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- 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.
- PLAYING WITH MATCHES NEAR A GASOLINE TANK. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: Why would the French care? As long as they take down Britain?
- NORWAY’S CHRISTMAS BUTTER SHORTAGE. (1)
- Mary Jane Schaefer: Christmas with a butter cookie shortage–in Scandinavia. This isn’t even Scrooge. This...
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Category Archives: Economics
“VAPORIZING” OVER A BILLION DOLLARS.
“VAPORIZING” OVER A BILLION DOLLARS. It’s now three months since the MF Global bankruptcy. I posted earlier that, as with the Lehman bankruptcy, it seemed to be amazingly hard to locate the assets. It seems that most Lehman assets were … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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GREECE’S ADVANTAGE IN THE CHICKEN GAME.
GREECE’S ADVANTAGE IN THE CHICKEN GAME. One advantage that Greece has in the negotiations with respect to a possible Greek default is that Greece’s moves will not be required until after the deadline. The deadline for the funding from other … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Politics
2 Comments
BANK PREPARATIONS FOR A EURO DEFAULT.
BANK PREPARATIONS FOR A EURO DEFAULT. Gillian Tett says that banks are apparently making some secret contingency plans to deal with a euro breakup—plans that are kept secret just as the plans to deal with a U.S default were kept … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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HOW BANKS PREPARED FOR A U.S. DEFAULT.
HOW BANKS PREPARED FOR A U.S. DEFAULT. Gillian Tett describes how large banks in the United States made preparations in 2001 for a possible United States technical default which might have resulted from the Congressional impasse over whether to raise … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, History
2 Comments
MORE LOOKING AT THE FUTURE IN TERMS OF PROBABILITIES.
MORE LOOKING AT THE FUTURE IN TERMS OF PROBABILITIES. I was of course pleased to see a report by a good journalist which expressed the opinions of informed professionals. The article gives a useful idea of the range of uncertainty … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Journalism
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A 25 % CHANCE OF A EURO DEFAULT?
A 25% CHANCE OF A EURO DEFAULT? In the Financial Times for January 27, Gillian Tett had the kind of article that I would like to see more of. She apparently talked to a number of senior bankers in Davos … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, History, Journalism
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A DECISION SCIENTIST USES A DECISION TREE.
A DECISION SCIENTIST USES A DECISION TREE. Memory from forty years ago says that Howard Raiffa, one of the giants of decision science, once said in class that he had asked Kenneth Arrow, a future Nobel Prize winner, whether he … Continue reading
Posted in Economics
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DECISION TREES FOR PATIENTS.
DECISION TREES FOR PATIENTS. Laura Landro’s review describes how Doctors Groopman and Hartzband “examine a formula for rational decision-making often used in economics: Measure the probability of an outcome and place a numerical value on the outcome itself.” The probable … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Science
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DECIDING WHAT KIND OF PATIENT YOU ARE.
DECIDING WHAT KIND OF PATIENT YOU ARE. Jerome Groopman (an oncologist) and Pamela Hartzband (an endocrinologist) have written YOUR MEDICAL MIND, which analyzes the role of patient choices in medical decisions. (I have relied on this review by Daniel J. … Continue reading
A VOTE FOR THE INVENTION OF AGRICULTURE BEING A GOOD THING.
A VOTE FOR THE INVENTION OF AGRICULTURE BEING A GOOD THING. In her article, Elif Batumen raises the argument Jared Diamond makes that the invention of agriculture was “the worst mistake in the history of the human race”—responsible for “the … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, History
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