Archives: Posts From January 2008

Stabilization And Sovereign Wealth Funds
By Travis Pantin | Mon, 28 Jan 2008 at 8:22 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: Spokesmen for sovereign wealth funds have been arguing that the funds are a healthy and stabilizing force in the global economy. Their claim: The funds have a long-term perspective, aren't leveraged, and are willing to buy when others only want to sell. ...

Fed Rate Cuts Propping Up Asset Values
By Travis Pantin | Mon, 28 Jan 2008 at 11:24 AM | Permalink
Excerpt: The Federal Reserve interest rate cuts have as much to do with trying to prop up asset values as with stimulating economic growth, a Washington economist, Thomas Palley, writes. "Let's not fool ourselves about Wall Street and free markets. The Fed is ...

Only a Bare Minimum at Minimum
By Travis Pantin | Wed, 23 Jan 2008 at 8:38 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: What portion of the American workforce earns the federal minimum wage or less? A George Mason University economics professor, Russell Roberts, asks his students this question every year. They almost always give the same answer: about 20%. However, ...

Less Than Stimulated by Idea of Stimulus
By Travis Pantin | Wed, 23 Jan 2008 at 10:49 AM | Permalink
Excerpt: On Cafe Hayek, a George Mason University professor of economics, Russell Roberts, explains in layman's terms why he thinks that an economic stimulus package will not cause the wider economy to grow. "Let us begin with the most basic question. If you ...

Investment Tax Credit Makes Sense
By Travis Pantin | Mon, 21 Jan 2008 at 8:05 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: After posting a litany of objections to President Bush's fiscal stimulus plan, a professor of economics at George Mason University and blogger, Alex Tabarrok, concedes that some elements of the proposal make economic sense. "One part of the stimulus ...

The Poetry of Finance
By Travis Pantin | Mon, 21 Jan 2008 at 8:00 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: An anonymous finance blogger who goes by the name "Macro Man" recently penned this finance-themed sonnet: Shall I compare thee to a levered trade? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the market call you made; Perhaps thou erred ...

Bearish on China Investment
By Travis Pantin | Thu, 17 Jan 2008 at 9:49 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: "Ever since China became more open to commerce with the rest of the world, I have not understood the enthusiasm for investing in China," a blogger at Naked Capitalism, Yves Smith, writes. Mr. Smith argues that the Chinese attitude toward foreigners is ...

Capitalism's Fundamental Principle
By Travis Pantin | Thu, 17 Jan 2008 at 9:47 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: Has capitalism failed Countrywide Financial Corporation? An anonymous blogger at Accrued Interest thinks it has. "Capitalism works on a few simple principles. … But the most critical and most fundamental principle is that of incentives," he writes. The ...

Bond Insurers Called 'Dead Men Walking'
By Travis Pantin | Wed, 16 Jan 2008 at 9:49 AM | Permalink
Excerpt: According to economics blogger Yves Smith, the Municipal Bond Insurance Association and the American Municipal Bond Assurance Corp. are "dead men walking." Mr. Smith writes that he recently gained possession of a report from an investor who is betting ...

Citigroup's Developmental Twist
By Travis Pantin | Mon, 14 Jan 2008 at 1:59 AM | Permalink
Excerpt: On the RGE Monitor blog, a fellow from the Council on Foreign Relations, Brad Setser, calls "rather ironic" Citigroup Inc.'s move to seek financial help from a development bank in China, which is itself a developing country. Citigroup is looking to ...

Reactions to JPMorgan Chase's 'Premier' Employee
By Travis Pantin | Thu, 10 Jan 2008 at 11:41 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: On Naked Capitalism, blogger Yves Smith called "reprehensible" the decision by a former British prime minister, Tony Blair, to take a paid position at JPMorgan Chase. "Isn't making speeches for hundreds of thousands of pounds and book deals (bad) ...

'Pathetic' Presidential Predictions
By Travis Pantin | Wed, 9 Jan 2008 at 9:03 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: On Market Movers, a finance and economics blogger, Felix Salmon, yesterday sounded a cautionary note on the usefulness of futures prediction markets. The markets, which some claim are better than polls at predicting the outcome of presidential ...

The Humpty Dumpty Economy
By Travis Pantin | Tue, 8 Jan 2008 at 9:35 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: "Ooof, things have gone from bad to ugly," an economics blogger, Yves Smith, wrote on Naked Capitalism yesterday, after the stocks of the Municipal Bond Insurance Association and the American Municipal Bond Assurance Corporation tumbled on suspicion that ...

From New Orleans, Negative Notes on the Economy
By Travis Pantin | Mon, 7 Jan 2008 at 11:50 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: A New York University professor of economics, Nouriel Roubini, reports on his blog from the annual American Economic Association meeting, held this year in New Orleans, where the outlook for 2008 was decidedly gloomy. Mr. Roubini served on a panel about ...

Democratic Candidates and the Carbon Tax
By Travis Pantin | Sun, 6 Jan 2008 at 11:42 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: Economics bloggers lambasted Governor Richardson for statements he made during Saturday's Democratic presidential debate regarding the viability of a carbon tax. When asked whether he favored a carbon tax, Mr. Richardson said, "It's a bad idea. … The ...

The Impact (Psychological and Other) of $100 Oil
By Travis Pantin | Fri, 4 Jan 2008 at 12:34 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: At the Cato Institute's blog, Cato@Liberty, senior fellow Jerry Taylor asks: Why all the hubbub over $100 barrels of oil? According to Mr. Taylor, America's economy is hardly more affected by $100 oil than it is by $98 oil. "The $100 threshold is purely ...

Why America's Air Is Less Polluted
By Travis Pantin | Thu, 3 Jan 2008 at 12:31 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: Since the 1970s, air pollution has fallen significantly in America. But was that decrease the result of cleaner manufacturing processes, or did pollution disappear because America shifted its dirty production to developing countries? Some have argued ...

Delving Into How the Greenback Turns
By Travis Pantin | Wed, 2 Jan 2008 at 12:29 PM | Permalink
Excerpt: What determines the value of the dollar? On the Econbrowser blog, a University of Wisconsin professor of economics, Menzie Chinn, outlines the different methods available for assessing what forces are pushing the dollar in different directions, and ...