Jim Garven's Blog

A blog exploring the intersection of economics, finance, insurance, risk management, and life in general

Author Archive

How Real are the Defects in Toyota’s Cars?

How Real are the Defects in Toyota’s Cars? The Atlantic‘s Megan McArdle parses the data.  It appears to me that this whole episode may have created a once in a lifetime “buying opportunity” for people who may currently be in the market for a new, high quality car; i.e., a Toyota or a Lexus!

13 March 2010 at 10:19 - Comments

Assorted Links (3/12/2010)

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic):

Economics and Happiness

Are economics students happier? One estimation from Germany, by Tyler Cowen

Health Care Reform

Single Payer, Many Faults, by Joseph Rago

“Roger M. Battistella argues in “Health Care Turning Point” that the last thing the health-care system needs is more government involvement. [...]

12 March 2010 at 04:43 - Comments

Questions and Answers About the Financial Crisis

From Tyler Cowen at Marginalrevolution.com:

“Gary Gorton has a new and excellent paper… called “Questions and Answers About the Financial Crisis.”…Gorton’s short paper is one of the best essays on the crisis so far. 

For what it’s worth, I heartily agree with Tyler Cowen’s assessment of Gorton’s financial crisis FAQ…

6 March 2010 at 12:31 - Comments

Postal Service expected to announce ’significant changes’ – washingtonpost.com

Postal Service expected to announce ’significant changes’ – washingtonpost.com “The U.S. Postal Service will release projections Tuesday that confirm for the first time the suspicion that mail volume will never return to pre-recession levels. In response, the agency is pushing anew for a dramatic reshaping of how Americans get and send their letters and packages.”

My brother [...]

3 March 2010 at 11:27 - Comments
JAMES SPEORL
If the post office wants to cut costs, I would suggest eliminating the vast variety of stamp designs and denominations ...
3 March 10 at 18:10

Daniel Kahneman: The riddle of experience vs. memory

I would like to call attention to a short video presentation by Nobel economics laureate Daniel Kahneman on the science of happiness which is well worth watching and thinking about.  This video was filmed last month at the TED 2010 conference (held February 9–13 in Long Beach, CA; according to TED’s website, “TED is a small nonprofit devoted to [...]

3 March 2010 at 10:47 - Comments

Health Insurance Rate Hikes and Adverse Selection

I recommend reading the WSJ Health Blog entry entitled “WellPoint’s Argument for 39% Rate Hike: Adverse Selection”, by Jacob Goldstein.  This article explains how adverse selection is causing health insurance claims costs to increase substantially in the individual health insurance market in California. The adverse selection has come primarily in the form of healthy policyholders [...]

24 February 2010 at 14:39 - Comments

Assorted Links (2/23/2010)

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic): Economics and Public Policy

The Stimulus Evidence One Year On, by Robert Barro

“Over five years, my research shows an extra $600 billion of public spending at the cost of $900 billion in private expenditure. That’s a bad deal.”

How Not to Stop Healthcare [...]

23 February 2010 at 14:14 - Comments

Unintended Consequences

I am reading a fascinating book at the moment, entitled “Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition” by Michael J. Mauboussin.  The book is about decision-making, and it provides some very useful advice for groups as well as individuals concerning how to avoid making bad decisions that generate (mostly undesirable) unintended consequences. The following excerpt from [...]

15 February 2010 at 15:09 - Comments

“Paulson’s Gift”

Professors Veronesi and Zingales at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business have coauthored a new research paper entitled “Paulson’s Gift” which empirically calculates the costs and benefits of the US government’s October 2008 bailout of the financial sector of the US economy.  Here’s the abstract from their paper: 

“We calculate the costs and benefits [...]

5 February 2010 at 16:31 - Comments

Assorted Links (2/3/2010)

Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading today (organized by topic): Economics and Public Policy

How to Destroy American Jobs, by Matthew Slaughter

“Obama’s proposals for increasing the tax burden on U.S.-based multinationals would harm our most dynamic companies.”

From bail-out to bail-in, by Paul Calello and Wilson Ervin

“…Paul Calello, the head of Credit Suisse’s [...]

3 February 2010 at 13:52 - Comments