by cactus Proportionate Response I’m not going to weigh in on the latest incarnation of the Israeli-Arab conflict – everyone’s opinion about who is right and who is wrong is set in stone anyway – except to say that I found the constant use of the term “proportionate” to be quite interesting. First, because very […]
Excessive Liquidity The Economist is worried about the rapid growth in the world’s money supply over the past couple of years: HOW loose is the world’s monetary policy? One gauge is that real interest rates in America and other countries are still negative. Another is that global liquidity has been expanding at its fastest pace […]
All (somewhat***) via Mark Thoma: Thomas Frank in the WSJ tells me why I always disagree with Robert (and the Other Economists) on the role of rating agencies: And who makes sure that Moody’s and its competitors downgrade what deserves to be downgraded? In 1999 the obvious answer would have been: the market, with its […]
Happy New Year from the Bears! Readers make this the best blog site in the world!
Greg Mankiw presents Yet Another Reason to regret skipping the AEA this year, though somehow the word “intentional” was left out of the description. Stan Collender, of all people, does the job I wished someone would do on Martin Feldstein’s WSJ op-ed. I may have beaten him by a day in calling it out, but […]
rdan Some are making predictions for 2009. How about you….send or leave some for 2009. Update: I will archive these projections. Obviously the timing of some projections is pretty hard to nail down….but then look at Ken’s 2007 post below.
rdan Running Machine Polar Bear Animation
Robert Waldmann ended my last post 5 minutes ago wishing for part III of the saga and here it is !The final act for AIG by Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Brady Dennis The collapse was, of course, quick when it came. One interesting fact is that AIG Financial Products (AIGFP) stopped writing new CDSs in […]
The whining has started, with most people (e.g., Chris Whalen at The Big Picture) making the obvious mistake of confusing GMAC with General Motors. In the interest of history, I quote myself from the Dark Ages (March 2007) at Tom’s Place: The next time GM explains that its pensioners need to take a hit, it […]
Robert Waldmann The second of three parts of Dennis and O’Harrow’s series on the downfall of AIG introduces two new features—credit default saps and Joseph Cassano. Together the two managed to bring down AIG. Thus far we have only read about how AIG got into the business of writing CDSs — it seemed too good […]