Greg Mankiw has a highly readable and quite balanced editorial in the Sunday Times about cap-and-trade. Mankiw makes the point that the economists’ preferred solution to the problem of climate change would be a carbon tax. He notes that it allows the revenues collected from carbon emissions to be used by the government as offsets […]
Archive for August 8th, 2009
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Zero Hedge Doubles Down
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 8th, 2009
Zero Hedge seems to have his panties twisted. Instead of just admitting his post accusing the Fed of rigging the bond auctions may have been over the top or at least just moving on to something else, he decided to come out swinging. Sigh. Here is what I had to say yesterday and it contains […]
Are Dogs As Smart As Kids?
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 8th, 2009
The next time you see someone talking to their dog, resist the impulse to smirk or make a snarky comment. It turns out that the dog might understand what they’re saying. Stanley Coren, a professor at the University of British Columbia, and apparently an expert on these things avers that the intelligence level of most […]
Americans On The Move
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 8th, 2009
I take this as good news. According to new data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the outplacement firm, a little more than 18 percent of job seekers who found work in the second quarter moved in order to take these new positions. That compares with 14.3 percent in the first quarter and 11.4 percent in […]
Some Views On The Jobs Report And The Recession
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 8th, 2009
You didn’t have to look far today to find varying takes on the yesterday’s employment news. They varied from the jubilous to tempered caution to a review that explains away all of the positive data. The usually David Leonhardt writing in The New York Times used the report as a jumping off point to paint […]
Has Wall Street Speculation Pushed Small Investors To Real Estate?
Posted by Tom Lindmark on August 8th, 2009
Henry Blodget on Clusterstock notes that the average holding period for New York Stock Exchange stocks has declined to six months. Blodgett’s take is that this doesn’t constitute investing. In any event, can we please stop pretending that what most fund managers are doing every day is “investing”? Holding stocks for six months isn’t investing. […]
