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The history of economics, like economic history, often gets short shrift in the war of sound bytes and ideologies of latter-day politics Continue reading
Despite the blather, Glass-Steagall's origins are not as clear as you would think; its record is more ambiguous than the myth claims, and its lessons are more complex. Continue reading
The op-ed in the NYT is coherent; it's just not compelling. Harrison doesn't lay out substantive arguments, offer evidence or wrestle with the most serious charges against the big banks; he dismisses them as if they were some simplistic whining of a bunch of cranks. Continue reading
John Kay has just released a 'Review' of the U.K. equity markets and long-term decision-making, which anyone wanting to learn about how finance really works in our benighted age should read even if they reject his recommendations. Continue reading
The Financial Times continues its worrying over the fate of London as a financial center today. Continue reading
If Sandy Weill was so wrong about the merits of combining investment and commercial banks, why is he so insightful now that he's changed his mind? Continue reading
Does anyone really believe that if Malcolm Gladwell had called in sick for a speaking engagement at a decision-making class at Lehman that anything would have been different at the company? Continue reading
Teresa Ghilarducci in The New York Times' Sunday Review offers up the most striking conclusion from this vast social experiment that began somewhere in the late '70s: It doesn't work -- and it will never work. Continue reading
Talking ethics is easy. Actually doing something about it may require a saint. And there's not much of a market in sainthood these days. Continue reading
Much is made of Franklin Roosevelt's decision in the late '30s to try to balance the budget, thus inadvertently launching a second depression in 1938. But an even more revealing sequence of events occurred in Great Britain earlier in the '30s. Continue reading
