The Office for National Statistics in the UK has just released its estimates for GDP in the last quarter of 2012 (click here). GDP fell by 0.3%, which means that if GDP growth in the first quarter of 2013 is negative that the UK is officially back in recession for the third time since the 2008 financial crisis. GDP in the UK is still below its 2007 level, and the big question for many economists is when will GDP get back to its 2007 level? Many commentators are talking about a decade or more of lost growth. Maybe it would have been better to let the banks fail in 2008 rather than endure a sickly economy for a decade or more!
According to Robert Shiller , speaking at Davos, Bitcoin is a perfect example of a bubble - story here . Shiller sees Bitcoin as a backwards step in the evolution of money. George Selgin , a free banker, takes an opposing view - click here . Although he doesn't believe that Bitcoin is money, he sees its development as a fascinating turn in the evolution of money. In particular, he lauds the fact that Bitcoin production is constrained and cannot be infinite. There is a short video below where Bitcoin explain how it works.