Category Archives: Economics

WHAT WOULD KENNEDY AND REAGAN DO? I have chosen this caption because it is a tragedy that neither political party is giving enough importance to the unemployment crisis. This is especially ironic because two major examples of successful fiscal policy … Continue reading →

THE CONTINUING UNEMPLOYMENT CRISIS. I have posted a number of times on my belief, as a Keynesian, that more fiscal stimulus was needed to get our economy operating at closer to capacity. For example, I posted here a year ago … Continue reading →

BETTER BEER. I often say that the world is getting better for me and give the examples of coffee and beer. Here is a graphic history of beer making in the United States. The graphic says that we are in … Continue reading →

WHAT IMPROVING HEALTH AND NUTRITION DOES FOR THE NEXT GENERATION. I have been talking to a friend who has a pessimistic view of the world. This is an optimistic post. I posted here about Robert Fogel’s book THE ESCAPE FROM … Continue reading →

APPLYING THE 1993 ARTICLE TO 2008. Akerlof and Romer distinguished between “looting” and excessive risk taking (page 11), and their distinction turns on whether the owners of the company would prefer that the gamble pays off and the company remains … Continue reading →

THE 1993 ARTICLE BY AKERLOF AND ROMER THAT FORESAW THE FINANCIAL CRISIS. I made a mistake in posting. Yesterday’s post was out of order—it should have followed this one, which was going to introduce the article by George Akerlof and … Continue reading →

THE “THEORY OF LOOTING.” Here is the text of the article by Akerlof and Romer. This wikipedia article summarizes the article: “”Bankruptcy for profit will occur if poor accounting, lax regulation, or low penalties for abuse give owners an incentive … Continue reading →

NOT ENOUGH FBI AGENTS? In my reactions to the current financial crisis, I have given weight to articles by people who dealt with the collapse of the saving and loan industry in the early 1990’s. It was from them that … Continue reading →

“BANKS RUSH TO IMPROVE FORECLOSURE PRACTICES.” A Wall Street Journal article by Ruth Simon (April 29, 2011) had the headline “BANKS RUSH TO IMPROVE FORECLOSURE PRACTICES.” Since I think that a lot of the actions that are described come over … Continue reading →

“FORECLOSURES TRAPPED BY A LACK OF LAWYERS.” I have argued in a number of posts over the past two years, (for example, here) that cleaning up the toxic assets and bad mortgages would have to be done one mortgage at … Continue reading →