer
> prize in the same year.
>     Then Federal Reserve
> Bank's investment adviser, Liaquat Ahamed first had the idea
> for his book when reading a 1999 Time magazine story on the
> Committee to save the World and its successful efforts of
> Alan Greenspan, then Federal Reserve Bank chairman to stave
> off the Asian financial crisis, which threatened to bring
> down the global economy.
>      In a nutshell, Lords of
> Finance says, fixed ideas in economics can have disastrous
> results. The world hung onto the gold standard long after it
> had stopped being a means of creating stability and growth
> in the world. Born in Kenya, Ahamed studied economics in
> Cambridge, UK and Harvard, United States. He became
> economist to the World Bank before becoming the chief
> executive of a New York firm of economists.
>  For the author, Butler-Bowdon is
> most  notable for the 50 Classics series, which provide
> key commentaries on the world of knowledge. An Australian by
> birth, Tom, Acting President of Nigeria Yemi Osinbajo and I
> did graduate work at the London School of Economics. While
> Tom researched on public policy, Yemi did his own in the law
> of evidence and i did mine in public finance. Tom gained
> experience while advising various Australian prime
> ministers. It was in the course of his job that he
> discovered the need for the Classics series. He sent me the
> book shortly before it was published last May. I recommend
> the book for the Aso Villa economic management group.
>

Ex-Nigerian leader Obasanjo urges Togo change

Culled from BBC
Anti-government protests have continued in Togo for a third day, with clashes between opposition supporters and police.

The opposition wants President Faure Gnassingbe to step down after 12 years in power. He succeeded his father who governed for 38 years.

Nigeria's former President Olusegun Obasanjo spoke to the BBC's Peter Okwoche about the crisis and questioned whether President Gnassingbe had anything new to offer.

Hurricane Irma: Florida braces for storm arrival

Culled from BBC

Hurricane Irma has strengthened to a category four storm as it nears Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 130mph (209km/h).

Hurricane force wind gusts are battering islands in Florida's south, the governor says, with the mainland due to be hit in the coming hours.

Water levels are already rising on the coast of the US state where a huge storm surge is expected.

At least 25 people died when Irma earlier hit several Caribbean islands.

In Florida, 6.3 million people - about 30% of the state's population - had been told to evacuate. But on Saturday, the state governor said it was now too late to leave for anyone remaining.

The National Hurricane Center has issued warnings against "life-threatening" storm surges in the Florida Keys - a chain of small islands in Florida's south - as well as Tampa Bay and other coastal areas.

• Staying behind is 'almost like suicide'
• 'I have never been so scared in my life'
• The deadly danger from Miami's cranes
• Hurricane Irma: A visual guide

More than 200,000 homes in the state have been affected by power outages, with 164,000 outages in Miami Dade county alone, according to utilities companyFlorida Power & Light.

The imperatives of attracting investment

 
                           By Bayo Ogunmupe
     Economists are unanimous that local and foreign direct investment are a key factor in driving a nation's economic growth. Investment is particularly needed to complement economic growth and in the transfer of appropriate technology, the transfer of knowledge and access to foreign markets. Moreover, every level of investment is necessary for boosting employment, reducing inflation and in augmenting food production and in improving the living standard of the people.
     For instance, Singapore, an inconsequential British colony with a population of 1.6 million in 1960, transformed itself to one of the richest nations in the world through attracting foreign investment to itself. Therefore any country seeking economic prosperity must attract investment  to prosper. Central to Nigeria's ability to attract investment is ease of doing business in the country. That was why as Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo issued an Ease of Doing Business Presidential Order to facilitate improvements in our investment portfolio.
     Indeed, fostering the ideals of ease of Doing Business enhances our infrastructure, access to raw materials, communication and transportation links  and the acquisition of relevant technological skills. Also crucial to attracting foreign investment are the upholding of the rule of law, an end to impunity; part of which consists of a robust and independent judiciary, impartial and prompt adjudication of disputes. Beside being the prerequisite for attracting investment, these statutory practices are the preconditions for sustainable growth in any society.
     Unfortunately, we are not doing well on these scores. More so, we can only boast of dilapidated infrastructure, insecurity due to periodic agitation for self determination here and there. Though our huge population promises us much investment; which is why investors can overlook these disabilities. But investors are unwilling to accept our culture of impunity for which we are notorious. It has become our character to illegally terminate agreements, contracts and projects without compensation.
     That unruly behaviour has not ended even with the return of democracy. One example of bad faith was an attempt by the National Assembly to illegally and unilaterally amend the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Act to force it to remit three percent of its yearly budget as funding to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). This is expressly contrary to the contract agreement freely entered into by Nigeria, the NLNG and other stakeholders covered by the Bilateral Agreement Treaties with France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Nigeria had agreed to retain fiscal and security regimes of the investment agreement, not to amend the NLNG Act without express agreement of the other stakeholders.
     The NDDC traversed the courts right up to the Supreme Court seeking to compel NLNG to pay the levy, only for the courts to affirm the right of NLNG not to pay the levy. Apart from large scale looting, this is another atrocity of the Goodluck Jonathan regime.  Like in all cases with Nigerian politicians and cohorts with special interests, they attempted thwarting the court judgment by rushing to amend the NLNG Act thereby endangering the continued survival of the NLNG and the flow of future foreign investment to Nigeria.
     Regrettably, it is often the case in Nigeria that once investors begin to flourish, Nigerian governments and her regulators begin to heckle these businesses, through seeking to extort money or subject them to hurriedly enacted laws and regulations in the name of protecting Nigeria's national interest. This greedy behaviour scares away investors. Yet the sing song of every Nigerian government , that are known to travel to the ends of the earth is to solicit for foreign investment.
     In the days of yore, when Nigeria could rely on oil revenue, we could call the bluff of investors, but now with low oil prices, Nigeria will do herself a world of good by removing all the impediments to local and foreign investment. Another poor economic judgment from the Buhari administration is the US $3 billion loan taken by the Federal Government. Recently, Finance minister, Kemi Adeosun disclosed that Nigeria plans to refinance $3 billion treasury bills in order to improve Nigeria's debt profile.
     Adeosun said the government wants to refinance her maturing short term treasury bills  with dollar borrowing of up to three years' maturity. The minister said it is the plan to restructure the debt portfolio into longer term maturities by borrowing more offshore and less at home. This she said, will support private sector access to credit to boost the economy. However, data from the Debt Management Office (DMO) show that the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has N3.6 trillion outstanding treasury bills as well as N8.1 trillion bonds.
     Servicing these loans cost the FGN 15 percent of her budget per year. According to the DMO, the FGN has spent N449 billion  as interest payments in servicing these debts in the first quarter of 2017. Thus, $3 billion that would be raised, is hoped to boost dollar liquidity by raising our external reserves, strengthening the capacity of the Central Bank to support the naira. It is also hoped to reduce the cost of borrowing as less demand for domestic debt will lead to lower interest rates.
     This economic adventure is untenable in public finance. For the dollar debt service in the same period, FGN paid $127 million according to the DMO. It is expected that such loans should be linked to the building of infrastructure. Mexico's tequila crisis is an example of the dangers of borrowing to pay foreign exchange spending. Like we're doing now, Mexico borrowed to buy foreign luxury goods. But when the US Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan raised interest rates in 1994, the boom for Mexico came to an abrupt end. In spite of attempts to devalue the peso, Mexico's currency crashed by more than 70 percent.
      It was the International Monetary Fund that came to bail Mexico out. Even then, Mexico"s economy continues to be on the brink of collapse till today. With an uncertain economic future; without a professional economic team to shepherd the Nigerian economy, this plan to plunge Nigeria deeper into debt should be scrapped. We are well advised to listen to the World Bank that warned the CBN from borrowing to fund our budget and import luxury goods. Borrowing dollars to buy cars for our ministers and legislators isn't the right economic option for us now. It can only lead us further into depression.
     Borrowing to import goods for the rich  exacerbates inequality. And inequality makes it harder for economies to benefit from innovation. However, if people have access to credit  it can offset the effect. Inequality is preventing people with less income from reaching their potential in terms of education, creativity and invention. There is also less entrepreneurship. Inequality shrinks market for new goods. When incomes are more equal among people, people less well off buy more.
     Having a large market for new products enables companies to create new goods to sell. This boosts national growth and prosperity. When wealth is concentrated among a small group of people, it increases demand for imported luxuries. In contrast, distributed incomes means more mass produced goods are manufactured locally. But reducing trade and innovation will only make everybody poorer. Giving people access to credit is the panacea for prosperity. Providing access to credit is an unfailing means of stimulating growth. Hopping towards full employment, growing food locally through easy credit is the way forward for Nigeria, not borrowing dollars to import luxury goods.

The slaughter's slab as metaphor

                            By Bayo Ogunmupe
     The slaughter's slab as a metaphor is the title of a book arising from an inaugural lecture given at the University of Lagos in March by Professor Lai Olurode, a professor of sociology at the university. It was published this year by the University of Lagos Press. It contains 25 chapters, a table of recommendations on election violence reduction strategies in Nigeria. The book is dedicated to five victims of political assassination.
     Those victims are Chief Bola Ige, then Attorney General and minister of Justice, killed on 23 December 2001; Barrister Barnabas Igwe, then the President of the nigerian bar Association, Anambra branch, killed 1st September, 2002; Chief Marshall Harry, former All Nigeria Peoples Party vice chairman-5 March 2003; Chief Funsho Williams, Lagos State governorship aspirant-27 July 2006 and Malam Abdullahi Munkaila, then resident electoral commissioner in Kano state,he, his wife and children were killed on 3 April 2015.
     The title, the metaphor of the slaughter's slab arose from Olurode's efforts to explain to his illiterate mother, the course of study for which he was admitted at the university of Lagos in 1976. Olurode enrolled to study political science. Explaining that to his mother was a herculean task for she was perplexed  that her son would be pursuing a profession whose practitioners are reputed for causing public assault, arson, mayhem and brigandage.
     The memories of the political crisis in Western Region remained indelible for most people of her age. To mama, political scientists and politicians are birds of the same feather that must flock together. That perhaps influenced Olurode from changing his course to sociology in his second year. But mama Olurode's fears have been justified by the appointment of Olurode as an electoral commissioner by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
     Though his mother wasn't at ease until the end of his tenure. But mama was vindicated by the murder of Abdullahi Munkaila and his family while working as the resident electoral commissioner for kano state in 2015. Munkaila's blood is now haunting his killers. Professor Olurode's autobiographical booklet has 74 pages and six pages of tributes. In his introduction, the author avers that the pursuit of happiness and prosperity as the primary goal of human life. And pursuant to these goals, the Nigerian Constitution avow that Nigeria shall be a state based on democracy and social justice and that security and social welfare shall be the primary purpose of government.
     Indeed, the thirst for vast territories was not just for fame, glory or nationalism but motivated by the economic objective of prosperity. Accordingly, the sociology of today's world, Olurode finds four sociological explanations for the current crisis in the world. One, the world is in turmoil because of the growing social inequality due to injustice between and within nations. New technology is enlarging inequality.
     Two, the prevalence of insecurity around the globe, acts of terrorism,violence and risky migratory behaviour  which engager lives and freedom. Three, dogma, social prejudice and discrimination are sources of concern for the world. Moreover, we have enthroned money as the ultimate power. The love of money for vanity has eaten deep into the fabric of society. As an expression of inequality- life expectancy in Nigeria is 54 years, the lowest in the world; whereas, it is 80 years in Norway.
     From his experience as a retired electoral commissioner and professor of sociology, Olurode gives the following recommendations to reduce violence during elections. One, Nigeria's rural sector should be activated through poverty reduction. Two, we must make concerted efforts at mobilizing the people through the national orientation education. Three, we must curb acts of impunity: politicians must be punished for flouting party as well as electoral rules. Finally, cost of elections must be reduced. Elections are too expensive in nigeria which is why contests are a do or die affair. The courts and the election commissions should liberalize election regulations.