Portal:Business

The economy of the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) of ancient China experienced upward and downward movements in its economic cycle, periods of economic prosperity and decline. It is normally divided into three periods: Western Han (206 BC – 9 AD), the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD), and Eastern Han (25–220 AD). The Xin regime, established by the former regent Wang Mang, formed a brief interregnum between lengthy periods of Han rule. Following the fall of Wang Mang, the Han capital was moved eastward from Chang'an to Luoyang. In consequence, historians have named the succeeding eras Western Han and Eastern Han respectively.

The Han economy was defined by significant population growth, increasing urbanization, unprecedented growth of industry and trade, and government experimentation with nationalization. Another large component of the government is that it was run by influential families who had the most money. In this era, the levels of minting and circulation of coin currency grew significantly, forming the foundation of a stable monetary system. The Silk Road facilitated the establishment of trade and tributary exchanges with foreign countries across Eurasia, many of which were previously unknown to the people of ancient China. The imperial capitals of both Western Han (Chang'an) and Eastern Han (Luoyang) were among the largest cities in the world at the time, in both population and area. Here, government workshops manufactured furnishings for the palaces of the emperor and produced goods for the common people. The government oversaw the construction of roads and bridges, which facilitated official government business and encouraged commercial growth. Under Han rule, industrialists, wholesalers, and merchants—from minor shopkeepers to wealthy businessmen—could engage in a wide range of enterprises and trade in the domestic, public, and even military spheres.

China has an upper middle income, developing, mixed, socialist market economy incorporating industrial policies and strategic five-year plans. It is the world's second largest economy by nominal GDP, behind the United States, and the world's largest economy since 2016 when measured by purchasing power parity (PPP). Due to a volatile currency exchange rate, China's GDP as measured in dollars fluctuates sharply. China accounted for 19% of the global economy in 2022 in PPP terms, and around 18% in nominal terms in 2022. Historically, China was one of the world's foremost economic powers for most of the two millennia from the 1st until the 19th century. The economy consists of public sector enterprises, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and mixed-ownership enterprises, as well as a large domestic private sector and openness to foreign businesses in their system. Private investment and exports are the main drivers of economic growth in China, but the Chinese government has also emphasized domestic consumption. (Full article...)

"One school of thought-influential in shaping the deregulatory policies that played a role in the current crisis-argued that the competitive equilibrium approach of microeconomics provided the correct foundations for macroeconomics. This school, based on the neoclassical model, was sometimes referred to as the "New Classical" school, or the "Chicago School," because some of its high priests taught at the University of Chicago. Because they believed that markets are always efficient, they contended that one should not be worried about economic fluctuations, such as the current recession-it was simply the efficient adjustment of the economy to shocks (such as changes in technology) coming from the outside. It was an approach that had strong policy prescriptions-a minimal role for government.

Thought they based their analyses on the neoclassical (Walrasian) models, they made a further simplification that all individuals were identical. This was called the "representative agent" model. But if all individuals are identical, there can be no borrowing or lending-that would simply be moving money from the left pocket to the right pocket. There can be no bankruptcy. While I argued earlier that problems of imperfect information are central to an understanding of modern economics, in their models there can be no information asymmetries, where one person knows something that someone else doesn't. Any information asymmetry would reflect intense schizophrenia, hardly consistent with their other assumptions of full rationality. Their models have nothing to say about the critical issues that are at play in the current crisis: so what if one gives the bankers an extra trillion dollars or two? In the model, the bankers and the workers are the same people. Key policy debates were simply assumed away. For instance, the representative agent model precludes any discussion of distribution. In a sense, views of values (including the view that the distribution of income is not important) are embedded in the very formulation of their analyses."

—Joseph Stiglitz, Freefall, 2010

• ... that the deity in Nakodaji is considered as a business partner by businessmen?
• ... that the economy of Sarawak is strongly dependent on natural resource exports such as timber, oil, and gas?
• ... that after Lew Dickey Sr. broke into the radio business by buying a station in West Virginia, his son would go on to own Cumulus Media?
• ... that Indian philanthropist and business executive T. Mohandas Pai has been called the "architect of modern Manipal"?
• ... that according to Jimmy Carter, "more of [Georgia's] business was probably conducted in the Henry Grady than in the state capitol"?
• ... that small-business leaders such as Guillermo Torrez sympathized with the Movement for Socialism despite its anti-capitalist rhetoric?

February 16:

• 1909 - Richard McDonald, an American businessman, co-founder of McDonald's, was born on this day.

• ...that French economist A.R.J. Turgot (pictured) served as the intendant of the genéralité of Limoges from 1761 to 1774?

• ...that in economics, the monetary base is defined as the portion of the commercial banks' reserves that are maintained in accounts with their central bank plus the total currency circulating in the public?

• ...that Friedrich Hayek was appointed as a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom on the advice of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher?

• ...that Gunnar Myrdal, the 1974 co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics was married Alva Myrdal, a Swedish diplomat who won the 1982 Nobel Peace Prize?

• ...that Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Daron Acemoglu was the 2005 recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal?

• ...that Gold Fixing is the procedure by which the price of gold is set on the London market by the five members of the London Bullion Market Association?

• ...that the postal services of Canada, Finland and the United Kingdom have their own dedicated address to which letters to Santa Claus pleading their good behavior and requesting gifts?