Robobug goes to war: Troops to use electronic insects to spot enemy ‘by end of the year’ Daily Mail. And no doubt on citizens, in due course. Judge rules for Taser in cause-of-death decisions azcentral. Taser is suing to prevent medical examiners from citing the device as a cause of death. UBS May Cut 8,000 […]
Read more...Sometimes I wonder if I am too critical of the punditocracy. But much should be expected of Larry Summers, former Treasury secretary and Harvard economics professor, yet many of his comment pieces in the Financial Times, which command considerable attention, appear to come up short. Consider his current offering “A strategy to promote healthy globalisation.” […]
Read more...The “end of the credit crisis” apostates looks to be a small and shrinking group (and we don’t mean just the downbeat but nevertheless accurate Nouriel Roubini or Michael Panzner). I’m amazed our number is as small as it is, given the overwhelming counterevidence in the form of the increase in the Term Auction Facility […]
Read more...Today a brave filly died at Churchill Downs. Eight Belles was the only one of a huge field of twenty to break from the pack in the homestretch of the Kentucky Derby and attempt to run down the hard charging winner, Big Brown. She collapsed almost immediately after crossing the finish line, both ankles broken, […]
Read more...Here we are, in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and what do we see? Central banks madly pumping water out of leaky, listing vessels, some discussion of how to patch the most visible holes, but perilous little consideration of how to correct the defects of construction, poor choice of […]
Read more...China orders heightened efforts to stop deadly virus PhysOrg. China wanted the Olympics to prove it had arrived as a modern power, but the increased scrutiny is instead showing all the country’s warts. Inflation Returns to Japan – Tightroping Between a Slowdown and Recession Global Economy Matters A Memo I’d Love to See: Whales and […]
Read more...‘Sex pest’ seal attacks penguin BBC Explaining International Broadband Leadership ITIF. The US continues to fall in international broadband rankings, and non-policy factors explain roughly 3/4 of the slippage. Holiday from Sanity John Quiggin and My Mayor Blasts the McCain-Clinton Gasoline Tax Holiday PGL. Angry Bear Fast and Easy Fannie James Hamilton, Econbrowser Poised for […]
Read more...Anytime you hear people on different ends of the political spectrum, such as Anna Schwartz (famed as co-author with Milton Friedman) and Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff agree on anything, it’s worth taking notice. In this case, it’s the Fed’s extreme efforts to save the markets, in particular the Bear bailout, that is attracting widespread criticism. One […]
Read more...The BofA/Countrywide follies continue. Earlier in the week, the Charlotte bank, in an SEC filing on the pending Countrywide acquisition, remained silent on the question of the fate of Countrywide bonds. As we had mentioned some time ago, BofA plans to use a deal structure that would leave the debt in a subsidiary so that […]
Read more...Dear readers, my flight back from LA was VERY delayed and I am wiped. So I will put a few quick items up tonight and hopefully be back to more-or-less normal early Sunday AM (if you are lucky, I may get make some headway Saturday). And of course, I was stuck in an aluminum cylinder […]
Read more...I am still recovering from the Milken Conference, and unlike my fellow blog panelists Paul Kedrosky, Felix Salmon and Mark Thoma, have not written any posts on particular sessions. In part, that was because in my other life as a consultant, I am well aware of the dangers of relying on memory even though mine […]
Read more...Because I have yet to throw my stuff back in my bags to be on a morning plane back to NY, I must be brief. I have not had the chance to think about Avinash Persaud regulatory proposals at VoxEU deeply, but at a first glance, they sound appealing. However, the devil will lie in […]
Read more...‘Big Dry’ hits Australian farmers BBC J.K. Rowling, Lexicon and Oz Orson Scott Card Insight: Triple A prices are out of sync Gillian Tett, Financial Times Mortgage Aid Plan Advances in House New York Times Risk taking, remuneration and leverage Willem Buiter. Or “What we lost by abolisihing debtors’ prison.” U.S. Recession Probabilities Jeremy Piger […]
Read more...Some months ago, we had mentioned that Bank of America was keen to avoid taking on Countrywide’s liabilities (who wouldn’t be?). The possibility that the giant bank might not provide a guarantee for Countrywide’s debt came to the fore again. Without BofA backing, the Countrywide paper is a pretty dodgy proposition. From Bloomberg: Bank of […]
Read more...“Mega” is not the sort of word one usually associates with economic analysis. It’s the domain of popular books and obesity-inducing sizes of junk food. The normally sober blog VoxEU may be drifting into pop economics usage, although the focus of its article is straightforward. Dennis J Snower argues that the credit crisis, and more […]
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