Which is the real catastrophe?
The editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal (otherwise an excellent newspaper) are usually politically situated to the right of Attila the Hun. That’s ok with us (live and let […]
Do tax payers need to bail-out the financial system?
Often, the best first approach to a difficult situation is to list as many ‘stylized facts’ as one can think off. Here is one ‘stylized fact’ to dominate all others: […]
Nationalize the banks VI
We’ve argued for some time that the best way to deal with the financial crisis would be to nationalize at least some banks (you can read that here, here, and […]
“Greed is good?”
This is the famous maxim of Gordon Gekko in the film Wallstreet, emblematic of the late 1980s. This time around, we’re not so sure anymore whether it holds true.
Krugman for President!
We really have nothing to add to this article, and dare anyone to come up with any argument against it. It’s simply the best piece by far to appear for […]
Blame the banks?
Mortgage rates on variable mortgages could be a lot lower. Is that the fault of the banks? Not really.
Kick out the lot of them
Vengeance is not a good reason to nationalize the banks, but boy, it is tempting… These self acclaimed masters of the universe, will they ever learn..
Are we close to the bottom?
Impossible to say. There are self-reinforcing mechanisms at work that, unimposed, will take us deeper into a recession. However, there are also reasons to think the economy will stabilize in […]
Nationalize the banks III
And yet another reason to nationalize the banks. Too bad we can’t just abolish them. They’ve done just about everything wrong, their top management has enriched itself beyond imagination, and […]
The Swedish example
We argued for the nationalization of banks. Here is a real life example that shows the advantages over the present muddle..