What are economists for?
“Most economists, it seems, believe strongly in their own superior intelligence and take themselves far too seriously. In his open letter of 22 July…
Problem solving
“FTSE 100 could hit 7,000 if the Bank of England prints more money” – Telegraph headline implicating Legal & General’s Ben Gill as the…
Muppets 1 Gollums 0
It was just past 7:00 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, September 13, 2008. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, went into his home…
Fixed
“Don’t fight the Fed – bet on it.” – Lee Quaintance and Paul Brodsky of QB Asset Management. In December last year, the poet…
Garbage in …
“We have involved ourselves in a colossal muddle, having blundered in the control of a delicate machine, the working of which we do not…
The Great Repression
“No government has ever commanded the resources at the disposal of our ungodly Leviathan, which consumes about 25% of the product of the world’s…
Beware false idols
“Playing with expectations works temporarily. The risk-on trade is in a mini bubble, as today’s buyers want to be ahead of the slower ones….
Stop the (printing) press
“FRED GOODWIN. Have the last laugh by donating a couple of million to the Tory party and receiving a life peerage.” – From the…
Living off immoral earnings
Contender for leading meme of our time is the idea, fast becoming conventional wisdom, that capitalism is somehow experiencing a crisis. UK Prime Minister David Cameron (or his speechwriter) suggested last week that it is now the time to use the “crisis of capitalism to improve markets, not undermine them.”
If the Prime Minister were capable of framing the problem correctly, he would have said that it was now the time to use the “crisis of statism to introduce markets”.
The final countdown
“Under the circumstances, discussions with Greece and the official sector are paused for reflection on the benefits of a voluntary approach.” Debt talks “have…