Consider the ironies in the discussion of free trade. It’s widely depicted by economists to be a good thing, and anyone who opposed it is considered to be economically illiterate. Yet the system we have deviates considerably from the free trade ideal and is more accurately called managed trade. And in this system of managed […]
Read more...The New York Times today, in “More Profit and Less Nursing at Many Homes,” describes the often shameful behavior of private equity owners of nursing homes towards their charges: Some excerpts: As such investors have acquired nursing homes, they have often reduced costs, increased profits and quickly resold facilities for significant gains. But by many […]
Read more...The Internet has become America’s newest addiction. In a JWT survey that as of this hour hasn’t been widely reported in the US, more than a quarter of the participants said they had cut back on in person interaction to spend more time on the Web. Admittedly, there is a big element of self-selection in […]
Read more...A front page Wall Street Journal story today discusses how clotheslines have become a new battle front in America. The environmentally minded are using them in increasing numbers (clothes driers account for 6% of residential energy use). This is yet another illustration of how status consciousness and years of cheap energy intersect to produce peculiar […]
Read more...It may seem a bit peculiar to turn to the topic of evil on a finance blog, since money brings out the worst in most people. However, while debates in the economic realm are usually couched in terms of efficiency, in the end we all live in a world that is a great deal more […]
Read more...This Bloomberg story, which cites a newly-released Fed report that says that minorities are denied loans more often than Caucasians and often pay higher rates, isn’t a surprise. If anything, what is surprising is first, that this is treated as news, and second (and related), that the Fed and other regulators have been slow to […]
Read more...I’m late to this item, and I probably should let it go, but it is so disingenuous (I’m tempted to say intellectually dishonest) that I can’t let it go by. On Sunday, the New York Times ran an “Economics View” article, “It’s Monetary Policy, Not a Morality Play,” by Tyler Cowen, well known libertarian and […]
Read more...Harvard’s Dani Rodrik in a recent post questioned the role of labor market rigidities (such as restrictions on firings and generous unemployment) in Europe’s higher unemployment. (As an aside, readers will know even that factoid is disputed. Barry Ritholtz has argued that if we calculated unemployment the same way Europeans did, the rates wouldn’t be […]
Read more...Robert Reich tells us that despite the talk about moral hazard, the rich have plenty of safety nets: The real moral hazard in this saga started when Fed Chair Ben Bernanke cut the Fed’s discount rate (charged on direct federal loans to banks) and announced that the Fed would take whatever action was needed to […]
Read more...Aah, there is so much good stuff out there that I can’t begin to do it justice. Hopefully you will enjoy these items: VoxEU features a very good international study on the gender income gap. The Boston Globe tells us that negotiating courses don’t address the fact that people lie. APEC is set to issue […]
Read more...Courtesy Paul Kedrosky at Infectious Greed comes this chart that shows over time how renters’ reasons for becoming home owners has changed. While this is a UK sample, given the similarities in the two cultures, and the runup in property values on both sides of the Atlantic, it’s not hard to imagine that a US […]
Read more...I am reading a very useful primer, “Cognitive biases potentially affecting judgment of global risks,” by Eliezer Yudkowsky, one of the contributors to the blog Overcoming Bias (we made use of one of his posts yesterday). He focuses on existential risk, meaning risks to human existence. Since many people would regard an economic collapse as […]
Read more...One sign that market conditions are, at least temporarily, on the mend: both the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal have stories on moral hazard. If you have time for sermons, things can’t be all that bad. And in confirmation, Asian markets are up solidly as of this hour. Of the two stories on […]
Read more...Back at my desk after over two weeks of holiday and wanted to get at least one post out before responding to some comments that seemed to call for a reply and getting back in touch with news and commentary. The Asian Development Bank issued a report that found that income inequality is on the […]
Read more...Monsanto is known for heavy handed, even ruthless, business tactics. But occasionally underdogs score a victory. I have long been astounded at the premise that Monsanto could attempt to block farmers growing their own seeds, and the Public Patent Foundation successfully challenged the agribiz company on that issue: The Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) announced today […]
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