A new book argues that not only was the doomed investment firm way overexposed to risky assets and beleaguered by bad management, but it also made the wrong choice when it was requested to help out LTCM ten years earlier. From a review : Bear had been the only big firm that refused to help out Long-Term Capital Management, a hedge fund that came
That is the title of a new paper in the latest issue of Critical Review, by Colander, Goldberg, Haas, Juselius, Kirman, Lux, and Sloth. The article is not yet online, but the abstract is here : Economists not only failed to anticipate the financial crisis; they may have contributed to it–with risk and derivatives models that, through spurious
I’m no Crunchy Con , but I confess to being sympathetic to the organic food movement in the United States. Although I do not always buy organic, I am glad that the market caters to the segment of the population that does. Locally-grown and otherwise farm fresh meat, vegetables, milk, and eggs often taste better and are healthier than the output of
The recent news that Regions Bank scored the worst of the nation’s 19 largest banks on the federal government’s stress tests reflected its bad loan decisions made during the economic boom. Regions’ subsequent acceptance of TARP money, whether done willingly or not, meant that taxpayers would be involuntarily assuming that troubled bank’s risk when
The thrilling crash landing last January of US Airways Flight 1549 into the frigid waters of the Hudson River in New York captivated the mind. Truly, if Hollywood depicted this event, we would require our willing suspension of disbelief, knowing that such an outcome of a doomed plane could never happen that way in real life. Yet it did. Finding
[This talk was delivered at the Berry College Omicron Delta Epsilon installation dinner in Rome, Georgia, on April 2, 2009.] Studying economics over the last year or so is like an astronomer studying meteors during a dangerous meteor shower. You see dangers out there with some hits and many near misses, you understand them and see their
Is the Great Recession about to end? This has been the dominant meme at least since June, when my local paper, the Anniston Star, ran a front page story by McClatchy’s Kevin Hall with the headline, “Economists: Recession Nearing End as Unemployment Dips.” Sad to say, though, that if such news is the basis for optimism, in June or today, then we
is transforming “health care in India through a simple premise that works in other industries: economies of scale. By driving huge volumes, even of procedures as sophisticated, delicate and dangerous as heart surgery, Dr. Shetty has managed to drive down the cost of health care in his nation of one billion.” In the process, he and his doctors are
Two housing industry flaks suggest a novel way to reduce the U.S. housing surplus, in today’s Wall Street Journal .
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.