Category Archives: remainders

FOMC Statement: No change, as expected. Hovering Above Poverty, Grasping for Middle Class: "The vast majority of those polled said religion or their faith in God plays an important role in helping them through financial straits." Argh. It hurts: "I, … Continue reading →

Economist Rankings: On the Wu-index, Andrei Shleifer is clearly Top Dog, with 14 papers having at least 140 citations. Lucas, Barrow, and Bernanke are in joint second place, each with 12 papers having at least 120 citations. A Comparison of … Continue reading →

A Response to the Gates Foundation Memo: Stephen Landsburg lays into the "creative capitalists". I Heart Adam Smith: He groks all the contradictions in the nexus between wealth and happiness. Riches to Rags: "Phillips believes the agony of the American … Continue reading →

Big Numbers, Made Smaller: "G.M. sold 2.29 million vehicles in the quarter. The losses came to $6,756 per vehicle." How To Get Twitter Wrong: It’s about reading, not writing. And 15 once we reach Alderaan…: The mathematics of distressed CDS … Continue reading →

Scholastic puts the blame on "Do Not Call Registry": One of the lamest corporate excuses of all time. Shorts Crack the Code: This appeared in the NYT Business headlines for some reason; it’s not what you think, but it is … Continue reading →

No News, Little Movement: Lots of noise, no signal in July’s financial markets. The Father of Wine Economics? "[Adam] Smith’s treatment of wine is not complete – there is no discussion of cork versus screw-cap, for example, and no treatment … Continue reading →

Wine connoisseurs – I call them cons: The real lesson of the Judgment of Paris isn’t that California wines were better than French wines. It’s that wine tasters, when they’re really tasting blind, are clueless. How Good Is The Mainstream … Continue reading →

Clinton Foundation Sets Up Malaria-Drug Price Plan Ashmore Group Surges After Assets Under Management Increase: To $37.5 billion. Called to account: The profitability of UK checking accounts. Appointments With Red Ink: Citi execs criticize Pandit’s "dull platitudes". Color me unsurprised. … Continue reading →

Executive Suite: Joe Nocera is blogging. Morals, hazards: "The problem might not be panic selling, but rather an appropriate assessment of market risk. On the other hand, the problem might be panic selling." Pollyannas of the World Unite! It Is … Continue reading →

Fannie, Freddie, Ginnie now account for 130% of mortgage lending in U.S. "The numbers are even more dramatic if you just look at the most recent period for which data are available, the first three months of this year. Total … Continue reading →

Guru Returns Show Just How Tough the Going Has Been Lately Yahoo must call time on Jerry Yang: "Microsoft makes software, Google does search, Facebook is a social network. Yahoo is purple and has an exclamation mark. When asked at a Journal … Continue reading →

Obama proposes bankruptcy changes; Elizabeth Warren comments favorably. Old Ice and the Northwest Passage: It might be a while until the passage is safe for shipping. Food Price Inflation: Explanation and Policy Implications: By the CFR’s Karen Johnson. A GM … Continue reading →

Annals of Demand Response: "In North Carolina, Triangle Transit carried almost 100,000 bus passengers in June, up 30 percent from the previous year. " Streetread: A new one-stop shop for reading financial news. Very Ajaxy. Moonves and Zucker–Goofus and Gallant … Continue reading →

A Tour Through the Cemetery of 2007’s Busted LBOs Credit Crisis Timeline: Going back to February 2007. Parental education and parental time with children: "More educated parents also spend more time with their kids – a result ripe with implications … Continue reading →

The V-Word and Dick Grasso: "Vindication is not what just happened". Contented Streets: Why Copenhagen Is the World’s Happiest Capital Google must divulge YouTube log: 12 terabytes of information must be handed over to Viacom. I hope that Google can … Continue reading →

S&P 500: Closed today at 1,261.52. The all-time high is 1,576.09, which puts official bear market territory at 1,260.87. Less than a point away! Personal economics in three easy pictures: "Our dollars earn very little interest sitting in an account … Continue reading →

The global food crisis: A toolkit for audacious leaders: Sensible ideas from Arvind Subramanian. The End of Naive Contrarianism: "While the investing pack is sometimes wrong, and big inflection points are often missed, the market’s investing pack is usually right." … Continue reading →

Central bank independence under threat: A Free Exchange blog post with a byline! Here’s hoping for many more. Gentrification: Not Ousting the Poor? Barbara Kiviat reports on this paper. Mittal joins Goldman Sachs board Anheuser-Busch Rejects InBev Proposal as Financially … Continue reading →

A Metropolitan Strategy for America’s Future: An important speech from Barack Obama. Et Tu, Intel? Chip Giant Won’t Embrace Microsoft’s Windows Vista Don’t trust anyone who can’t see into the future: Greg Mankiw is unlikely to be getting many job … Continue reading →

What Exactly Concerns Us About Gas Prices? Justin Wolfers is sensible. Citigroup Considers Repealing a Pledge, and the Slogan With It: First, make a promise in order to duck new regulations. Then, break that promise in order to make more … Continue reading →

Germany is the greenest country: With energy consumption down 5.6% in one year! Three Questions for McCain: From David Leonhardt. Getting this off my chest about the Olympics: James Fallows is worried. Met Opera — A New Act: How Peter … Continue reading →

Richard Bookstaber’s Senate testimony on risk management and its implications for systemic risk: Very sensible stuff. Calvo on commodities: Krugman disagrees with Guillermo Calvo on the role of "global liquidity" in driving oil prices. Thoma commentates. Microsoft to Internet: Drop … Continue reading →

It’s Not Nice to Short Bank Stocks Pay For It: Tyler Cowen wants to see local water monopolies across Africa, allowed to charge whatever they like. RBS issues global stock and credit crash alert I Left My Staff in San … Continue reading →

Citigroup is a broken organisation, but its new boss doesn’t have a plan to fix it: My Spectator Business column. IDB partners with IGNIA venture capital fund to address needs of region’s poor: An interesting meeting of a development bank … Continue reading →

Time for a District Congestion Charge: Says Ryan Avent. One problem: in this case, p=0. Depends on the definition of the word ‘mandatory’: McCain seems a bit confused about cap-and-trade. InBev’s commitment to St. Louis and the A-B heritage: Carlos … Continue reading →