The Real Deal: On John Thain and ‘Goldmanising’ FT Alphaville
Tyler Cowen, Apologist for Fraud? The Big Picture. Ooh, this is good fun!
How low will Ben go? James Hamiltion, Econbrowser
Leading bias researcher turns out to be… biased, renounces result Overcoming Bias. At least try to be on a first name basis with your prejudices.
Wall Street, the new development frontier … Brad Setser. On the implications of our increasing beholdenness to China.
Study: Northeast Winters Warming Fast PhysOrg. In case you somehow failed to notice.
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Good on Barry R.
Brad DeLong tried to be gracious, but I really don’t see how Cowen going all Levitt on the borrowers deserves any quarter (though I note Mr. Ritholtz did change the title of the post).
warmer northeastern winters? you mean i shouldn’t be sleeping with my windows open in January?
oh well. as long as it snows somewhere warm this year, i’ll have everything i need for my powerful new anti-PC book that looks at the facts and puts all those long-hair fearmongers in their place, “Done Snowed: Scientific Proof It Kint Be A-Warming”.
The hypocrisy is appalling. Congress holds hearings when foreigners hold 5% stakes in American financial firms, while they press for opening up financial industries in other countries…
At any rate, this is just amusing theater. In an age when you can execute just about any financial transaction, in any market around the world, in realtime, from anyplace with electricity and a modem, there’s really no need to be in Manhattan or London to control the financial world.
I imagine that in the next 10-20 years, as China and India become even more important sources of capital for the world, it’s inevitable that they will exercise influence throughout the global financial markets, regardless of whether they buy out American firms to do it or develop their own.
Lune,
America still hasn’t gotten over our hegemonic status post WWII when we had half the world’s GDP. Our sense of our place in the world is badly warped. Add to that that we are a terribly inept empire and in denial about it too.
The one point where Setser’s alarm is warranted is that, conversely, China has better cards than we do, plays the game more shrewdly, and has objectives we don’t identify with, and we don’t devote the effort to figure out their game (particularly since they will also look over longer time horizons than we will even consider). Ditto the Japanese, who have managed to remain completely under the radar.
Yves,
Your analysis is as spot-on as it is depressing…
If you really want to get depressed, read Culture of Life News. Elaine Meinel Supkis is a bit mad, but she does have a very good grasp of history, an unorthodox take on economics, and also reads things like IMF and BIS reports in their entirety, which I somehow never can find the time to do.