Dear readers,
I just barely missed putting 2009 in the title again. I’ll learn. I have some other things on my plate, so I have not posted quite as often as I would like. I have three or four topics I want to look into. They are:
- Greece and the recent comments by Juergen Stark.
- The morality of strategic default (a reader asked me to write a piece on this)
- More numbers on the unemployment situation
And a few other pieces I can’t remember at the moment.
In the meantime, below are the links for stories through this morning. Many more links are available at the news feed (which is also available as an RSS feed).
Cheers.
Edward
ps. Marshall Auerback has promised to write a bit more here to give you a variety of opinion.
pps. And my apologies to those whose e-mail I have yet to answer.
Today’s must read post:
Scott Fullwiler: Helicopter Drops Are FISCAL Operations
These Chartalist guys need a LOT more attention than they are getting. See this post to get a better conceptual understanding of what fiscal stimulus really is and monetary stimulus really is. Very wonky but great framework. I recommend it highly.
Other posts
- EconomPic: Same Store Sales "Surge"
- Paul Krugman – Bubbles and the Banks – NYTimes.com
Even Krugman doesn’t think you can completely prevent bubbles. You CAN mitigate their impact.
- Economist’s View: Hawkish Talk from the Fed
- FiveThirtyEight: This is Great News! For Sarah Palin! (Really)
- FDIC nibbles nicely at bank risk | Rolfe Winkler
I agree with Rolfe that Sheila Bair is looking like the best of the lot.
- Delinquencies jump for home equity loans, lines of credit – latimes.com
- Android 2.1’s Best Features in Screenshots | Smarterware
- FT Alphaville – Tracy Alloway – AIG and the Fed, not above water but drowning?
- Leno may be returning to ‘The Tonight Show’ – latimes.com
- Deep cuts to social services expected in Schwarzenegger’s budget plan – San Jose Mercury News
- Obama takes steps to bolster security – latimes.com
- Should Geithner Survive the AIG E-mails? | The Atlantic Wire
- FT Alphaville » Why this is not the onset of a new secular bull market
- The Problem with Positive Thinking – The Baseline Scenario
The quote from Bush in the middle was laugh out loud unexpected. Quite a good connection if you ask me.
- TeaPartarians?, Arnold Kling | EconLog
This is a good summary of the issues. I DO think markets fail but the failure we saw last year was more about a lack of regulation, skewed incentives, cheap money and irrational exuberance and less about free markets.
- Inventories and the Price of Oil | Gregor.us
- Economist’s View: Interview with Raghuram Rajan
- FT Alphaville – Paul Murphy – How thick is Tim Geithner’s skin?
- Not So Radical Reform – BusinessWeek
- BW on How the Dems Watered Down Reform : CJR
Sorry, no Bread & Circus feature. I know you need some distractions. They will be back.