airline seats
You know the drill. They try to board us by groups, but people are smashing on the plane like it’s the New Delhi train station. When the plane is half full, the overhead bins fill up. Then people start...
View ArticleManna from Heaven: the Harvard Stimulus Debate
Last week there was a fiscal stimulus debate between titans John Taylor and Larry Summers, at Harvard. Taylor wrote his opening remarks on his blog, which I recommend without further comment. Summers...
View ArticleSpeculation and gas prices
I was getting myself frothed up about the recent idea that “speculators” are behind the recent gas price increase. Have we learned nothing in the centuries of witch hunts for “speculators”...
View ArticleBenn Steil and I debate house prices
Last week Benn Steil wrote a very interesting oped on housing. (Originally at Financial News) He unearthed the amazingly large number of young people who bought houses in the boom, and then lost a lot...
View ArticleToo big not to fail
The Economist has a great article, “Too big not to fail” about the Dodd-Frank regulation. Readers of this blog will know I’m no big fan of Dodd-Frank, for example an article in Regulation, collected...
View ArticleEconomist’s Haiku for Europe
A lovely letter to the Economist says it all. Sir: Leaving the euro zone is no option for Greece (“Fiddling while Athens burns”, May 19th). The new drachma would be valueless, as there would be no...
View ArticleA glimmer of hope?
Weekend Update. On Monday the Greeks decide whether to vote for the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus to solve their fiscal problems. What is Europe planning to do next? Sunday’s New York Times had an...
View ArticleFDA for Financial Innovation?
Eric Posner and Glen Weyl are making a big splash with their proposal for An FDA for Financial Innovation. As you might guess, I think it’s a terrible idea. But let me try not to be predictable. I do...
View ArticleTexas Hedge
My first reaction to the JP Morgan loss was, if their “hedge operation” had become a “profit center” as reported, we know exactly what went wrong. (And, if they weren’t playing with a government...
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How to lie with statistics
Along with David Leonhardt’s interesting article “Taxmageddon,” last weekend’s New York Times Sunday Review included this pair of graphs. These belong high up in the pantheon of “How to lie with...
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