Friday, July 23, 2010

Origin of 'Dynamic Programming'

An interesting question is, ‘Where did the name, dynamic programming, come from?’ The 1950s were not good years for mathematical research. We had a very interesting gentleman in Washington named Wilson. He was Secretary of Defense, and he actually had a pathological fear and hatred of the word, research. I’m not using the term lightly; I’m using it precisely. His face would suffuse, he would turn red, and he would get violent if people used the term, research, in his presence. You can imagine how he felt, then, about the term, mathematical. The RAND Corporation was employed by the Air Force, and the Air Force had Wilson as its boss, essentially. Hence, I felt I had to do something to shield Wilson and the Air Force from the fact that I was really doing mathematics inside the RAND Corporation. What title, what name, could I choose? In the first place I was interested in planning, in decision making, in thinking. But planning, is not a good word for various reasons. I decided therefore to use the word, ‘programming.’ I wanted to get across the idea that this was dynamic, this was multistage, this was time-varying—I thought, let’s kill two birds with one stone. Let’s take a word that has an absolutely precise meaning, namely dynamic, in the classical physical sense. It also has a very interesting property as an adjective, and that is it’s impossible to use the word, dynamic, in a pejorative sense. Try thinking of some combination that will possibly give it a pejorative meaning. It’s impossible. Thus, I thought dynamic programming was a good name. It was something not even a Congressman could object to. So I used it as an umbrella for my activities (p. 159).

via Core Economics
Related;
Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman Equation

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Visualization of the Day

How data travels from phone to computer

Albania - V Shaped Recovery ahead


IMF Article IV Staff Report on Albania is released;

Outlook: The baseline is for a V-shaped recovery, albeit to a lower potential growth than before the crisis, with low inflation and external imbalances narrowing. However, downside risks are significant
and elevated budget financing requirements under unchanged policies will crowd out private investment,thereby undermining potential growth over the medium term.

Policy Discussions: A tighter fiscal stance with improvements in productivity and competitiveness is a superior adjustment strategy, and consolidation could serve to enhance, rather than damage, growth
prospects. The authorities’ fiscal adjustment strategy is based on over-optimistic revenue and growth expectations. There was agreement of the benefits of a clear, credible, and monitorable fiscal rule to safeguard fiscal sustainability. Monetary policy should remain cautious and supervisors remain vigilant, given heightened regional uncertainty. Improvements in the business environment are critical to harvest the benefits from closer EU integration.


Links on Albanian data:
Ministry of Finance
Bank of Albania

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy

Institute of Statistics

Monday, July 12, 2010

Lithuania's Adjustment

Lithuanian economy - IMF verdict;

Average gross earnings have fallen by 12.4 percent from pre-crisis peaks, but in sectors such as construction and real estate services, labor costs are down 20–25 percent. Unemployment had reached 18.1 percent by end Q1 2010, with high levels of youth and long-term unemployment an increasing concern....

Restoring fiscal sustainability and ensuring financial stability are the
authorities’ key economic objectives
. This supports the long standing currency board arrangement (CBA) and conditions for successful Euro adoption. The latter, would allow an orderly exit from the CBA, eliminate currency risks and reduce liquidity risk, a consideration
given the high degree of euroization (over 70 percent of bank assets but just one-third of deposits). Realizing the ambitious 2014 timeline for euro adoption will require addressing three key challenges: putting the public finances back on a sustainable footing, safeguarding
the health of the financial system, and rebalancing the economy towards tradables to fostermore balanced growth and job creation.

Related:
From Lithuania, a View of Austerity’s Costs
Burden-sharing in Lithuania

Bad Journalism At The Economist

Friday, July 9, 2010

Economic Literacy with Cartoons

One way being tried to improve economic literacy in Poland;

Last year, for instance, the "inflation" prize went to a three-page comic strip about a king who was so prodigal when it came to reimbursing dragon-slayers for their services with his daughters' hand in marriage that soon an apple would set you back twelve and a half units of royal female progeny.Presenting economic principles in quirky comic form has clearly struck a chord, especially with children who adore the genre. Economists the world over bemoan their compatriots' dismal grasp of the dismal science. Implemented on a large scale, FOR's idea could help fix that.

Related:
Civil Development Forum
Polish Central Bank's Economic Education Portel;
* Distance learning - comprehensive multimedia e-learning courses, accompanied by illustrations, animation clips, and films.
* Teacher's Centre - a service designed for teachers of economics or economics-related subjects at lower and upper secondary schools in Poland. It contains teaching aids in the form of ready-to-use lesson plans, and practical tips on efficient and unconventional methods of conducting lessons.
* Fun - numerous decision-making quizzes, skill-enhancing and strategic games, crossword puzzles, and jigsaws. This part of the portal has been created for those who want to acquire basic information on economics while having fun.
* Knowledge Mines - made of two parts: the Virtual Library, and the glossary of economic terms. The Virtual Library contains electronic versions of academic publications, including the Bank's publications, as well as publications by external institutions co-operating with NBPortal.pl. The glossary features over a thousand entries, explaining the meaning of economic terms.
* News - both business headlines and larger articles and papers, presenting current economic and business issues in an intelligible way.