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

Not-So-Select Short Subjects

Now that I know we’re just members of the “Peanut Gallery,”* let this random links post work as a placeholder for longer posts as we prepare for the “holiday”: Shorter Mark Thoma at Marketwatch: If you can’t build a better model, best to reappoint a man who doesn’t think he has to do half of […]

Ratings, Stocks, and Credibility

There is a reason I never believe people who judge the health of a company by its credit rating: the evidence isn’t there, and everyone in the market knows it isn’t there. Here is a prime example: General Electric (GE; the company that Jack eviscerated) has a AAA credit rating. It is also paying a […]

More on Presidential Administrations

Via Kathryn (who previously pointed us to a similar exercise for the U.S. election), Theo Gray expands on the work of Tommy McCall (as published in the NYT under the title “Bulls, Bears, Donkeys, and Elephants,” which was glibly dismissed by Greg Mankiw*). While his conclusion will be heartening to Brad DeLong: And one more […]

Let’s Play a Game: Connect the Dots

Let us assume: That there is an equity premium ([PDF] UPDATE: Link modified to Brad De Long posting in which the PDF is embedded. Hat tip: Don Lloyd in comments.) That the equity premium can be derived from a linear relationship (y = ax(1) + bx(2) + ….) of the most significant variables. That equity […]