Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Weekend Reflection Points

The lead article in the current AER is available here (gated, apparently, though the link isn’t working; h/t Tom Bozzo [on FB] and Brad DeLong; I was using the paper copy). The most interesting part so far: the authors only considered the documented costs of air pollution—not land, not water—in deriving the (embarrassingly negative) ROI […]

Sources and Uses: Kash Delivers

Two posts on European Banks and their view of what constitutes a “Safe Harbor.” His conclusion isn’t just The Pull Quote of the Year, it’s the Pull Quote That Explains the Year: Putting it all together yields a compelling story: European banks are shifting their cash assets out of European banks and putting much of […]

Simon Johnson on Tim Geithner and Elizabeth Warren

Simon Johnson offers pointed criticism of the role Timothy Geithner has played to date in the Great Recession and bank regulation, in particular as an advisor and architect to the Obama economic team and how that policy is presented and pursued in Congress. Another worthwhile read.

Third Time, Someone Will Believe: Manage Risk or It Manages You

As the late Allison Snow-Jones noted, economics depends on working mathematics. Mathematics, in turn, depend on the conditions being described correctly. If I build a model in which two things are independent, they have to be independent for my model to work. Or, to quote a quoting: Many months ago, I quoted the brilliant Janet […]

Joachim Voth Tells the Truth and Shames the (German) Devil

Echoes of Japan, echoes of the Great Depression. One of the few economists who knows history closes a post by presenting the proper context for the choices: A quick exit [by Ireland, from the Euro] may still be better than a decade of slow, grinding deflation combined with Zombie banks and Zombie household balance sheets […]

Let Wal-Mart be a Bank

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt Consumer Finance: Let Wal-Mart be a Bank One of the side effects of the “great recession” is damage to credit records and banking relationships for many people who get in financial trouble. Many of them will have trouble reestablishing banking relationship (that the banks caused the recession is irrelevant, of […]

Speculation and Finance: Good for you? (part III)

by Linda BealeSpeculation and Finance: Good for you? (part III) In a couple of prior postings (Part 1 and Part 2), I considered (1) Darrell Duffie’s op-ed in the Wall St. Journal asserting that financial institution speculation in the markets is “good” for us and (2) the question of financial institution speculation in credit default […]

More on speculation: Banks, Credit Default Swaps, and Greece’s Debt

by Linda Beale More on speculation: Banks, Credit Default Swaps, and Greece’s Debt (Part 2) Yesterday, I commented on Darrell Duffie’s defense of speculation in the Wall Street Journal, here. I noted that the idea that speculation is a positive because it absorbs risk others don’t want and helps reveal the “true price” by providing […]

Bankers Bonuses and Bank Reforms: why they are needed, what they might include, and are you angry yet?

by Linda Beale Bankers Bonuses and Bank Reforms: why they are needed, what they might include, and are you angry yet? A big title for a tiny little sketch of a post, I know. Not much time today folks, but if you can read only one blog posting, read the one at Naked Capitalism at […]