psychology

Need to Create? Get a Constraint | Wired Science | Wired.com One of the many paradoxes of human creativity is that it seems to benefit from constraints. Although we imagine the imagination as requiring total freedom, the reality…

With the euro zone about to implode, it makes sense for politicians outside of the main stream to rise up, grab the metaphorical mic and make a play for a nationalist response. That’s what Marine Le Pen hopes to do.

About a year ago I told you there would be less policy advocacy and more policy forecasting at Credit Writedowns. This is an update.

Down with the Eurozone - Nouriel Roubini - Project Syndicate For the last decade, the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain) were the eurozone's consumers of first and last resort, spending more than their income…

I have Daniel Kahnemann’s book Thinking Fast and Slow, but have yet to read it. Judging from the positive reviews and his past work, it sounds like it should be pretty good. Kahnemann was on CNBC last week discussing some themes from his…

Paul Davidson argues that a theory is the way humans describe real world observations on the basis of a model that starts with a few axioms. An axiom is an assumption accepted as a universal truth that does not need to be proved. From this…

We have been structurally bearish on equities since Absolute Return Partners was established in 2002. ‘Structurally bearish’ does not imply that we, or our clients, have had no exposure to equities throughout this period. Neither does it…

I want to talk a little about the political economy. A few months ago I added the topic tag “nationalism” to the topics this blog covers because I believe this is an issue which becomes relevant during global economic crises.

Last week I excerpted from Herbert Hoover’s 1930 State of the Union address. This time I wanted to excerpt from the 1931 SOTU because the Credit Anstalt event had already happened, triggering retail deposit runs. Bank runs is something…

The man is special.