Category Archives: Financial Crisis

Art, Music, and Culture, Economics, Finance, Financial Crisis, Health Care Reform, Politics, Public Policy, Science

Assorted Links (7/13/2010)

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Eugene White: Dodd-Frank, Meet William Jennings Bryan – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In the Wall Street Journal, Eugene White explains why a ‘Financial Crisis Fund,’ similar to current proposals, was rejected over a century ago during the financial crisis of 1893.”

Amity Shlaes: FDR, Obama and ‘Confidence’ – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Amity Shlaes writes in The Wall Street Journal that demonizing business deepened the Great Depression. The Obama White House can learn from Roosevelt’s mistakes.”

William McGurn: Obama’s Immigration Fakery – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Main Street columnist William McGurn says that in 2007, Barack Obama helped derail immigration reform as a junior senator from Illinois. As president, he is not serious about a bipartisan bill today.”

Brian Riedl: The Bush Tax Cuts and the Deficit Myth – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal Heritage Foundation fellow Brian Riedl explains that runaway government spending, not declining tax revenues, is the reason the U.S. faces dramatic budget shortfalls for years to come.”

Two Thumbs Down on the Financial-Reform Bill – Freakonomics Blog – NYTimes.com

freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

Economics Nobel laureate Gary Becker’s take on the financial-reform bill; he particularly dislikes the facts that this bill 1) adds regulations and rules about many activities that had little or nothing to do with the (financial) crisis, and 2) essentially says nothing about Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae.

Bret Stephens: Dr. Berwick and That Fabulous Cuban Health Care – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Global View columnist Bret Stephens writes about the death march of progressive medicine.”

Op-Ed Columnist – An Economy of Grinds – NYTimes.com

www.nytimes.com

“The slow economic recovery is shutting out the small businesses that are vital to its success.”

Fund Track: Collar Fund Offers Low Risk, Low Reward – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“A cautiously bullish strategy is the mainstay of the $31 million Collar Fund, whose portfolio has low enough risk to inspire comparisons to a bond fund, but whose hedged exposure to stocks aim for stronger returns than bonds.” The Collar Fund represents an interesting application of some very simple financial engineering; this is the sort of stuff we study in my “Options, Futures and Other Derivatives” course at Baylor University…”

Correlation Soars on S&P 500 Shares – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Stocks are trading in lock-step more than at any time since the 1987 crash, and the trend has some analysts concerned.”

2010 World Cup comes to a close – The Big Picture – Boston.com

www.boston.com

Who Pays for ObamaCare? – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“The Wall Street Journal on what Donald Berwick and Joe the Plumber both understand.”

Lessons From the Swedish Welfare State – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Swedish economists Andreas Bergh and Magnus Henrekson cite research that shows bigger government is associated with slower economic growth. Sweden is a prime example. It’s recent performance is due to market-oriented policies and a declining government share of GDP.

Pat Michaels: The Climategate Whitewash Continues: Don’t Believe the ‘Independent Reviews’

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, climate scientist Patrick J. Michaels criticizes the recent exoneration of charges that the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. He says that the members of the committee had a conflict of interest and that the review work was shoddy.”

Fred Barnes: Obama’s Entitlement Opportunity – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Fred Barnes notes that the president’s deficit commission isn’t likely to agree on tax increases. But it might recommend Social Security reform.”

Book review: Getting It Wrong – WSJ.com

online.wsj.com

“Edward Kosner reviews W. Joseph Campbell’s Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism.”

Finance, Financial Crisis

Classic Adam Smith quote on banking…

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“Though the principles of the banking trade may appear somewhat abstruse, the practice is capable of being reduced to strict rules. To depart upon any occasion from those rules, in consequence of some flattering speculation of extraordinary gain, is almost always extremely dangerous, and frequently fatal to the banking company which attempts it.”

— Adam Smith, “The Wealth of Nations”, 1776

Art, Music, and Culture, Economics, Finance, Financial Crisis, Foreign Policy, Politics, Public Policy, Terrorism

Assorted Links (5/29/2010)

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Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading lately: 
 
Charles Krauthammer – A disaster with many fathers
“Obama is as responsible for the Gulf as Bush was for New Orleans.”
 
Academics on What Caused the Financial Crisis – Real Time Economics – WSJ
“The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission on Friday and Saturday heard several academic economists’ take on what led to a near-meltdown of the global economy.”
 
Static In Search for Cellphone-Tumor Link – The Numbers Guy – WSJ
“Why a long-term study couldn’t reach conclusive results.”
 
Mark Helprin: On Memorial Day – WSJ.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Mark Helprin writes about what we owe to the fallen, and to those now serving.”

 
Calling a State Sponsor a State Sponsor

“A growing body of evidence points to Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s singular role in supporting terrorism and related criminality.”

 
Waves & Beyond and The Gift by Jan Florence Garven
“Waves & Beyond and The Gift by Jan Florence Garven: Jan Florence Garven is an artist who specializes in mixed media. She combines paper, metal, wax, textiles and found objects to convey conceptual images.”
 
Lighter than air – The Big Picture – Boston.com
“Fill a lightweight material with hot air, helium or hydrogen, and you have a vessel that floats in the air. People around the world use balloons, blimps and airships for transportation, to conduct research, to deliver messages, to protest, and – mostly – for having fun.”
 
Peggy Noonan: He Was Supposed to Be Competent – WSJ.com
“The spill is a disaster for the president and his political philosophy, Peggy Noonan argues in The Wall Street Journal.”
 
Obama’s Blowout Preventer – WSJ.com
“The Wall Street Journal that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had a reform plan to prevent blowouts like the one at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.”
 
World economy: Fear returns | The Economist
“Governments were the solution to the economic crisis. Now they are the problem.”
 
Wall Street’s Next Debacle Gets Help From Senate: Roy C. Smith – Bloomberg.com
“After a yearlong effort to get it right, the U.S. Senate passed a financial overhaul bill last week that actually weakens the government’s ability to manage the next financial crisis. The House version passed last December is better, but not much.”
Art, Music, and Culture, Economics, Finance, Financial Crisis, Foreign Policy, Politics, Public Policy, Terrorism

Assorted Links (5/29/2010)

Leave a comment
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading lately: 
 
Charles Krauthammer – A disaster with many fathers
“Obama is as responsible for the Gulf as Bush was for New Orleans.”
 
Academics on What Caused the Financial Crisis – Real Time Economics – WSJ
“The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission on Friday and Saturday heard several academic economists’ take on what led to a near-meltdown of the global economy.”
 
Static In Search for Cellphone-Tumor Link – The Numbers Guy – WSJ
“Why a long-term study couldn’t reach conclusive results.”
 
Mark Helprin: On Memorial Day – WSJ.com

“In The Wall Street Journal, Mark Helprin writes about what we owe to the fallen, and to those now serving.”

 
Calling a State Sponsor a State Sponsor

“A growing body of evidence points to Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez’s singular role in supporting terrorism and related criminality.”

 
Waves & Beyond and The Gift by Jan Florence Garven
“Waves & Beyond and The Gift by Jan Florence Garven: Jan Florence Garven is an artist who specializes in mixed media. She combines paper, metal, wax, textiles and found objects to convey conceptual images.”
 
Lighter than air – The Big Picture – Boston.com
“Fill a lightweight material with hot air, helium or hydrogen, and you have a vessel that floats in the air. People around the world use balloons, blimps and airships for transportation, to conduct research, to deliver messages, to protest, and – mostly – for having fun.”
 
Peggy Noonan: He Was Supposed to Be Competent – WSJ.com
“The spill is a disaster for the president and his political philosophy, Peggy Noonan argues in The Wall Street Journal.”
 
Obama’s Blowout Preventer – WSJ.com
“The Wall Street Journal that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had a reform plan to prevent blowouts like the one at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.”
 
World economy: Fear returns | The Economist
“Governments were the solution to the economic crisis. Now they are the problem.”
 
Wall Street’s Next Debacle Gets Help From Senate: Roy C. Smith – Bloomberg.com
“After a yearlong effort to get it right, the U.S. Senate passed a financial overhaul bill last week that actually weakens the government’s ability to manage the next financial crisis. The House version passed last December is better, but not much.”