Category Archives: Economics

WASHINGTON MONUMENT BUDGETING.

Posted on July 28, 2012 by Philip

WASHINGTON MONUMENT BUDGETING. This article in the San Francisco Chronicle (July 21) by Wyatt Buchanan raises the possible political effects arising from the discovery of the $54 million in Park Department accounts on future requests by Governor Brown for tax … Continue reading →

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FINDING $54 MILLION.

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Philip

FINDING $54 MILLION. After the Lehman bankruptcy four years ago, I posted about my astonishment at how long it took to find Lehman’s assets and speculated that the traditional accounting and auditing function of keeping track of assets and liabilities … Continue reading →

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PREDICTING THE OUTCOME OF THE EUROZONE CHICKEN GAME.

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Philip

PREDICTING THE OUTCOME OF THE EUROZONE CHICKEN GAME. Simon Nixon in the Wall Street Journal (July 13) reported on a paper by David Woo and Athanasios Vamvakidis of Bank of America Merrill Lynch which predicts the outcome of the Eurozone … Continue reading →

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THE NEED FOR A HEGEMON TODAY IN EUROPE.

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Philip

THE NEED FOR A HEGEMON TODAY IN EUROPE. Professors DeLong and Eichengreen extend Kindleberger’s theory to today’s financial crisis. They say: “we find ourselves watching a rerun of Europe in 1931.” There is no hegemon for Europe. They discuss the … Continue reading →

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THE NEED FOR A HEGEMON —THE 1930’S.

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Philip

THE NEED FOR A HEGEMON—THE 1930’S. The third lesson which Professors DeLong and Eichengreen take from Kindleberger is the importance of having a “hegemon” to deal with financial crises. Kindleberger spoke of the advantage of a benevolent hegemon. (It is … Continue reading →

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WHY ECONOMIC MODELS DON’T HAVE MUCH TO SAY ABOUT FINANCIAL CRISES.

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Philip

WHY ECONOMIC MODELS DON’T HAVE MUCH TO SAY ABOUT FINANCIAL CRISES. Professor Summers pointed out that: “the academic mainstream of mathematical models festooned with Greek symbols and complex abstract relationships” doesn’t have much to say about financial crises. One reason … Continue reading →

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BAGEHOT, MINSKY, AND KINDLEBERGER.

Posted on July 10, 2012 by Philip

BAGEHOT, MINSKY, AND KINDLEBERGER. Back in 2007 and 2008, I posted on Walter Bagehot and Hyman Minsky in connection with the financial crisis. (Nick commented about my post on Bagehot’s recommendations for 1873 here in March 2008: “So to sum … Continue reading →

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WHY ARE THERE SO MANY CLUMSY ONLINE FRAUDS?

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Philip

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY CLUMSY ONLINE FRAUDS? I’ve often wondered why so many internet scams are so transparently fake. For example, multiple comments to this blog that are picked up by WordPress as spam have spelling mistakes, bad English, … Continue reading →

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TIPS FOR INTERNET SHOPPERS.

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Philip

TIPS FOR INTERNET SHOPPERS. Kids, economists teach how retailers find ways to charge different prices to different customers—“price discrimination”. The goal is to identify those customers who are willing to pay a higher price and to charge them the higher … Continue reading →

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WHICH CULTURES PUNISH FREELOADERS?

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Philip

WHICH CULTURES PUNISH FREELOADERS? One study that uses the diversified pool of participants from the Mechanical Turk compares the punishment of freeloaders across cultures. The Economist article describes experiments in the West which “showed that people band together to reward … Continue reading →

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