HOWARD NICHOLAS teaches Economics at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He has been an advisor to the Ministry of Policy Planning, Sri Lanka, and headed the UNDP's study of the Macroeconomics of Poverty Alleviation in Sri Lanka from 2002-3. He has published in the areas of inflation, development theory, financial markets, the global economy, and the macro dynamics of a number of countries.