tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69822133375616412872011-11-27T17:09:37.626-07:00Neo-Classical, Keynesian, Ricardian... Post-Modern? If entire university English departments can be built around taking apart other writers' work and wringing contemporary meaning from it, surely I can get a passable blog out of the concept.Tony Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05583195285973308420noreply@blogger.comBlogger71100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982213337561641287.post-32307761583751611902009-11-23T20:11:00.003-07:002009-11-23T20:27:42.885-07:00

So there's this little "leak" from East Anglia University... have you seen this, have you heard about this? Once the dust settles, I'm guessing that a certain former DOE employee is gonna have some 'splainin to do!Seems like the law of unintended consequences is gonna have a field day with this stuffPair this statement:--------------------------------------------------------------- Original

Tony Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05583195285973308420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982213337561641287.post-39325769346771580282009-06-24T15:59:00.002-06:002009-06-24T16:09:41.434-06:00

... are apparently elected to Congress.Hidden tariffs in the Waxman-Markey billA brief history of the Smoot-Hawley ActTell me how the current legislation is not "Smoot-Hawley II," please.

Tony Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05583195285973308420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982213337561641287.post-77421159985021503052009-02-25T22:21:00.010-07:002009-02-26T01:05:03.280-07:00

There's a theory -  well a couple of theories, actually - about how emotional, irrational human beings are possibly able to run (mostly) logical and (frequently) rational markets.First off, there's the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (the "EMH").  It boils down to the idea that "real marketeers" know how to play the game rationally and logically and they eventually get the right amount of money into

Tony Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05583195285973308420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982213337561641287.post-77372406627023840612009-02-23T21:14:00.003-07:002009-02-23T22:58:03.530-07:00

Later this week, the Treasury Department is going to start picking winners and losers.  It will do so by applying a "stress test" to the balance sheets of banks using their February 9 stock price and presumably the call reports for the same day.("Stress Test" is Econo-mese for "Totally harshing my buzz, man.")This is where you can get quarterly call reports for banks.  Pick any bank you want.  

Tony Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05583195285973308420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982213337561641287.post-10939530416849869752009-02-19T23:58:00.001-07:002009-02-19T23:59:10.312-07:00

The Boston Globe put this silly little bit online, illustrating the opportunity costs of the stimulus package:The slideshow("Opportunity Cost" is Econo-mese for "buyer's remorse.")Some of it was just fluff: Billions of Big Macs, a Plethora of Pontiacs, Countless Converters, and my favorite - Uber-Tenure.  Some of the alternatives were semi-serious:  Teachers' salaries for a decade, wiping out

Tony Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05583195285973308420noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982213337561641287.post-71604662227631536512009-02-18T20:57:00.003-07:002009-02-18T22:52:55.452-07:00

The lads at Freakonomics had a Quorum today that I weighed in on... and got a "second" in the comments:The PostMy CommentThe "shaman" concurs and Paul thinks it's "interesting."But I'm not here (only) to cite myself.  I think the newspaper "issue" is a brilliant illustration of the type of market failure that is not only common in our Internet driven world, but becoming endemic.  Joseph Stiglitz

Tony Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05583195285973308420noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6982213337561641287.post-36934264659481705972009-02-17T23:10:00.000-07:002009-02-17T23:35:33.739-07:00

From Reuters:Greenspan, a proponent of self-regulation, said he was "deeply dismayed" when in August 2007 the premise that firms had the enlightened self interest to monitor their own risk exposure "failed." "I see no alternative to a set of heightened federal regulatory rules for banks and other financial institutions," he said. "Even with the breakdown of self regulation, the

Tony Hunterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05583195285973308420noreply@blogger.com0