Readings for Computational Finance Students

Disclaimer: Recommending the articles below doesn't imply that I agree with the views expressed in them.

Good reads from The Economist

I recommend my students to practice read and write regularly. This page contains articles that I recommend to students in computational finance. For students who are learning to write, I recommend them to write a 100-200 words summary for each article that they read.

2020.10.21 Controlling the pandemic Should covid be left to spread among the young and healthy? Two petitions by scientists clash on the matter
2020.10.03 Match and mix: How hybrids have upturned evolutionary theory, The origin of species is more complex than Darwin envisaged
2020.09.12 Schools brief, putting on weight: Governments can borrow more than was once believed, Hence only muted concern about borrowing to respond to covid-19
2020.08.08 From unthinkable to universal: Universal basic income gains momentum in America, Paying for it remains another matter (also known as Helicopter Money)
2020.08.08 Uncanny University: Covid-19 could push some universities over the brink, Higher education was in trouble even before the pandemic
2020.07.18 Huawei and the tech cold war: China v America, Trade without trust
2020.06.11 Technology Quarterly - Artificial Intelligence: An understanding of AI’s limitations is starting to sink in, After years of hype, many people feel AI has failed to deliver, says Tim Cross
The cost of training machines is becoming a problem, Increased complexity and competition are part of it
Types of Data & Measurement Scales: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval and Ratio
2020.01.09 In good taste: What a museum of disgusting food reveals about human nature, Visitors receive a sick bag in lieu of a ticket
2020.01.02 Technology in China: With the state’s help, Chinese technology is booming, But it will not be a smooth road to global dominance, says Hal Hodson
2020.01.02 Chinese students: The new red scare on American campuses, Both their host government and their home government increasingly view Chinese students with suspicion
2019.12.18 Seize the memes: Teenagers are rewriting the rules of the news, That will affect both the industry and society
2019.12.12 The spying business: Western firms should not sell spyware to tyrants, It is both morally dubious and strategically risky
2019.12.12 Computer security: Offering software for snooping to governments is a booming business, A flurry of lawsuits has drawn attention to a growing part of the cyber-security industry
2019.11.21 Catching fire: Hong Kong stares into the abyss amid growing violence, A generation shapes its identity on the anvil of Xi Jinping’s intolerance
2019.11.14 State of denial: America’s public-sector pension schemes are trillions of dollars short, Police officers, teachers and other public workers face a brutal reckoning
2019.10.31 This article is full of lies: You really can fool some of the people, all of the time, Politicians pay a surprisingly small price for dishonesty
2019.10.24 Ulster’s unique position: Boris Johnson is trying to turn Northern Ireland into Hong Kong, It looks good, but only from a distance
2019.10.17 Not so green: Greta Thunberg accuses rich countries of “creative carbon accounting”, When it comes to measuring national emissions, she has a point
2019.10.03 Masters of the universe: The rise of the financial machines, Forget Gordon Gekko. Computers increasingly call the shots in financial markets
2019.09.12 A way forward? Huawei has made a peace offering that deserves consideration, The idea of selling off its 5G intellectual property is not so outlandish
2019.09.07 Battle algorithm: Artificial intelligence is changing every aspect of war, A new type of arms race could be on the cards
2019.09.05 Mind control: Artificial intelligence and war, As computers play a bigger role in warfare, the dangers to humans rise
2019.08.17 The new censors: The global gag on free speech is tightening, In both democracies and dictatorships, it is getting harder to speak up
2019.07.12 Why China Still Needs Hong Kong, Tianiel Huang, Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) Report (in Chinese)
2019.08.08 SchumpeterThe Exxon: Valdez of cyberspace, If data are the new oil, data breaches should be treated like oil spills
2019.08.08 Turmoil in Hong Kong: Hong Kong remains crucially important to mainland China, How the Communist Party react to protests there will determine the future of Asia’s pre-eminent financial centre
2019.08.08 Staring into the abyss: Chinese troops must stay off the streets of Hong Kong, Deploying the army would have dangerous repercussions for China and the rest of the world
2019.07.25 Free exchange: A society’s values and beliefs matter for its economy, And cultural change can unlock the economic potential of people and ideas
2019.06.29 The rich v the rest: A rare peep at the finances of Britain’s 0.01%, The richest of the rich are even richer than thought—which means inequality may be rising faster than imagined, too; It is based on the following research:
Mike Brewer and Claudia Samano-Robles, Top Incomes in the UK: Analysis of the 2015-16 Survey of Personal Incomes, ISER Working Paper Series 2019-06, 17 June 2019
2019.06.20 Coin flip: Facebook wants to create a worldwide digital currency, Libra could be massively disruptive—including to the social network itself
2019.06.20 Bartleby: The promotion curse, Updating the Peter principle
2019.06.13 People v power: The rule of law in Hong Kong, Huge demonstrations have rattled the territory’s government—and the leadership in Beijing
2019.05.30 Autism-spectrum disorder: More evidence that autism is linked to gut bacteria, Understanding that link may be crucial to treatment
2019.05.30 A noble enemy: How Saladin became a hero in the West, He defeated the crusaders—and inspired a legend
2019.05.23 Work: The rich world is enjoying an unprecedented jobs boom, Capitalism’s critics are yet to notice
2019.05.16 China v America: A new kind of cold war. How to manage the growing rivalry between America and a rising China
2019.05.09 Speaking softly: America ratchets up the pressure in its trade war with China, China’s measured strategy could soon be put to the test
Shock therapy: So far, Donald Trump’s trade war has not derailed the global economy, An escalation would inflict much greater damage
2019.05.02 Banking services: Tech’s raid on the banks, Digital disruption is coming to banking at last
2019.04.17 The trouble with tech unicorns: Tech’s new stars have it all—except a path to high profits, Millions of users, cool brands and charismatic bosses are not enough
2019.04.13 Central banks: The independence of central banks is under threat from politics, That is bad news for the world
2019.03.28 The chairman will see you now: The enduring influence of Mao Zedong, Alone among bloody 20th-century dictators his myth and thinking still resonate
2019.03.23 Whose business is your data? Europe’s GDPR offers privacy groups new ways to challenge adtech, And regulators are listening
2019.02.14 Out of left field: Millennial socialists want to shake up the economy and save the climate, Do they make sense?
2019.02.09 Big oil and the environment The truth about big oil and climate change, Even as concerns about global warming grow, energy firms are planning to increase fossil-fuel production. None more than ExxonMobil
2019.01.31 Scientific ethics: Recent events highlight an unpleasant scientific practice: ethics dumping, Rich-world scientists conduct questionable experiments in poor countries
2019.01.24 Slowbalisation: The steam has gone out of globalisation, A new pattern of world commerce is becoming clearer—as are its costs
2019.01.19 The Albert call: The view from a long-standing stockmarket bear, The risks of a hard landing in China remain, and the euro will break up
2019.01.10 Bartleby: Companies will perform better if employees are not cowed into silence, Keeping schtum can lead to poor business decisions or be dangerous
2018.11.08 After the boom, the bust: Britain may soon have a bankrupt university, Will the government have the stomach to let it go under?
2018.08.23 The exiles fight back: Hayek, Popper and Schumpeter formulated a response to tyranny, Their lives and reputations diverged, but their ideas were rooted in the traumas of their shared birthplace
2018.08.04 The father of liberalism: Against the tyranny of the majority, John Stuart Mill's warning still resonates today
2018.08.02 Greens meet geeks: Hope, hype and heresy as blockchains enter the energy business, As yet, applications of the new technology have not lived up to expectations
2018.07.26 Gateway to the globe: China has a vastly ambitious plan to connect the world, What is behind the Belt and Road Initiative?

Universities withstood MOOCs but risk being outwitted by OPMs

2018.06.30 The television will be revolutionised: Netflix is moving television beyond time-slots and national markets, It may make screen-based entertainment a winner-takes-most business
2018.06.07 Images aren’t everything: AI, radiology and the future of work, Clever machines will make workers more productive more often than they will replace them
2018.05.31 Technology and surveillance: Does China’s digital police state have echoes in the West?, The state can gather more information, more easily, than ever before. Do not underestimate the risks
2018.05.12 The $100bn bet: The meaning of the Vision Fund, Succeed or fail, Masayoshi Son is changing the world of technology investing
2018.05.03 The worth of nations: Economists focus too little on what people really care about
2018.04.26 Digital detergent: Crypto money-laundering, Will crypto help the money-launderers of the future?
2018.03.15 Technopolitics: The challenger, In blocking Broadcom’s takeover of Qualcomm, Donald Trump showed that America is worried about Chinese tech. It has a point. It doesn’t have an answer
2018.03.10 It ain’t necessarily so: Five things Donald Trump thinks about trade that are not true, And one that is
2018.03.08 Jen Review: 9 Amazing Benefits of Technology in the Classroom (+18 Best Ways to Incorporate Technology) by J Miller
2018.03.01 Geopolitics: How the West got China wrong, It bet that China would head towards democracy and the market economy. The gamble has failed
2018.02.15 Attack of the minnows: The digital upstarts taking on Britain’s dominant few banks, A battle between, on one side, novelty, technology and gusto and, on the other, immovable inertia
2018.01.25 My truth against yours: Waging war with disinformation, The power of fake news and undue influence ("In the future, “fake news” put together with the aid of artificial intelligence will be so realistic that even the best-resourced and most professional news organisation will be hard pressed to tell the difference between the real and the made-up sort.")
2018.01.25 The new battlegrounds: The future of war, War is still a contest of wills, but technology and geopolitical competition are changing its character, argues Matthew Symonds (Ideas presented in this article was expanded in 8 other articles in the same issue.)
2018.01.04 The next frontier: Using thought to control machines, Brain-computer interfaces may change what it means to be human
2017.10.21 Artificial intelligence: The latest AI can work things out without being taught, Learning to play Go is only the start
2017.10.14 Life and soul of the Party: Xi Jinping has been good for China’s Communist Party; less so for China, Contradicting Deng Xiaoping, Mr Xi has concentrated vast power in his own hands
2017.09.30 Running Europe: The spotlight shifts from Germany to France, A dynamic Emmanuel Macron and a diminished Angela Merkel point to a new order in Europe
2017.09.23 The next wave: China’s audacious and inventive new generation of entrepreneurs, Industries and consumers around the world will soon feel their impact
2017.09.09 Nowhere to hide: What machines can tell from your face, Life in the age of facial recognition [Artificial Intelligence]
2017.08.31 Overlapping generations: Kicking the can down an endless road, The final brief in our series on big economic ideas looks at the costs (and benefits) of passing on the bill to the next generation
2017.08.24 Fear of finance: Financial stability is a growing concern of central banks, China’s central bank has more cause to worry than the Fed or the ECB
2017.08.19 After Charlottesville: Donald Trump has no grasp of what it means to be president, U-turns, self-regard and equivocation are not what it takes
2017.08.17 Making history: The Communist Party is redefining what it means to be Chinese, And is glossing over its own history of mauling Chinese culture
2017.08.12 Electric cars: The death of the internal combustion engine, It had a good run. But the end is in sight for the machine that changed the world [and the job losses]
2017.08.05 Red lines and bad choices: How a nuclear war in Korea could start, and how it might end, Everyone would lose
2017.08.03 Mind the gap: Universities’ main pension pot faces the biggest deficit of any British fund, Their position as independent institutions funded with public cash is an awkward one
2017.07.27 Code red: Why China’s AI push is worrying, State-controlled corporations are developing powerful artificial intelligence [Artificial Intelligence]
2017.07.22 Education technology: Together, technology and teachers can revamp schools, How the science of learning can get the best out of edtech
2017.07.15 The algorithm kingdom: China may match or beat America in AI, Its deep pool of data may let it lead in artificial intelligence [Artificial Intelligence]
2017.07.08 Vorsprung durch Angst: The good and bad in Germany’s economic model are strongly linked, Germany is admired for its stability but derided for persistent trade surpluses
2017.07.01 American politics: Donald Trump’s Washington is paralysed, And the man in the Oval Office is making a bad situation worse
2017.07.01 Twenty years on: What Hong Kong can teach China, The territory should be a place to experiment with political reform, not stifle it
2017.06.22 Down market? Hong Kong’s stock exchange proposes a controversial reform, A new board, aimed at tech upstarts and Chinese firms, would have laxer standards
2017.06.17 Emmanuel Macron: Electoral victory will make France’s president a potent force, But he will still have to face down a challenge from the street
2017.06.10 Britain’s election: Theresa May’s failed gamble, The Conservatives’ botched campaign will bring chaos—and opportunities
2017.05.27 Quants and the quirks: Is efficient-market theory becoming more efficient? Theory is changing traders’ behaviour. And vice versa
2017.05.25 Unshackled algorithms: Machine-learning promises to shake up large swathes of finance, In fields from trading to credit assessment to fraud prevention, machine-learning is advancing [Artificial Intelligence]
2017.05.25 An ORSome wheeze: How becoming a Hong Kong pensioner can save you tax, An increasingly popular loophole in the global tax-compliance regime
2017.05.18 Free exchange: A new anthology of essays reconsiders Thomas Piketty’s “Capital”, The book explores arguments left undeveloped in Mr Piketty’s masterwork
2017.05.11 Free exchange: William Baumol, a great economist, died on May 4th , A prolific writer and originator of the idea of “cost disease”, he was 95

2017.05.04 The belt-and-road express: China faces resistance to a cherished theme of its foreign policy, Silk routes are not always as appealing as they sound
2017.05.04 Regulating the internet giants: The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data, The data economy demands a new approach to antitrust rules
2017.04.22 The first round: This French election is unprecedented in all sorts of ways, High stakes and a close race
2017.02.04 Reality, only better: The promise of augmented reality, Replacing the real world with a virtual one is a neat trick. Combining the two could be more useful [Artificial Intelligence]
2017.01.28 Touch-screen teaching: Emerging markets should welcome low-cost private schools, An East African crackdown on Bridge International Academies is hopelessly misguided
2017.01.21 A Trump White House: The 45th president, What is Donald Trump likely to achieve in power?
2016.12.24 Cambridge economists: The art and science of economics at Cambridge, The history of a famous faculty shows that the way economics is taught depends on what you think economists are for
2016.12.03 The mighty dollar: Why a strengthening dollar is bad for the world economy, The rise of the greenback looks like something to welcome. That is to ignore the central role the dollar plays in global finance
2016.11.17 Credit in China: Just spend, China’s consumer credit-rating culture is evolving fast—and unconventionally
2016.10.01 Anti-globalists: Why they’re wrong, Globalisation’s critics say it benefits only the elite. In fact, a less open world would hurt the poor most of all
2016.09.10 Post-truth politics: Art of the lie and Yes, I'd lie to you, Dishonesty in politics is nothing new; but the manner in which some politicians now lie, and the havoc they may wreak by doing so, are worrying
2016.09.03 Personal transportation: Uberworld, The world’s most valuable startup is leading the race to transform the future of transport
2016.08.27 (Economics Brief 6) The Mundell-Fleming trilemma: Two out of three ain’t bad, A fixed exchange rate, monetary autonomy and the free flow of capital are incompatible, according to the last in our series of big economic ideas
2016.08.27 Immigration economics: Wage war, Who are the main economic losers from low-skilled immigration?
2016.08.20 (Economics Brief 5) Game theory: Prison breakthrough, The fifth of our series on seminal economic ideas looks at the Nash equilibrium
2016.08.20 Data analytics: The power of learning, Clever computers could transform government [Artificial Intelligence]
2016.08.20 Machine learning: Of prediction and policy, Governments have much to gain from applying algorithms to public policy, but controversies loom [Artificial Intelligence]
2016.08.13 The other side of Warren Buffett: Don’t Buff it up, An investing hero is not a model for how to reform America’s economy
2016.08.11 (Economics Brief 4) Fiscal multipliers: Where does the buck stop? Fiscal stimulus, an idea championed by John Maynard Keynes, has gone in and out of fashion
2017.08.06 (Economics Brief 3) Tariffs and wages: An inconvenient iota of truth, The third in our series looks at the Stolper-Samuelson theorem
2016.08.06 China’s mobile internet: WeChat’s world, China’s WeChat shows the way to social media’s future
2016.08.06 Technology in China: China’s tech trailblazers, The Western caricature of Chinese internet firms needs a reboot
2016.07.30 (Economics Brief 2) Financial stability: Minsky’s moment, The second article in our series on seminal economic ideas looks at Hyman Minsky’s hypothesis that booms sow the seeds of busts
2016.07.30 Globalisation and politics: The new political divide, Farewell, left versus right. The contest that matters now is open against closed
2017.07.23 (Economics Brief 1) Information asymmetry: Secrets and agents, George Akerlof’s 1970 paper, “The Market for Lemons”, is a foundation stone of information economics. The first in our series on seminal economic ideas
2016.07.23 Turmoil in Turkey: After the coup, the counter-coup, The failed putsch was the bloodiest Turkey has seen; the backlash is as worrying
2016.07.21 (Economics Brief) Big economic ideas: Breakthroughs and brickbats, What economists can learn from the discipline’s seminal papers
2016.07.16 The South China Sea: Courting trouble, An international tribunal delivers a blow to China’s claims in the South China Sea
2016.07.09 Self-driving cars: Motoring with the Sims, Testing autonomous vehicles virtually will make them safer on real roads [Artificial Intelligence]
2016.07.02 Liberalism after Brexit: The politics of anger, The triumph of the Brexit campaign is a warning to the liberal international order
2016.06.25 Artificial intelligence: March of the machines, What history tells us about the future of artificial intelligence—and how society should respond [Artificial Intelligence]
2016.06.18 Free Exchange: A history of violence, Evidence is growing that gun violence in America is a product of weak gun laws
2016.06.09 Technology Quarterly: The future of agriculture, Factory fresh
2016.06.04 Free speech: Under attack, Curbs on free speech are growing tighter. It is time to speak out
2016.05.28 Migration: Looking for a home, The migrant crisis in Europe last year was only one part of a worldwide problem. The rich world must get better at managing refugees, says Tom Nuttall
2016.05.21 Crypto-investing: The DAO of accrue, A new, automated investment fund has attracted stacks of digital money
2016.05.14 The economy: Black gold, white gold, The rentier system is in trouble, in the big oil-producing states and beyond
2016.05.07 China’s financial system: The coming debt bust, It is a question of when, not if, real trouble will hit in China
2016.04.30 Measuring economies: The trouble with GDP, Gross domestic product (GDP) is increasingly a poor measure of prosperity. It is not even a reliable gauge of production
2016.04.23 The case against Google: Tie breaker, The EU’s case that Google has abused its dominance in mobile operating systems has merit
2016.04.16 Encryption and the law: Scrambled regs, The cold war between government and computing firms is hotting up
2016.04.09 Leak of the century: The lesson of the Panama papers, More should be done to make offshore tax havens less murky
2016.04.02 America and the world: Trade, at what price? America’s economy benefits hugely from trade. But its costs have been amplified by policy failures
2016.03.26 Business in America: Too much of a good thing, Profits are too high. America needs a giant dose of competition
2016.03.19 Higher education: Class apart, A growing number of European students are opting to pay for their education
2016.03.10 After Moore’s law: The future of computing, The era of predictable improvement in computer hardware is ending. What comes next?
2016.03.05 Anthropology: The medium is the messengers, A global study reveals how people fit social media into their lives
2016.03.05 Hong Kong and the mainland: Fear-jerker, A film abhorrent to the Communist Party has proved a hit in the territory
2016.03.05 Brexit brief: In, out, find a fib to shout, Voters want facts about Britain and the European Union—but these are elusive {Note: The Economist takes a position, that Brexit is bad, and makes it clear that it is trying to influence the public}
2016.02.27 Britain and the European Union: The real danger of Brexit, Leaving the EU would hurt Britain—and would also deal a terrible blow to the West
2016.02.20 Fighting the next recession: Unfamiliar ways forward, Policymakers in rich economies need to consider some radical approaches to tackling the next downturn
2016.02.13 Regulating cannabis: The right way to do drugs, The argument for the legalisation of cannabis has been won. Now for the difficult bit
2016.02.06 Interest rates: Negative creep, The negative-rates club is growing. But there is a limit to how low rates can go
2016.01.30 Foreign students: Train ’em up. Kick ’em out, Shrewd governments welcome foreign students. Stupid ones block and expel them
2016.01.23 The world economy: Who’s afraid of cheap oil?, Low energy prices ought to be a shot in the arm for the economy. Think again
2016.01.16 Chinese politics: A crisis of faith, In their response to wobbly markets, China’s leaders reveal their fears
2016.01.16 China’s economy: The yuan and the markets, Strains on the currency suggest that something is very wrong with China’s politics
2016.01.09 China’s market meddling: The control quagmire, A desire to limit volatility is giving rise to even bigger risks
2016.01.02 Brazil’s crisis: Irredeemable? A former star of the emerging world faces a lost decade
2015.12.19 Briefing: Disney: The force is strong in this firm, Disney is making a fortune and safeguarding its future by buying childhood, piece by piece
2015.12.12 Monetary policy: After lift-off, The Federal Reserve is set to raise interest rates for the first time since 2006. Its next step matters more
2015.12.05 The speed of business: Hyperactive, yet passive, Worries about corporate myopia miss the point. Even in America, business is not dynamic enough
2015.11.28 China: Seeing daylight, The world’s biggest polluter cleans up
2015.11.14 The world economy: The never-ending story, First America, then Europe. Now the debt crisis has reached emerging markets
2015.11.07 Sea snakes: Fangs a lot, Something is lurking in California’s waters [introducing Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the marathon version of El Nino]
2015.11.07 Planning for El Niño: Disaster foretold, The world’s biggest climatic weather phenomenon is easier to predict than many calamities. But it shows the importance of preparing for other disasters, too
2015.10.31 The promise of the blockchain: The trust machine, The technology behind bitcoin could transform how the economy works
2015.10.24 China and Britain: Friends in need, Britain has rolled out the red carpet for Xi Jinping. It must not forget its better friends
2015.10.17 China’s left-behind generation: Pity the children, There are 70m reasons to ease China’s curbs on internal migration
2015.10.10 The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Every silver lining has a cloud, The sealing of a Pacific trade deal is welcome. But spare the cheers
2015.10.03 The world economy: Dominant and dangerous, As America’s economic supremacy fades, the primacy of the dollar looks unsustainable
2015.10.03 Asian-Americans: The model minority is losing patience, Asian-Americans are the United States’ most successful minority, but they are complaining ever more vigorously about discrimination, especially in academia
2015.09.26 China’s consumers: Doughty but not superhuman, China’s consumption boom is not enough to succour the world economy
2015.09.19 Development in Mexico: Of cars and carts, Despite decades of reform, most Mexicans are still a long way from wealth and modernity
2015.09.12 Europe’s challenge: Strangers in strange lands, The world’s institutional approach to refugees was born in Europe seven decades ago. The continent must relearn its lessons
2015.09.12 Business in China: The China that works, If the economic miracle is to continue, officials must give the private sector more freedom
2015.09.12 Cyber-security: Trouble shooting, America’s computers and networks are under attack. Retaliation against Chinese hackers looms
2015.09.05 [China's] Victory Day celebrations: Parade’s end, The real purpose of a rare military display was to show who is in charge
2015.08.29 Financial markets: The Great Fall of China, Fear about China’s economy can be overdone. But investors are right to be nervous
2015.08.22 Genetic engineering: Editing humanity, A new technique for manipulating genes holds great promise—but rules are needed to govern its use
2015.08.22 After the Tianjin disaster: Poisonous connections, The explosions exposed murky links between business and government
2015.08.15 The world economy: Stuck in the middle, Emerging markets are being squeezed by America’s recovery and China’s slowdown
2015.08.08 Innovation: Time to fix patents, Ideas fuel the economy. Today’s patent systems are a rotten way of rewarding them
2015.08.08 China’s leaders: Party on the beach, The world should worry more about China’s politics than the economy
2015.08.08 Post-post-nationalist Germany: Strict order, Europe fears German nationalism. Germany says it is simply enforcing the rules
2015.08.01 For-profit education: The $1-a-week school, Private schools are booming in poor countries. Governments should either help them or get out of their way
2015.08.01 Low-cost private schools: Learning unleashed, Where governments are failing to provide youngsters with a decent education, the private sector is stepping in
2015.07.25 Silicon Valley: To fly, to fall, to fly again, The tech boom may get bumpy, but it will not end in a repeat of the dotcom crash
2015.07.18 Embedded computers: Hacking the planet, The internet of things is coming. Now is the time to deal with its security flaws
2015.07.11 Stocks in China: China embraces the markets, A panicked response to tumbling stocks casts doubt on the pace of reform
2015.07.04 The euro and Greece: Europe’s future in Greece’s hands, Whatever its outcome, the Greek crisis will change the EU for ever
2015.07.04 Shale oil and gas: Fractured finances, America’s shale-energy industry has a future. Many shale firms do not
2015.06.27 Muslims in China: Wooing Islamists with a beer festival, China’s government wonders how to stop terrorism in Xinjiang. Try treating Muslims more sensitively
2015.06.20 Justice in America: Jailhouse nation, How to make America’s penal system less punitive and more effective
2015.06.13 The world economy: Watch out, It is only a matter of time before the next recession strikes. The rich world is not ready
2015.06.06 Business in Japan: Meet Shinzo Abe, shareholder activist, At last Japan has introduced corporate-governance reforms that will make a difference
2015.05.30 Share prices in China: Flying too high, The long-term consequences of China’s coming stockmarket correction are the ones to fear
2015.05.23 Financial crimes: Unfair cop, America’s approach to punishing financial crime is muddled, lenient and self-defeating
2015.05.16 Tax-free debt: The great distortion, Subsidies that make borrowing irresistible need to be phased out
2015.05.09 Clever computers: The dawn of artificial intelligence, Powerful computers will reshape humanity’s future. How to ensure the promise outweighs the perils [Artificial Intelligence]
2015.05.02 The economics of low wages: When what comes down doesn’t go up, Salaries in rich countries are stagnating even as growth returns, and politicians are paying heed. They may struggle to improve things—and could make them worse
2015.04.28 China's monetary policy: The flawed analogy of Chinese QE
2015.04.25 Refugees: Europe’s boat people, The EU’s policy on maritime refugees has gone disastrously wrong
2015.04.18 The power of families: Dynasties, The enduring power of families in business and politics should trouble believers in meritocracy
2015.04.11 Opinion polls: The critical masses, Officials increasingly ask people a once taboo question: what they think
2015.04.11 The euro-zone revival: Don’t get europhoric, Investors are becoming excited about Europe again—too excited
2015.04.04 Land-shackled economies: The paradox of soil, Land, the centre of the pre-industrial economy, has returned as a constraint on growth
2015.03.28 Universities: The world is going to university, More and more money is being spent on higher education. Too little is known about whether it is worth it
2015.03.21 China on the world stage: A bridge not far enough, America is wrong to obstruct China’s Asian-infrastructure bank
2015.03.13 The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: American poodle to Chinese lapdog? America and Britain at odds over how to deal with China
2015.03.07 Nuclear weapons: The new nuclear age, A quarter of a century after the end of the cold war, the world faces a growing threat of nuclear conflict
2015.02.28 Smartphones: Planet of the phones, The smartphone is ubiquitous, addictive and transformative
2015.02.21 Cyber-security: The Kaspersky equation, A Russian antivirus firm impresses the sceptics, again
2015.02.14 The unbalanced global economy: American shopper, The world is once again relying too much on American consumers to power growth
2015.02.14 The view from the Kremlin Putin’s war on the West, As Ukraine suffers, it is time to recognise the gravity of the Russian threat—and to counter it
2015.01.31 Buttonwood: A peg in a poke, Currency markets have suddenly become a lot more volatile
2015.01.31 China's financial diplomacy: Rich but rash, To challenge the World Bank and the IMF, China will have to imitate them
2015.01.17 Renewables: We make our own, Renewables are no longer a fad but a fact of life, supercharged by advances in power storage
2015.01.17 New business models: All change, The power industry’s main concern has always been supply. Now it is learning to manage demand
2015.01.10 Economics evolves: A long way from dismal, Microeconomics powered by data is shaping tech firms. This trend has lessons for macroeconomics
2015.01.10 Silicon Valley economists: Meet the market shapers, A new breed of high-tech economist is helping firms crack new markets
2015.01.03 The on-demand economy: Workers on tap, The rise of the on-demand economy poses difficult questions for workers, companies and politicians
2014.12.20 Swine in China: Empire of the pig, China’s insatiable appetite for pork is a symbol of the country’s rise. It is also a danger to the world
2014.11.29 Internet monopolies Everybody wants to rule the world Online businesses can grow very large very fast—it is what makes them exciting. Does it also make them unusual threats to competition?
2014.06.28 The future of universities: The Digital Degree, The staid higher-education business is about to experience a welcome earthquake
2013.07.02 Chinese credit Chinese Credit Look Both Ways
2013.06.29 China’s cash crunch China’s Cash Crunch: Bear in the China Shop This is not the country’s Lehman moment, but it does herald a change of momentum
2013.06.15 Free exchange Taking credit for nothing China’s credit boom has got people worried. Should they be?
2011.10.08 Unmanned aerial warfare: Flight of the drones, Why the future of air power belongs to unmanned systems
2010.02.16 15:09 Financial risk: Fat tails, illustrated, Video by R.A.

Publications highly relevant to our students

Rothbard, M., What has Government Done to Our Money?, Ludwig von Mises Institute, fifth edition, 2005 (First published, Murray Rothbard 1963)
Glattfelder, J.B., Dupuis, A. & Olsen, R. Patterns in high-frequency FX data: discovery of 12 empirical scaling laws, Quantitative Finance, Volume 11 (4), 2011, 599-614
Alexandrova-Kabadjova, B., Martinez-Jaramillo, B., Garcia-Almanza, A. L. & Tsang, E. (ed.), Simulation in Computational Finance and Economics: Tools and Emerging Applications, IGI Global, 2012
Garcia-Almanza, A.L. & E.P.K. Tsang, Evolutionary Applications for Financial Prediction: Classification Methods to Gather Patterns Using Genetic Programming, VDM Verlag, 2011
Tsang, E.P.K., Foundations of Constraint Satisfaction, Edited by Thom Fruehwirth, Books on Demand, 2014 ISBN 978-3735723666
Rashidi, H. and Tsang, E.P.K., Vehicle Scheduling in Port Automation, 2nd Edition, CRC Press, 2015
Tsang: Economic markets need warning system to avert crashes, New Scientist, 18 April 2012 (full text in Market Science)
Tsang, Edward, Ran Tao, Antoaneta Serguieva and Shuai Ma, Profiling High Frequency Equity Price Movements in Directional Changes, Quantitative Finance, Vol.17, Issue 2, 2017, 217-225 (early version)
"How to forecast a financial crisis" by Clive Cookson on FT Magazine 30 March 2012 (pdf)

PhD Theses

Below are some of the recent PhD theses that caught my eye. PhDs in our computational finance & Economics Laboratory can be found in http://www.bracil.net/finance/papers.html

Yi Cao, Computational approaches for detecting manipulations in capital markets, PhD Thesis, Ulster University, 2015, to appear
Ilya Nikolay Zheludev, When Can Social Media Lead Financial Markets?, Thesis, PhD in Financial Computing, Centre in Financial Computing, University College London (UCL), 2015
Khin Thein Lwin, Evolutionary Approaches for Portfolio Optimisation, PhD Thesis, Department of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, 2014
Laleh Zangeneh, Investigating the Challenges of Data, Pricing and Modelling to Enable Agent Based Simulation of the Credit Default Swap Market, PhD, Department of Computer Science, University College London (UCL), 2014

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