Steve Waldman, via Baseline Scenario, has a great pice up on financial regulation. Key quotes….
An enduring truth about financial regulation is this: Given the discretion to do so, financial regulators will always do the wrong thing.
It’s easy to explain why. In good times, regulators have every incentive to take banks at their [...]
Archive for the ‘AUTHORS’ Category
Why Financial Regulation Cannot Work
Posted in Steve S., tagged Banking break ups, Regulators on November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I made a new blog-
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Community, Culture, Humor, Lifestyle, Media, Mind, Moro, Public, Self, World on November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It’s called Adventures in Desperation. It’s an account of my busking experiment. (Don’t worry, I haven’t given up on finding more secure employment, but I still have some time on my hands and I might as well spend it outside.)
Was Israel Ever in Egypt? When?
Posted in Gods, Science, Siarlys Jenkins, World on November 16, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The events of the Exodus were so cataclysmic that they could never bave been concealed by the Egyptians. Their state was laid prostrate. Either the account happened, or it did not. The only possible period of Egyptian history to fit the facts is the end of the Middle Kingdom, which was immediately succeeded by the Hyksos conquerors.
News from the countries of the East African Community
Posted in Commerce, Health Care, Lynn Gazis-Sax, War, Woman, World on November 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I promised a news round up from the countries of the East African Community, so here it is, a couple of days late.
A survey of citizens of countries of the East African Community reports that harassment at border posts is one of the chief obstacles to economic integration.
Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda are expected to be [...]
Coffee table Clint
Posted in Arts, Scott Lahti, tagged Clint Eastwood on November 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Go ahead, make my coffee (table): new book collects a Fistful of Posters.
Will strip for cache
Posted in Arts, Scott Lahti, tagged Early Comics Archive, Grandville, Struwwelpeter, Thomas Rowlandson on November 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
From the incomparable Early Comics Archive, among other treasures, see the 1848 English edition of Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann (think Edward Scissorhands 150 years avant la topiaire de M. Burton et M. Depp); Rowlandson’s Doctor Syntax (a full-scan must-see);
and the final Max Ernst-like engraving (below), from 1847, by the French caricaturist “Grandville”, whose satiric animal-headed [...]
Come together, Right: new overview
Posted in Mind, Nation, Politics, Scott Lahti, tagged conservatism, Kim Phillips-Fein on November 15, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Informative, comprehensive survey/refresher of the evolution of scholarship on postwar US conservatism by a talented young NYU historian, Kim Phillips-Fein. She has a review (not online) in the December Harper’s of the two new Ayn Rand bios (“One notion: Individual”). Her 2009 book, Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal [...]
Why We Love Chickpeas…
Posted in Humor, Lifestyle, Scott Lahti, tagged gluteus maximus, chickpeas, garbanzo beans on November 15, 2009 | 5 Comments »
That Pain in the Ass Vegan
…’cos they look like little miniature butts. We’re gonna call ‘em garbuttzo beans.
AHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! Looks like we’re not alone!!!! ROTFLOFAO!!!!! See, e.g., among many bloggers, Jen at That Pain in the Ass*Vegan:
*Ass it were
maybe it’s just me, but do any of you out there think chickpeas look like little butts? point [...]
Fishbowl Saints
Posted in Arts, Commerce, Culture, Ethics, Humor, Lifestyle, Scott Lahti, Self, tagged Christian Lander, Stuff White People Like on November 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
From a Sunday Times (UK) profile of Christian Lander, creator of the popular social-satire site Stuff White People* Like:
*Affluent, upper-middle-class, “independent”, guilt-ridden, ethically exhibitonist left-liberal White People
Body Shop, Burt’s Bees, Innocent smoothies; these are WP [White People] companies that all started out ethical and then sort of became distracted by turning rather a neat profit. [...]
Freedom Costs a Buck-Oh-Five
Posted in Law, MI, Politics, War on November 15, 2009 | 5 Comments »
My reaction to the recent Ft. Hood shootings: freedom isn’t free. Or, as was noted in “The American President”, civil liberties sometimes come with a price tag attached. The liberties I’m thinking of here are religious freedom, and the right to keep & bear arms.
Regarding religious liberty: The Founders were actually quite familiar with the [...]
No Fashion for Passion at Fall of Wall, or, No to Joy
Posted in Culture, Media, Scott Lahti, World, tagged Berlin Wall, Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Switzerland, Zurich on November 14, 2009 | 1 Comment »
How the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), the most sober newspaper in Zurich, in Switzerland – and thus on planet Earth – chose to mark the collapse of the Iron Curtain in 1989 [tip: Sign and Sight], as auto-translated by Google (German original in Die Welt): very highbrow, that twitch of the eyebrow:
The Protestant spirit of [...]
Magical Thinking About Afghanistan
Posted in Ethics, Nation, Public, Steve S., War, tagged adversity in Afghanistan, Forgetting Karzai on November 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I greatly enjoyed Bing West’s book, The Strongest Tribe. In it, he went through the course of the Iraq war. He attributes, by my interpretation, our success as a result of the Sunni change of heart coupled with the change to COIN plus the common grunt. It was the day to [...]
The Norman Conquests by Alan Ayckbourn
Posted in Arts, Humor, Scott Lahti, tagged Alan Ayckbourn, Broadway, comedy, David Troughton, drama, Fiona Walker, Penelope Keith, Penelope Wilton, Richard Briers, The Norman Conquests, Tom Conti on November 14, 2009 | 2 Comments »
One of the finest comedies ever shown on English-language television, The Norman Conquests (1978; 1973 pub.) by Alan Ayckbourn, England’s most renowned comic playwright of the last forty years, is yours in part for the viewing at YouTube, in the form of Part Two of three, Living Together, in ten segments [...]
Carrie Prejean and Christianity
Posted in Culture, Gods, Lifestyle, Patrick, Public, Sex, Woman, tagged Christianity, Idiots, Obama, Politics, Stupidity, women on November 14, 2009 | 4 Comments »
AllahPundit and Ace have been all over this like a fly on Doo doo… (Phew!) Which is not entirely surprising seeing that it is a pretty crappy subject. Bump da bump bump…ching!
I have blogged about this woman before; and now, I am doing it again. Which proves that it is a slow news [...]
Free vs Competitive Markets
Posted in Commerce, Community, Culture, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., tagged Regulation, rent seeking on November 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
John Kay at the Financial Times has a short but very good piece up on markets and rent seeking. He first very ably defines and describes rent seeking. If you only occasionally dabble in reading economics, this is good stuff.
You can become wealthy by creating wealth or by appropriating wealth created [...]
“Would It Kill You to Be Nice to Me?” and Other Links, Mostly on Health Care Reform
Posted in Arts, Health Care Proposals, Lynn Gazis-Sax, Nature, Woman on November 13, 2009 | 1 Comment »
A song about a mad scientist “in love”:
I’ve been trying to get a little more information about what’s going on with the Stupak Amendment. Amid wildly varying accounts of what the amendment would do, Brian Beutler at Talking Points Memo tackles the question of Who Would Be Most Impacted By [...]
Banker’s Prayer
Posted in Commerce, Community, Ethics, Humor, Public, Steve S., tagged Goldman on November 12, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Via Ritholtz. He calls it the Lloyd’s prayer.
THE LLOYD’s Prayer
Our Chairman,
Who Art At Goldman,
Blankfein Be Thy Name.
The Rally’s Come. God’s Work Be Done
On Earth As There’s No Fear Of Correction.
Give Us This Day Our Daily Gains,
And Bankrupt Our Competitors
As You Taught Lehman and Bear Their Lessons.
And Bring Us Not Under Indictment.
For Thine Is The Treasury,
The [...]
Mr. Bernanke: The Prince of Finance
Posted in Politics, Truth Excavator, tagged Bernanke, Federal Reserve Bank, Paul on November 12, 2009 | 10 Comments »
A New York Times article, entitled “Under Attack, Fed Chief Studies Politics,” highlights the recent political pressure put on the Federal Reserve and its current chairman, Ben Bernanke, by Texas congressman Ron Paul, and his bill to audit the Fed, which has attracted more than 300 co-sponsors in Congress. The bill would in essence expose [...]
monetary value of human life
Posted in Janice, Mind, Nature on November 12, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I was thinking more about the idea that not getting universal health care would cost tons of money because the 45,000 people who die every year from inadequate access to medical care have monetary value. I forget what Steve said the estimated monetary value of a human life is, but I would bet it isn’t [...]
Gas at $300 a gallon, Maybe only $45
Posted in Commerce, Community, Nation, Politics, Public, Steve S., War, World, tagged Gas in Afghanistan, war costs on November 12, 2009 | 2 Comments »
From Noah Shachtman at Danger Room, I learned that gas in Afghanistan costs at least $45, maybe $300, per gallon. Most of this comes from shipping costs. We use an average of 22 gallons per soldier per day. Key quotes…
Wanna know why the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are so expensive? Here’s [...]
How Sausage Is Made
Posted in Health Care Proposals, Lynn Gazis-Sax on November 12, 2009 | 2 Comments »
I am very much not the wonkiest person out there, when it comes to knowing either the hairy details of legislative procedure, or exactly what’s behind all the controversies, within Congress, these past few months, about health care reform. There are people you’d be much better off reading than me, and some of you [...]
Spend More, Pay Less
Posted in Community, Culture, Media, Nation, Public, Steve S., tagged spending, taxes on November 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Spend more but pay less, that has become the conflict which dominates our public policy debates. Doug Elmendorf from the CBO, via Klein sums it up well.
The country faces a fundamental disconnect between the services the people expect the government to provide, particularly in the form of benefits for older Americans, [...]
Healthy Food Improves School Performance
Posted in Community, Culture, Education, Health Care, Nation, Public, Science, Steve S., tagged food, school performance on November 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Via Yglesias, Tim Harford notes a study showing that eating healthier foods improves the performance of students in primary schools. Key quotes..
What caught the attention of Michele Belot and Jonathan James, though, was the way Oliver’s project had been implemented. Belot and James – economists at Nuffield College, Oxford, and at the University [...]
the “nano” car in medicine
Posted in Health Care, Janice on November 12, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Ever so briefly…
In the Annals of Internal Medicine I came upon an article:
Much Cheaper, Almost as Good: Decrementally Cost-Effective Medical Innovation
by
Aaron L. Nelson,
Joshua T. Cohen,
Dan Greenberg,
and David M. Kent
The title was a little off-putting, but the message was sound. In medicine it very rarely happens that we invent technology that is less expensive and almost [...]
Government Improving Health Care
Posted in Commerce, Community, Health Care, Nation, Public, Science, Steve S., Technology on November 12, 2009 | 2 Comments »
David Leonhardt has been writing some of the best articles out there on health care. His article on Intermountain Healthcare was superb. The Intermountain system is one of those low cost high quality organizations, maybe the best. Like the Mayo Clinic and Kaiser, it has salaried physicians. The biggest difference [...]
