Churchill’s famous dictum, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time,” could also be applied to mark-to-market accounting. However, like democracy, mark-to-market may be on its last legs. The stock market rally of late last week was fueled by the rumor that […]
Read more...One of our pet peeves has been that the quality of data for oil and gas is lousy. Given that these are physical products, bought and sold through many channels, with no way of assuring consistency and accuracy of reporting, it isn’t surprising. However, what is surprising is that many users of this information treat […]
Read more...Australia fires rage with 49 dead BBC Why sustainable power is unsustainable New Scientist Who’s Messing with Wikipedia? MIT Technology Review Bailout Revamp Could Use Private Bank for Bad Assets Wall Street Journal. I wish I had the energy to shred this one right now, but the headline idea is another crock, and I hope […]
Read more...Readers responded with great enthusiasm the last time I hoisted a big chunk of material from Australian economist Steve Keen’s blog (see “Bernanke an Expert on the Great Depression?” )I was therefore quite gratified when he wrote asking me to cross post his latest piece. Keen is a fiercely independent thinker, and has other qualities […]
Read more...David Sirota at Salon gives a concise, brutal assessment of Obama’s economic team and its priorities. We’ve now had two bait and switch Presidents in succession. Bush promised “compassionate conservatism” and dragged the country far to the right, enriching those at the top of the food chain and leaving everyone else with the empty promise […]
Read more...When I was in high school, an enterprising friend regularly gave blood to earn some extra cash (he also had a part-time job, so this wasn’t his only strategy). The economy in 1974 was in a bad recession, but even so, my buddy remarked that the paid blood donors were skewed heavily towards chronic alcoholics […]
Read more...“Black Saturday” doesn’t have much of a ring to it, does it? Josh Reviews Everything Pay Cap Debate: They Don’t Go Far Enough . . .Lucien Bebchuk, Wall Street Journal CEOs, Bankers Used Corporate Credit Cards for Sex, Says New York Madam ABC (hat tip reader Tim). This would be vastly amusing, but we probably […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal Economics Blog today featured an update of a chart prepared by Alexis de Tocqueville, author of Democracy in America, comparing the compensation of French and American civil servants, with an update (click to enlarge): The problem is that this comparison is misleading. The intent is to illustrate pay disparities over time. […]
Read more...Kenneth Rogoff, writing for Project Syndicate, argues that if China’s stimulus succeeds, it will do so at the expense of intermediate-term growth. He echoes the widely-held view that China needs to move towards a paradigm that gives more weight to domestic consumption. The problem is, however, that a transition will be awkward and is likely […]
Read more...Apparently America is not becoming a banana republic quickly enough to suit some big US companies. I heard last week that a friend’s sister, 57 years old and a very long standing IBM employee, had been offered the choice of either losing her job, or being sent to India or Latin America. In the old […]
Read more...Rules and pecking orders at Davos BBC (hat tip reader Tim C) Little prospect of East-West accommodation W Joseph Stroupe, Asia Times. Challenges conventional wisdom. Stampede by banks to beat bonus crackdown Times Online (hat tip reader carlos g) Insuring Bankers’ Bonuses The Baseline Scenario (hat tip reader Tim) A “New” Bailout Plan? Hardly Roger […]
Read more...This blog was early to draw a comparison between the US financial crisis and emerging markets crises. As we wrote in March 2008: Although the Journal does not draw this comparison, the US is in very much the same boat as Thailand and Indonesia in 1997, during the emerging markets crisis. And although the US […]
Read more...Even before its inception, we’ve been very skeptical of the TARP. Paulson managed to get the type of spending authorization that you only see in wartime, with almost no contraints on what he could do, and most troubling, put himself beyond the reach of law. From the original draft of the bill: Decisions by the […]
Read more...The financial services industry is full cry in its demands for taxpayers to save its hide. From Bloomberg: Bill Gross, co-chief investment officer of Pacific Investment Management Co., said the U.S. may slump into a “mini depression” unless policy makers spend trillions of dollars to spur growth. “This economy needs support from the government, a […]
Read more...For a change of pace, some black humor, courtesy reader Jon:
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