http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/national-news/portfolio/20
I had read Liar's Poker. So this is not a surprise. But it was disturbing to read nonetheless. I suppose this is what it felt like in the Tower of Babel.November 26, 2008
Posted by Lanny Arvan | 0 comment(s)
November 10, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/weekinreview/09sokolove.html
This is a good piece about voters coming around. The remarkable thing is that they had to change in their outlook. Let's hope they are vindicated.Posted by Lanny Arvan | 0 comment(s)
October 04, 2008
In an era where the culture is irresponsibility, would taking a responsible course of action work? Or did the entire system have to fail as it is doing now? Suppose Fannie May went down, not because of buying up too many bad loans but because it refused to, citing that such loans were too risky. Since there were competitors who would buy up the loans, what would have happened? I'm afraid the answer is, nothing good.
Posted by Lanny Arvan | 0 comment(s)
October 02, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/business/02crisis.html?pagew
This story reads more like a spy novel than a chronicle of the recent Financial Markets' history. This is clearly the downside to Friedman's World is Flat. It's as if somebody screamed "Fire" in a theater the size of the entire planet.Posted by Lanny Arvan | 0 comment(s)
October 01, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/opinion/01buchanan.html?page
The simulations discussed in this piece are reminiscent of the Tipping Point, making financial crises like viruses that are only problematic once the contagion has spread sufficiently. On why Economists don't embrace computational equilibrium models there is another ready explanation ---- most economists don't have the training to do that and they don't know how to get up to speed.Posted by Lanny Arvan | 0 comment(s)
September 24, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/opinion/24ehrenreich.html?re
"Americans did not start out as deluded optimists. The original ethos, at least of white Protestant settlers and their descendants, was a grim Calvinism that offered wealth only through hard work and savings, and even then made no promises at all. You might work hard and still fail; you certainly wouldn’t get anywhere by adjusting your attitude or dreamily “visualizing” success."Posted by Lanny Arvan | 0 comment(s)
September 12, 2008
http://edge.org/3rd_culture/haidt08/haidt08_index.html
Via Judith Warner's blog post http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/no-laughing-matter/index.htmThe emphasis on family seems right and family over individual seems right too, but I'm not sure that really differentiates liberals over conservatives. It would be interesting to do a study about divorce, children out of wedlock, marriages across religions (I'm in that category), marriages across race, etc. and see if any of those vary with liberal/conservative.
The other issue is authority, on the one hand, and flexibility on the other. Family that works via authority is a myth in my view, at least nowadays. That's where the real action should be.
Posted by Lanny Arvan | 0 comment(s)
September 09, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/opinion/09everson.html?ref=o
I really liked this idea. It seems quite sensible. The thing is we do this sort of thing all the time for projects, pork barrel or otherwise. So why not do it for ongoing operations.Posted by Lanny Arvan | 0 comment(s)
September 02, 2008
The rat race for the well heeled. Keeping up with the Joneses is now a deathtrap.
Posted by Lanny Arvan | 0 comment(s)
August 20, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/magazine/24Obamanomics-t.htm
Getting the "progressivity" of the full tax system right is a good thing to do, but I'm afraid rates will have to go up overall as well.Posted by Lanny Arvan | 0 comment(s)
