Why is it that no one in America seems able to say what Willem Buiter, a professor at the London School of Economics, sets forth at his blog at the Financial Times, namely, that we Americans are far too timid in dealing with right wing extremists? Does being liberal in America mean you can’t point […]
Read more...John Hockenberry, former Dateline correspondent, describes in the MIT Technology Review how the networks’ preoccupation with hanging on to their viewers has gotten in the way of reporting news. News programs, at least as exemplified by NBC, where Hockenberry once worked, go to considerable lengths to find affirming emotional narratives and avoid upsetting or challenging […]
Read more...Two readers pointed us to very good post by John Hussman that goes through the Fed’s open market desk operations in detail, and then looks at similar work done on the European Central Bank’s activities (including its widely reported $500 billion liquidity injection). He concludes that in fact liquidity, meaning bank reserves plus money in […]
Read more...Ben Stein is up to his old tricks. Here he gave the impression of being done for the year, having penned an article of a classic end of year type, “what I should do better next year.” But he snuck another piece in this week, “Tattered Standard of Duty on Wall Street.” The article claims […]
Read more...Dani Rodrik has managed to be able to debunk the economic orthodoxy, most notably in his area of expertise, namely trade and development, and still retain the respect of his peers. Of course, having tenure at Harvard (Kennedy School) doesn’t hurt. But Rodrik is also unfailingly articulate, fair-minded, and rigorous. His latest post takes issue […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal has a page one story, “Fraud Seen as a Driver In Wave of Foreclosures,” which probes the role of mortgage scams. I’m sure Tanta will wax eloquent on this article, but let me hazard a couple of observations. First, the article seeks to describe the fraud problem, citing the widely-touted Mortgage […]
Read more...It’s rare that I find fault with the the Financial Times, and even more uncommon with Gillian Tett and Paul Davies, who are two of their most seasoned and insightful journalists. Nevertheless, they have bitten off more than they can chew in “Out of the shadows: How banking’s secret system broke down.” The piece isn’t […]
Read more...We’ve noted on this blog repeatedly that the Wall Street Journal does an erratic job of covering the credit markets, sometimes reporting stories as late as a full month after they have appeared either at Bloomberg or the Financial Times. And we’ve also repeatedly caught the Wall Street Journal putting a positive spin on news […]
Read more...Once again, another example of the Wall Street Journal basically printing a press release and calling it a story, as contrasted with the Financial Times, which did some real reporting. The object lesson today is the latest news on the SIV rescue plan, which has retreated from the limelight as the Treasury’s other brainchild, the […]
Read more...The quality of debate in America has become so debased that for the most part we have become desensitized to the use of ad hominem attacks. In logic and rhetoric, an ad hominem argument, which attempts to discredit the person mounting the criticism, is considered invalid, since the substance of the charge has not been […]
Read more...Does Ben Stein, who writes the more-or-less weekly “Everyone’s Business” column at the New York Times, have any pride of authorship? Stein’s articles have a cobbled-together quality, as if he agglomerated whatever was rattling around in his brain and called it a day when he got to his word count (I’ll concede he might have […]
Read more...Maybe it’s the Prozac after all. During the dot-com era, some blamed the ever-levitating market on Prozac. With 28 million prescription written annually, a meaningful proportion of the investing population was on anti-depressants. Perhaps the shift in collective mood was enough to blunt caution. Now I have no idea of the use of antidepressants is […]
Read more...Having made a few back-of-the-envelope calculations in this blog, and then having had readers jump on me, I know what fraught exercises they are. But at the same time, a lot of information is bandied about, and you can learn a lot by connecting the dots (although sometimes what you learn is that you didn’t […]
Read more...The story, “Support for SIV superfund grows,” in today’s Financial Times, is curious. Let’s give you the key bits and then go over why it’s odd: The plan for a $75bn superfund to buy assets from cash-strapped structured investment vehicles appears to be gaining support among sceptical institutions, amid concern that SIVs might start dumping […]
Read more...Before I raise your expectations unduly, I am not saying that Ben Stein’s entire “Everybody’s Business” column today is intelligent. However, this week’s piece, “It’s Time to Act Like Grown-Ups,” had some sensible moments, and I want to give Stein his due on those infrequent occasions when it is merited. I am not parsing the […]
Read more...