Gray Swans

From The Wall Street Journal, by Scott Patterson, 6/2/23,  When Markets Melt Down, These Traders Cash In, Market crashes. Pandemics. Terrorist attacks. Riots. Megafires. Superstorms. Extreme, destructive, often deadly events seem to be happening across the planet with...

Economic Thoughts 2023 01 08

Deficit spending is stimulative to economic growth: raising taxes on business and higher interest rates are a disincentive to economic growth.  Doing both at the same time is incoherent and a recipe for stagnation. If there is a tradeoff between a recession and...

In Need of Fresh Ideas

I find books like Tyler Cowen’s The Great Stagnation to be refreshing and valuable not because they are right or wrong but because they offer a different perspective that what we are commonly fed. Much of our policy from both sides is an opinion of how to return to a...

Too Much Information

Despite this constant free flow of information … we are caught unaware as one crisis after another devastates the financial markets. The temptation is to think that information and openness will enable us to risk and eliminate market crisis.  As plausible as this...

How to Make a Problem Worse

As a result of the depressed economy the difference in income between whites and minorities have widened. While the most shrill will find this to be clear testament to the inherent racism in the GOP, the reality is that both Republicans and Democrats want and need a...