psychology

That was the title of an e-mail I received from my bank today. Here is what the e-mail looked like:

This September 2009 post still describes my general view on the U.S. economy. If I wrote it today, I would be more bearish medium-term because it is obvious that in 2010 fiscal and monetary policy will become less supportive of recovery.…

In a BBC Two interview, former Fed chief Alan Greenspan waxed fatalistic, saying that another financial crisis is inevitable due to animal spirits.  In his view, booms and busts are endogenous to the capitalist system, crises being the…

You have heard me use the phrase “liquidity is seeking return” to describe the increase in the price of riskier assets due to monetary stimulus. The Bloomberg News video clip below points to an increase in lending for buyers of riskier…

As I mentioned earlier this week, I am actually on a two-week holiday in Simcoe County, Ontario, just 90 minutes north of Toronto.  We went to the Elmvale Jungle Zoo, an amazing place that has a huge variety of animals. It is really a…

We’re not really hard wired for making money in the markets. We use a lot of gut instincts, heuristics and plain illogic in making decisions.  The result is sub-optimal investment performance. This is the nothing new as the field of…

Central banks are not the only ones printing money to help get through this financial crisis.  Private citizens are increasingly turning to the printing press to help alleviate their financial problems as well.  My translation of…

During Alan Greenspan’s tenure at the helm of the Federal Reserve, he was often accused of using monetary policy to target asset markets so as to keep the party going.  In short, Alan Greenspan was seen by many, including myself, as the…

Note from 15 Sep 2010: On the second anniversary of the Lehman bankruptcy, it bears noting that the sway government has over the banking sector has diminished. The Big Bank CEO Phil has done the prudent thing regarding lending standards.…

Submitted by Edward Harrison of the site Credit Writedowns. During the last generation, the economics profession has veered toward a ‘science’ model of economics and finance. The intellectual underpinnings for this development began with…