What Does a “Bird” Look Like? Before you pose the question, “What does a well-designed financial system look like?,” first ponder the question, “what does a bird look like?” Seriously. Robins, flamingos, and penguins bare little resemblance to one another. Yet scientists classify each as birds, and each could be called an environmental “winner”: endowed...Read More
Volcker’s Clarion Call Imagine being able to consult Albert Einstein about a physics conundrum, or FDR or Lincoln about an existential national emergency (like the one we’re facing now, perhaps). Having Paul Volcker, the 82 year-old former Fed Chairman, still on the scene and available to advise and guide is truly a stroke of good...Read More
Instant Amnesia — Or Something Worse? If it exists, it’s possible.–unknown Believe me, it’s not what it is.–caption, New Yorker cartoon (what husband caught in bed with another woman says to his wife, standing in the doorway). Let’s see: as every investor, saver, employed person and sentient being knows, the U.S. financial system — indeed,...Read More
Confusing “Us” and “Them” Today’s Wall Street Journal is running a house editorial decrying government wage controls on the top 175 executives at seven companies that are still using money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (“TARP”). The title of the piece? “Our New Paymasters: wage controls are politically easier than genuine reforms.” I can...Read More
Paul Volcker, Window Dressing (Sadly) [Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul] Volcker scoffs at the reports that he is losing clout. “I did not have influence to start with,” he said. –Louis Uchitelle, “Volcker’s Voice Fails to Sell a Bank Strategy“; The New York Times(10/20/2009). I don’t have many heroes, political or otherwise. Teddy Roosevelt. FDR....Read More
