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
The Wall Street Journal’s Take on Wall Street President Barack Obama proposed new limits on the size and activities of the nation’s largest banks, pushing a more muscular approach toward regulation that yanked down bank stocks and raised the stakes in his campaign to show he’s tough on Wall Street. –“New Bank Rules Sink Stocks“;...Read More
Is Everyone in Wisconsin Fat? If we can reduce the number of people deferring medical care — or postponing it indefinitely — while at the same time managing to not go broke, this time next year we can look back at 2010 with pride. This post is from on the road, in the heart of...Read More
The Fog of Financial Misconduct If the nation’s most powerful men and women won’t call Wall Street to account for its misdeeds — who will? Maybe its least powerful. After all, it was Rosa Parks, a then-42 year old seamstress, who helped ignite the civil rights movement in 1955 when she refused to give up...Read More
