Category Archives: Economics

BANKING 101—LIQUIDITY.

BANKING 101—LIQUIDITY. Lots of banks in the United States survived the financial crisis comfortably. So did Canadian banks. For the most part, they were banks which followed traditional banking practices. Banks traditionally borrow short (think demand deposits) and lend long … Continue reading

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THE UNIMPORTANCE OF THE DOWNGRADE OF UNITED STATES SECURITIES.

THE UNIMPORTANCE OF THE DOWNGRADE OF UNITED STATES SECURITIES. Two comments about the downgrade of United States securities by the Standard and Poors rating agency. First, it was unusual that the downgrade was followed by a dramatic rise in the … Continue reading

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A REASON WHY MONEY MAY NOT BUY HAPPINESS.

A REASON WHY MONEY MAY NOT BUY HAPPINESS. I have posted several times on the new literature about the relationship between income and happiness, and Annalisa made a guest post about the economics of happiness here. Bryan Caplan has a … Continue reading

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WHEN AUCTIONS WERE LAUGHABLE.

WHEN AUCTIONS WERE LAUGHABLE. L. Gordon Crovitz had an article in the Wall Street Journal (July 18) which describes some of the proposals for the federal government to use auctions of bandwidth rights to increase its revenues and to free … Continue reading

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HAYEK AND CENTRALIZED BANKS.

HAYEK AND CENTRALIZED BANKS.Kids, the problem that large national banks have with local housing markets is related to a problem that Hayek identified for large scale central planning. As this article summarizes, “The reason socialist economists thought central planning could … Continue reading

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TOO BIG TO BE COMPETENT?

TOO BIG TO BE COMPETENT? I posted here that banks can be too big to fail because they are too interrelated with other financial institutions (counterparties to their transactions) for us to undergo the pain of unwinding their transactions. Lehman … Continue reading

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KEYNES AND HAYEK—PART 2.

KEYNES AND HAYEK RAP—PART 2. I posted here about the Keynes-Hayek rap which commented on the financial crisis. Now there is a sequel. I have to say that I think of Keynes and Hayek as primarily addressing differ issues: Keynes, … Continue reading

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SCREEVERS AND ECONOMISTS.

SCREEVERS AND ECONOMISTS. I posted here about Orwell’s analysis of the economics of being a screever. Now I can point to a blog post showing the work of a screever who has done a sidewalk portrait of the great economist … Continue reading

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BOOMSTERS AND DOOMSTERS.

BOOMSTERS AND DOOMSTERS. Kids, the wikipedia article on Cornucopians is a good breakdown of why the Malthusian debate is such an important issue and apparently always will be. Cornucopian theory is based on the laws of supply and demand. As … Continue reading

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MALTHUSIANS AND “CORNUCOPIANS”.

MALTHUSIANS AND “CORNUCOPIANS”. I posted here about the Paul Ehrlich-Julian Simon bet . This wikipedia article gives the background: “In 1968, Ehrlich published The Population Bomb, which argued that mankind was facing a demographic catastrophe with the rate of population … Continue reading

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