Economics

Greenspan Shrugged

October 24, 2008

Old Alan is quoted as saying, “I still do not fully understand why it happened.” Really? Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Poor old Alan, formerly the architect of America’s prosperity, is now the fall guy. There he was being grilled by Representative Henry Waxman and his crew. There he was being treated as just […]

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Tinkle-Down Economics

October 17, 2008

Being laid up with bronchitis isn’t pleasant. Thousands of thoughts race through my mind. Although I haven’t fully recovered, I just couldn’t wait. The absurdity of our present situation is so obvious. The lack of understanding of why it happened is not. The only thing that has relieved my misery has been laughing at the […]

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Stupidity Times Timidity

October 1, 2008

The Senate is scheduled to vote today on a slightly modified version of the bailout bill. They now prefer it to be called a rescue bill, as though that made it better or more honest. All of those calls Congress has been receiving are against bailing out Wall Street but favor rescuing Main Street. It […]

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Victory? Maybe, Maybe Not.

September 30, 2008

This may be a situation where even the winners are losers. There were plenty of losers, however. The House Republicans that voted against the bill did so for the wrong reasons. But, you take what you can get. This bill was far from what was needed. It deserved to lose. It was the result of […]

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Get Real

September 24, 2008

Well, here comes another defense of the indefensible. No. Not from me. It is the subject, the target of my post. I wish I could remember when I first found the limits, the real limits of ideology. Was it difficult? Since I did it so long ago, it probably wasn’t that deeply ingrained. I imagine […]

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Responding to the Financial 9-11

September 22, 2008

Did we learn anything from 9-11? Apparently not. Here we are in a financial 9-11 and everyone in Washington is reacting the same way. Is it possible that future candidates will wish they had refused to join the herd? Will they say that they voted for it but now are against it? All of a […]

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Not Your Daddy’s Oldsmobile

September 19, 2008

No. This isn’t a cut-and-paste from Car and Driver magazine. This is really about change in that strange and illogical world of economics. Oh well. I guess I just scared everyone off. Come on now. This is not only important but by reading this you will be several steps ahead of all of those professional […]

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Supply and Demand BS

September 4, 2008

Back in the 1770s, Adam Smith came up with a catchy phrase: the ‘Invisible Hand.’ It made sense, at least in some esoteric, theoretical world. The problem with catchy phrases is that those without any real understanding of the subject latch on to them. To demonstrate their ‘with-itness’ they drop the phrase a few times […]

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The Miracles That Never Were

July 16, 2008

Maybe you’ve heard the plaintive cries: get the government off of our backs (except in the bedroom and on the phone and the net). The ones shedding the tears can’t understand why sane people don’t acknowledge them as prophets and sages. The simple truths are so obvious. Simple? Yes. Obvious? Hardly. Deregulation is just one […]

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