The Greenspan Put

The Man Who Knew by Sebastian Mallaby is an excellent biography of Alan Greenspan, but it may have greater value in understanding the power and limitations of the Federal Reserve itself. Greenspan has been accused of being an ideologue by some and a betrayer of free...

Obscuring Our True Condition

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 businesses are suffering from an...

Is This Cycle Different?

For over a year economists I respect claimed this economy has hit bottom and is slowly recovering.  Yet long after the bottom is in we see unemployment anemic and even increasing.  While a recovery in employment does lag the economic recovery there are some...

Understanding the Meltdown

(this was published previously in the Macon Telegraph) Being in the middle of a record economic crisis presents a rare learning opportunity.  Several books are worthwhile for those seeking to understand what just happened. Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin details...

The True Supporters of Capitalism

“Despite elite concerns of a public backlash against capitalism, it has been the public, not Wall Street or Washington, that has supported capitalism all along.  Financiers were disconcertingly quick to run straight into the governments arms, while the public...