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- ARE PEOPLE LESS VIOLENT? (COMMENT). (2)
- Dick Weisfelder: My prior comment was just in the context of sports. Whether or not from Pinker, I have seen the...
- erik: It seems doubtful that human nature has changed. The most likely explanation would be that modern culture gives...
- HOW BANKS PREPARED FOR A U.S. DEFAULT. (2)
- GREECE’S ADVANTAGE IN THE CHICKEN GAME. (2)
- Nick: That makes sense. It reminds me of the stories Pater Familias would tell me about how in Boston the person with...
- Dick Weisfelder: Greece seems to me to be playing a game that Karl Deutsch called “underdog.” While one...
- FOOTBALL PLAYERS DELIBERATELY CAUSING CONCUSSIONS? (3)
- Nick: It was my understanding that boxing gloves were to protect the puncher’s hands and not the...
- Dick Weisfelder: Remember the Roman arenas? Bare knuckled boxing? Such injuries were taken as natural and accepted in...
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This isn’t about football. Or even sportsmanship. Well, it is about sportsmanship. But what...
- A 25 % CHANCE OF A EURO DEFAULT? (1)
- Nick: The fact that this has gone on for so long is pretty perplexing. The Economist is referring back to articles it...
- DECIDING WHAT KIND OF PATIENT YOU ARE. (1)
- Dick Weisfelder: One can be very open to new technology, but also risk averse. The recent debates about how to...
- THE EUROZONE—A CHICKEN GAME WHERE EVERY MEMBER CAN BLOW IT UP? (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: This is not a matter of chicken. These are all turkeys.
- ARE PEOPLE LESS VIOLENT? (COMMENT). (2)
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Monthly Archives: August 2007
WRITING AND PERFORMING A PLAY IN 24 HOURS.
WRITING AND PERFORMING A PLAY IN 24 HOURS. Mary Jane had the opportunity to participate in the Fast Forward festival in Stratford last week. She was introduced to her actors and her director and got her assigned topic at seven … Continue reading
THE PANIC OF 1907 AND MY FATHER.
THE PANIC OF 1907 AND MY FATHER. One of my father’s earliest memories of his mother lying on her bed sobbing because the family had lost all of its savings. It must have been in 1907 when my father was … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, History
3 Comments
THE PANIC OF 1907.
THE PANIC OF 1907. The Panic of 1907 led to the creation of the Federal Reserve Bank, the central bank of the United States. The Panic led to runs on banks. Wikipedia says, “Complete ruin of the national economy was … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, History
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WHAT WOULD BAGEHOT DO?
WHAT WOULD BAGEHOT DO? What should the Federal Reserve do in response to the current financial crisis? It is appropriate to link to an article in The Economist to answer the question because Walter Bagehot, the greatest editor of the … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, History
5 Comments
SKYSCRAPERS AND WHITECAPS.
SKYSCRAPERS AND WHITECAPS. This post described how the twists in Calatrava’s Chicago Spire will reduce wind stresses. This Blair Kamin article reports that construction has started on the Chicago Spire and this Blair Kamin article describes how the “core and … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
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SIX FOOT WALLS.
SIX FOOT WALLS. This article by Blair Kamin, the architectural critic of the Chicago Tribune, describes the changes in skyscraper construction which have taken place in Chicago in the last 125 years. The new skyscrapers, including the Chicago Spire (which … Continue reading
Posted in Architecture
1 Comment
GREAT DAYS IN FINANCE.
GREAT DAYS IN FINANCE. This Sebastian Mallaby column describes how the biggest mortgage lender in the country, Countrywide Financial Corp., was subject to a “run on the bank” from depositors last week, even though it “has access to enough cash … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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“NATURE DOESN’T RUN VERY GOOD EXPERIMENTS.”
“NATURE DOESN’T RUN VERY GOOD EXPERIMENTS.” Back in the sixties when I was studying economics, there was enormous optimism about what computers would enable economists to learn by modeling the economy. Professor John Meyer brought a dose of realism to … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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“IT ONLY HAPPENS ONCE IN 100,000 YEARS.”
“IT ONLY HAPPENS ONCE IN 100,000 YEARS.” This article in the Financial Times (again only the first two paragraphs are available at the link) points out the difficulties that trading by computers has encountered in the financial turbulence of the … Continue reading
EXCITING TIMES.
EXCITING TIMES. Kids, I suggest you watch the finance section of Yahoo news over the next couple weeks because these are exciting times. These weeks will be referred to the next time there is a financial panic (and there will … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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