One theoretical way out of the Greece fiscal crisis for the Eurozone might be to apply standard Coase Theorem logic and find a way in which Germany could, under whatever face-saving language is necessary, bribe Greece to withdraw from the Euro. The intent would be to get Greece off the Euro so that it could […]
Archive | Finance
How Do California and Greece Compare?
(Update.) Thanks, Glenn, for the Instalanche! Let’s add this front page article in the Financial Times today, Tuesday, February 9, 2010, “Traders in Record Bet Against the Euro.” (You might also want to see my more general discussion in a post above on the directions of the EU regarding the unstable position of currency union […]
The Effects of Ownership on M&A
My class in private equity and venture capital doesn’t know it yet, but I think I might have them read Harvard Law School’s John Coates’ new empirical paper on the effects of ownership on M&A, or at least some important sections of it. I’ve just been through it and think it’s terrific, with robust implications […]
Volcker on Financial Reform
For those following financial regulatory reform debates, Paul Volcker’s NYT op-ed today is must-reading (NYT Op Ed, Paul Volcker, How to reform our financial system, January 31, 2010) (Thanks to Paul for pointing out misspelling.) The specific points at issue are ownership or sponsorship of hedge funds and private equity funds, and proprietary trading — […]
President Obama’s Banking Proposal
(Update: I did not want to add my own reaction until I had a chance to read through the President’s speech. In quick terms, I think it is conceptually the right approach, for the reasons laid out by Manzi, McArdle, today’s WSJ editorial, but above all by Paul Volker. It is important to understand that […]
Greg Mankiw on Inflation and the “Surging Monetary Base”
Over at Greg Mankiw’s blog, a discussion of whether the “surging monetary base” necessarily means inflation down the road: Both reserves and T-bills are interest-paying obligations of the Federal government (including the Federal Reserve). They are essentially perfect substitutes. The monetary base, however, includes one of them but not the other, largely for historical reasons. The […]
A Cautionary Tale for Bankers, with Apologies to Hillaire Belloc
In the Financial Times today, Martin Dickson’s amusing admonition to bankers and their regulators. If you happened to be the kind of parent who read your kid Hillaire Belloc’s Cautionary Tales for Children, this will all seem like familiar terrain. Here is a bit from the opening: There was a time when naughty boys Would […]
Prospect Magazine’s Top 25 Brains of the Financial Crisis
The UK’s Prospect magazine – a genial, well-edited left-liberal take, by American standards, on politics – offers its list of the 25 leading public intellectuals offering commentary and sage advice in the financial crisis (in some cases action, too – Ben Bernanke is included). The list is full of worthy commentators, and I wouldn’t disinvite […]
Shorting Climate Change?
Okay, I’ll bite on Fen’s comment in my previous post on opinion polls and climate change. Suppose that you wanted, at the retail investor level, the cheapest and most efficient ways to go short on climate change policies, carbon regimes, whatever you think is relevant. (In general, I’m a believer in sort-of efficient markets, despite […]
Protecting Investors or Prosecuting Innocents? The Dangers of Vagueness in Financial Fraud Laws
Third installment in a five-part series on Silverglate’s book, Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent. “As a result of a burgeoning number of fraud investigations and prosecutions, I have become convinced that a concerted interagency effort is needed. We want to bring this additional firepower to bear on behalf of investors […]
Threat of Greek Sovereign Bankruptcy and Possible Consequences for the Eurozone
Der Spiegel has an informative story on the possibility that a Eurozone country might default on its sovereign debt, with economic, political, and legal consequences that could be anything from serious to dire. The country is Greece: Greece has already accumulated a mountain of debt that will be difficult if not impossible to pay off. […]
How Your FICO Score Is Calculated
I am not an expert in consumer debt, so if this is incomplete or incorrect, I welcome comments on this. However, here is an article from Yahoo Finance on how FICO scores are calculated, and specifically walking through the hits to your score taken for various credit events, ranging from maxing out a card to […]
Goldman Sachs and Its Small Business Fund Ploy
I am a fan of Goldman Sachs. It is one of the few individual stocks I own, running against all my standard corporate finance professor ‘buy index funds!!’ instincts. Although we have had a surfeit of bankers and a surfeit of talent in financial engineering rather than, say, robotics, it is very scary to see […]
Reading While Traveling, Hard Copy and No Internet
By Kenneth Anderson on November 14, 2009 4:29 pm in Academia, Counter-Terrorism Policy, Economy, Finance, Financial Crisis, Freedom of Speech, International Human Rights Law, International Law, Legal Professor, Legal Scholarship, Robotics, Targeted Killing, Terrorism
I’ve been traveling recently, and so have been away from posting. One of the enforced virtues of traveling – one of the few virtues of traveling for me these days – is the plane flight with no internet. And if the big guy in front of me reclines his seat, as he always does, I […]
A New Soros Initiative on the Economics Profession?
By Kenneth Anderson on October 30, 2009 1:49 pm in Academia, Economy, Finance, Financial Crisis, Legal Profession, Legal Professor, Regulation
Michael Hersh describes a new $50 million George Soros initative to try and remake the economics profession so to reclaim it from “free market fundamentalists.” The fund will be run by Robert Johnson, formerly a managing director of Soros Fund Management; it hopes to raise $200 million in matching funds. (H/T Instapundit; also Mark N […]