Igor Delovski Board

[Ike]

CIA - Countries ranked by current account balance:

Rank Order - Current account balance

1 . Japan,
...
126. Croatia,
...
150. USA

[Ho Ho]

Demographics of New York City

"Per capita income was $22,402; men and women had a median
income of $37,435 and $32,949 respectively. The median age was 34
years. For every 100 females there were 90.0 males. For every 100
females age 18 and over, there were 85.9 males. New York City's
unemployment rate in March of 2005 was 5.2%, identical to the
nationwide rate."

[Ike]

B2B Sales for Geeks

"When you start a software company that is focused on a business-to-
business product, it is very difficult to have the runaway viral-marketing
effect seen in most of the well-known web companies. Startups looking to
compete in such markets usually take on significantly different forms than
their consumer-focused brethren, with dedicated salespeople along with
the regular technical staff."

[Ike]

JoS: B2B or B2C? Which Market is better of a mISVer?

"I do both B2B and B2C

Here's the rough breakdown:
20% of my Revenues B2C
80% of my Revenues B2B

80% of my sales volume B2C
20% of my sales volume B2B

So, less sales but much higher revenue B2B

Support:

95% B2C
5% B2B

So, for me, B2C = tons of support for less revenue."

[Ike]

Najpoznatije kriminalne organizacije (CRO)

"Kriminalne organizacije, čak ni u svojim počecima, nisu bile obične
lopovske skupine s isključivim ciljem zarade. Većina je nastala unutar
nekog političkog ili socijalnog okvira, društvenog stanja u okviru kojeg
su odlučili djelovati.

Pod krinkom zaštite obitelji ili društva općenito, istjerivanja pravde ili
prosperiteta same države, nastajala su udruženja čiji su se članovi,
građani različitih profesija i financijskog statusa, okupljali oko zajedničke
ideje, prisutni u svakom aspektu života i zanimanja."

[XNote]

CROATIA COUNTRY COMMERCIAL GUIDE FY2002

"Compared to other advanced transitional economies in the region, Croatia is in
the middle group in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI) per capita and
greenfield investment has been slow to arrive."

[delovski]

JoS: Micro- and macro-economics for the common man?

"I'm looking for a good, short, to-the-point book that answers questions I
have such as:
- what is wealth, generally speaking?
- why are some countries/people richer than others?
- is it possible for everyone to be wealthy, whether at the national or
international leve, or do some people have to be poor for others to be rich?"

[Ike]

The Big Picture: Countries GDP as US States

"Carl Størmer points us to this amazing map of the United States. Each state's
economic output is analogized to another country's GDP."



So, Croatia is comparable to South Dakota, and the Black Hills of South Dakota are home to
Mount Rushmore. Now you know a bit more about Croatia,... I mean South Dakota.

.

...

Or another take: US States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs

[delovski]

International Living: Quality of Life 2007

"The European countries always get top scores (with the Netherlands,
Switzerland, Denmark, and Luxembourg making it into our top 10 this year),
as do the antipodean nations of Australia (second place) and New Zealand
(fourth). Argentina, for the first time, makes it into our top 10 (in 10th position).

1-France,
2-Australia,
3-Netherlands
4-New Zealand,
5-United States,
6-Switzerland,
7-Denmark,
8-Italy,
9-Luxembourg ,
10-Argentina,
11-Norway,
12-Belgium,
13-Germany,
14-Spain,
15-Austria,
16-Finland,
17-Malta,
18-Croatia,
19-Liechtenstein
20-Portugal."

[Ike]

BusinessWeek: World's Most Networked Countries

"The sixth annual Global Information Technology Report from the World
Economic Forum (WEF) in Geneva compares 122 countries on dozens of
criteria, from Internet penetration to educational attainment to availability of
venture capital. Of the top 10 countries in the 2006 survey, eight are in
Northern Europe and half are Nordic."

Croatia is 46th, 11 places up compared to 2005 rank. Not bad.

[delovski]

US Minimum Wage History

"A federal minimum wage was first set in 1938. The graph shows nominal
and real minimum wage values. Nominal values range from $0.25/hr in 1938
to the current $5.15/hr."

[delovski]

The Libertarian Singularitarian: What Freedom Looks Like at Night

"Comparing a map of economic freedom to nighttime satellite photos
reveals that in general the citizens that live in nations which have had
economic freedom for a long time, tend to enjoy a far greater degree
of electrification."

[XNote]

economist.com - Free loaders - pirated software per computer

"Tech firms constantly moan about software piracy and no wonder. Last
year it accounted for 35% of the worldwide market and cost the industry
$39.6 billion according to the Business Software Alliance, a trade."

[delovski]

The List: The World’s Worst Currencies

"Most countries seem to have finally whipped inflation—at least for now. But
not everyone is celebrating the world’s impressive economic stability. In today’s
List, FP takes a hard look at the soft currencies of some of the most unstable
economies on the planet."

[XNote]

United States National Debt

An Analysis of the Presidents Who Are Responsible for the Borrowing,
by Steve McGourty

[Ike]

cnn - Shoppers offered few safeguards against 'Wild West' imports

"They're basically producing poisonous products, selling them to
their own people and then selling them on to us."

"According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 40 percent of
all consumer products imported into the United States last year -- nearly $250
billion worth of goods -- were manufactured in China. From 1997 to 2004,
the CPSC said, the share of all U.S. imports of consumer products from China
increased by nearly 300 percent, a trend that is likely to continue."

[delovski]

reddit: World's Most Business-Friendly Countries, Ranked by The World Bank

"Interestingly, most of the top ten are English speaking countries."

[XNote]

slashdot - UN Makes Its Statistical Data Free and Searchable

"Since its foundation, the United Nations system has been collecting
statistical information from member states on a variety of topics. The
information thus collected constitutes a considerable information asset
of the organization. However, these statistical data are often stored in
proprietary databases, each with unique dissemination and access policies.

As a result, users are often unaware of the full array of statistical
information that the UN system has in its data libraries. The current
arrangement also means that users are required to move from one
database to another to access different types of information. UNdata
addresses this problem by datapooling major UN databases and those
of several international into one single internet environment. The
innovative design allows a user to access a large number of UN data
bases either by browsing the data series or through a keyword search."

[delovski]

slashdot - Software Price Gap Between the US and Europe

"A quick comparison between same versions of mainstream software sold in
the USA and the EU markets show a big difference in the respective price tags.

If you want to buy online, let's say, Adobe's Dreamweaver CS3, you'll have
to pay $399 if you live in the States, but a whopping E570 (almost $900 in
current exchange rates!) if you happen to buy it in Germany. Same story
for Microsoft's newest products: Expression Web 2 in America costs only $299
new, but try that in Italy and they will probably ask you no less than E366
($576!). How can such an abyssal difference be explained? I understand
there are some added costs for the localized translated versions, but I
also thought the Euro was supposed to be outbuying the dollar. Where's
the catch?"

[XNote]

JoS: Do you sell to China, Africa and Russia?

"I just looked at my map of visitor locations. And I have almost 0 purchases
from russia, china and africa. These countries dont buy software?"

[Ike]

reddit - 5 countries on the verge of following Iceland to economic ruin

"The government has initiated a crackdown of its own, unleashing its security
forces against those guilty of economic pessimism."

[delovski]

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen: is it game over for Swiss banks

"Once it was a place where the world's wealthy safely hid their trillions, but
now international pressure, including a US lawsuit against troubled industry
giant UBS, may force Switzerland's bankers to give up their long-cherished
secrecy."

[Ike]

economist - From Bolshevism to backhanders

"The causes are manifold. The financial crisis has made people readier to cut
corners. Whistleblowers are ill-protected. Firms not willing to pay bribes lose
out to those that are, such as Russian, and increasingly Chinese, competitors."

[Ike]

Why Amazon Can't Make A Kindle In the USA

"Decades of outsourcing manufacturing have left US industry without the
means to invent the next generation of high-tech products that are key to
rebuilding its economy, as noted by Garry Pisano and Willy Shih in a classic
article Thus in “Restoring American Competitiveness”

The US has lost or is on the verge of losing its ability to develop and man-
ufacture a slew of high-tech products. Amazon’s Kindle 2 couldn’t be made
in the US, even if Amazon wanted to."

[Ike]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f2018cf0-9467-11e1-8e90-00144feab49a.html#axzz1tq8VDrPr

Spanish youth urged to seek work abroad

[Ike]

american-interest - New Spanish Finance Horrors Shock The World

"And there’s more. For the true connoisseurs of the European disaster
unfolding so majestically and irresistibly before us like a train falling off
a bridge in a film shown in slow motion, it means that the political ability
of the Spanish authorities to manage their country’s dire financial predica-
ment is closer to collapse than most European officials have grasped."

[delovski]

reddit.com - Purchasing power index in Europe

"Forget this awful map and go here for real data."

[Ike]

http://www.economist.com/node/18805327

The man who screwed an entire country

The Berlusconi era will haunt Italy for years to come

[Ike]

washingtonpost.com - 40 charts that explain the world

"Our friend and colleague Max Fisher over at Worldviews has posted another
40 maps that explain the world, building on his original classic of the genre.
But this is Wonkblog. We're about charts. And one of the great things about
charts is that they show not just how things are -- but how they're changing."

[Ike]

Italy’s Downward Spiral

"Seventeen percentage points of this rise can be accounted for by higher
inflation, and eight percentage points through a revaluation of the lira
conducted prior to the introduction of the euro. Relative to Germany, Italy
became a whopping 42 percent more expensive. That price differential – and
nothing else – is Italy’s problem. There is no other solution for the country
than to correct this imbalance by means of real depreciation."

[Ike]

r - Russian currency in complete Free-fall in the moment as it has
worst performing day in history

r - Russian Ruble Crashes to World's Worst Performing Currency

"Rosneft has sold bonds for ~600 billions rubles to mysterious buyer in
Friday. Apparently "mysterious buyer" is yet another FSB-controlled bank
which borrowed said rubles from central bank. Most likely Rosneft has
dumped billions of rubles on exchange today (they are denying it) and
they will continue tomorrow."

[delovski]

FT - Soros: Capitalism versus Open Society

"I first encountered the agency problem in connection with the so-called
resource curse. By resource curse I mean that countries that are rich in
natural resources are often cursed with corrupt or repressive governments,
insurrections, and civil wars so that the people are even poorer and lead
more miserable lives than in countries that are less well-endowed by nature.
Think of the Congo, Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Liberia."

[Ike]

ssrn - Business Retreats and Sanctions Are Crippling the Russian Economy

"Despite some lingering leakiness, Russian imports have largely
collapsed, and the country faces stark challenges securing crucial
inputs, parts, and technology from hesitant trade partners, leading
to widespread supply shortages within its domestic economy.

As a result of the business retreat, Russia has lost companies representing
~40% of its GDP, reversing nearly all of three decades' worth of foreign
investment and buttressing unprecedented simultaneous capital and
population flight in a mass exodus of Russia's economic base.

Oil & gas: In fact, only after a long and unexplained delay did the Kremlin
finally disclose that total oil and gas revenues dropped by more than half
in May from prior months, by the Kremlin's own numbers - along with the
declaration that the Kremlin would cease releasing any new oil and gas
revenues from that point on.

China: In fact, according to the most recent monthly releases from
the Customs General Administration of China, which maintains detailed
Chinese trade data with detailed breakdowns of exports to individual
trade partners, Chinese exports to Russia plummeted by 50% from
the start of the year to April, falling from over $8 billion monthly at
the end of 2021 to under $4 billion in April. This aligns with our anecdotal
observations of several Chinese banks withdrawing all credit and financing
from Russia, including ICBC, the New Development Bank, and the Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank, in addition to energy giants such as
Sinochem suspending all Russian investments and joint ventures."

[Ike]

r - The Netherlands may be the first country to hit the limits of growth

"And so every growth opportunity hits capacity constraints. I recently queued
for three hours at Schiphol airport, global aviation's second-biggest hub,
because it cannot find enough security guards. The foreign students flooding
Dutch universities cannot find housing. Amidst an energy crisis, the Dutch are
closing Europe's largest natural gas reserve because, in a packed country,
drilling-induced earthquakes upset the neighbours."