Economics

It is the sinusoidal movement of economies between stage 1 and stage 2 which contributes to growth, while the participants in stage 3 very rarely contribute to any real economic growth as their entire theatre is virtual.

Fundamentally, the real way to tackle bubble-formation is through careful understanding and regulation of how financial products are created and traded, not necessarily regulating the capital structure of the markets themselves.

In December 2007, Listed credit derivatives stood at USD 548 trillion - to put that in context, The GDP of the entire world is USD 50 trillion. On top of the listed credit derivatives, there was also an OTC derivatives bubble which had a notional face value of USD 596 trillion.

Classic economic theory simply will not allow governments and regulatory bodies to deal with bubbles effectively, as they will grow to tremendous sizes immensely fast, meaning that the amount of support needed when they burst vastly exceeds the value of most economies.

And a country that stops its citizens having access to Facebook, say, or Google or Skype, faces real disadvantages – from inward investment to domestic discontent…

Cambridge computer scientist specializing in security engineering and cryptography

we are moving towards a global theatre where even though each actor (country) may be at different levels of economic growth, the technologies which exist to enable the globalisation stimulate high levels of transparency, meaning that each agent (companies, customers, suppliers, politicians, etc) will be accountable for their practices, and so must act with greater consideration (and less arrogance!)

organisations will often behave in international economic theatres (such as China) with the same operational processes and assumptions as their 'home' environments (such as Australia) with the assumed protection of the legal, political and other systems of their 'home' environments.

Asia region countries are able to shave not just 10% off process-costs versus their western counterparts, but often 60-80%, often bringing great improvements and advantages in the process. This ensures they are more agile and able to sustain competitive advantage through continual innovation.

Western societies have to heed the strategies of the east where innovation and progress are fundamental parts of their attitudes to business. Japanese carmakers built their sustainability from their constant ability to innovate rather than being cheaper.

What I believe is the bigger benefit; is that it makes it much more difficult for governments to trick the domestic financial system to favour particular borrowers, to milk savers through variable interest rates and so forth.

Leading economist specializing in European monetary integration and financial crises.

When countries integrate themselves, they provide 'favours' resulting in wider and better opportunities for all and similarly, borrowers can tap the world pool of savings and they are supposed to benefit from that. That is the theory, though empirically, there is little evidence of these effects.

Leading economist specializing in European monetary integration and financial crises.

We can now, more accurately than ever before, view the transactions occurring within our system, identifying the originator(s), beneficiary(ies) and intermediaries along the chain.

Governments are keen to levy brutal taxes on the very engines that create the market for goods and services; lowering their propensity to spend and invest by removing the surpluses they would normally use to do so.

Unfair taxation cripples economic development in a manner not dissimilar to third-world economic corruption.

have to scrape by on 'zilch' or, at most, on a fraction of what is taken for granted in the for-profit world.

have to persuade people to part with money for goods or services that are used by others