Founders considered the Electoral College their crowning achievement of the Constitutional Convention. The divisions by state make the system less corruptible; the hanging chad problem in Florida was limited to one area of one state. The system requires a candidate to appeal to a broad range of interests, not just the interests of a small if heavily populated area.
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From Barron’s, Chinese Puzzle by Thomas Donlan: Worldly wise investors and sophisticated geopoliticians sometimes forget that Chinese markets reflect the power of the country’s government more than its economy. The price of stocks in state-owned and state-funded corporations has too
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Banks do not survive by loaning money to prevent insolvency; they loan money to provide liquidity. Banks are not loaning money, not because of the lack of liquidity but because there is a lack of prudent loans to make. Small
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The problem with the financial products division [of AIG] was not that the regulators were absent or inadequately empowered. The problem was that the regulators, like most regulators, lacked relevant information. They were experts on the politics of the situation,
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The most misunderstood aspect of the success of the Reagan led supply side revolution was the monetary aspect. The idea adapted from Robert Mundell’s theory was that the Fed should focus ONLY on monetary matters and that fiscal policy should
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This “lender of last resort” role for central banks was codified by British journalist and economist Walter Bagehot in his 1873 book, Lombard Street. In a panic, Bagehot advised, a central bank should lend freely on good collateral and charge
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Also note in the Wall Street Journal The Fed and the Crisis: a Reply to Ben Bernanke If one can not take responsibility for a mistake, one risks repeating it.
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