By Lambert Strether of Corrente
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
When I was 8 or 10 years old, my parents gave me an A.C. Gilbert “American Flyer” S-gauge train set for Christmas. That was a big deal for me then, and I’ve come to realize (many years later) that it was an even bigger deal than I thought.
Read more...By Michael Hoexter, a policy analyst and marketing consultant on green issues, climate change, clean and renewable energy, and energy efficiency. Originally published at New Economic Perspectives. Variation in Fossil Fuel Dependency Among Developed Countries and Degrowth As action is required today and in the near future, though, it is reasonable to assume that production […]
Read more...Yves here. One of the big problems with the growth v. “de-growth” debate is how terrible our measures of productive activity are.
Read more...Yves here. This post makes a deceptively simple but important observation. Despite claims otherwise, central banks are giving top priority to interest rate stability, over that of other mandates they have been given explicitly, such as the health of the financial system, price stability, and full employment. This is further confirmation of the idea that central banks are desperate to keep asset prices aloft.
Read more...A Christmas Carol is often mistakenly charged with creating our contemporary, festive, largely secular Christmas. And while that may have been one of Dickens’ motives, a bigger one is more obvious: that of better treatment of children and the working poor.
Read more...The Supreme Court delivers an ugly holiday surprise.
Read more...This lovely rendition of a Christmas classic has already gone viral, but even if you’ve seen it, I suspect you’ll enjoy a second viewing.
Read more...By Lambert Strether of Corrente
And in a genius PR move, the White House describes Obama’s act of successful shopping avoidance as “symbolic.” As indeed it is, although not in the way the White House thinks, or could be said to think. WaPo has the details:
Read more...Lambert here: Tapeworms at play.
By Wolf Richter, a San Francisco based executive, entrepreneur, start up specialist, and author, with extensive international work experience. Originally published at Testosterone Pit.
Financial engineering had a glorious year in 2013. The last time we had this much crazy fun had been in 2007. Back then, Merger Mondays were hot on CNBC. Deals, no matter how large and how insanely leveraged, were announced with great hoopla. Rational people were seen shaking their heads at incongruous moments. Stocks were defying gravity. That was the last time we had this much fun because the bubble collapsed, and some of its detritus was skillfully heaped on the Fed’s balance sheet or on the taxpayer’s shoulders.
Read more...By George Bailey, who has worked in senior compliance roles at Big Firms You’ve Heard Of and is also a member of Occupy the SEC
The first few legs in the in the Volcker Rule repeal relay race are now under way.
Read more...I highly recommend this short interview by John Authers of the Financial Times with Amar Bhidé, a professor at Tufts, in which he argues that a proper reading of Friedrich Hayek would lead to considerable skepticism about whether most of the changes in finance over the last three decades actually represent progress.
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