Category Archives: Finance/Government

Capital Sin: Part 1

 Greed and Its Economic Effects:  An Analog Simulation Can we determine the economic impact of greed? The lasting contribution of Piketty’s masterful book, Capital in the 21st Century, may well be his work and that of his colleagues in the … Continue reading

Posted in Finance/Government, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Cloudy, with a Chance of Default

 Timely forecasts can be essential to safety Global finance has more in common with weather prediction than many economists might admit. If they studied the history of weather forecasting, they might be a little humbler in their statements about business … Continue reading

Posted in Finance/Government, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Downton Abbey Economics

Celebrating the Height of Empire as Queen Victoria Opens the Great Exhibition of 1851 How much do Public Broadcast Service viewers understand about the economy that led to the lifestyle of the wealthy Edwardian-era family in the hit series Downton … Continue reading

Posted in Finance/Government | 49 Comments

Napoleon III, Butter and West Marin

Large cheese waiting for shipment on the platform at Fallon, West Marin in the late 1800’s Napoleon III had a huge effect on agriculture, product branding, lobbying and indeed, on the health of West Marin’s dairies. In 1869 he offered … Continue reading

Posted in Environment, Finance/Government, Living next to the fault line | 3 Comments

Polluted, Political, Pregnant or Profitable

Male Chastity Belt, US Patent No.995600 by Jonas E. Heyser, 1911.  Ideal for preventing platform self-abuse and hypocritical behavior in the more risque quarters of Miami during the upcoming Republican Convention Occasionally scientific fact, polemical positions and public policy collide … Continue reading

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Republicans are Planning to Cook Your Grandchildren

“How much can the economy really heat up?” NASA Virtual Solar Observatory Image Yet another part of the long-term Republican plan has emerged with North Carolina banning excessive sea level rise . Wondered about the proliferation of super yachts? Obviously the … Continue reading

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Hedging the Apocalypse

When some latter-day Aristophanes distills the tragicomic story from the mash of the current Greek econodrama, I’ll wager that it will have much in common with the original story of the Acharnians.  The London Review of Books synopsized the story … Continue reading

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Economics: Repeating Rhymes

 Harpers Weekly,  1871 As Mark Twain famously didn’t say: “History may not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes.”  There is something unfortunately close to doggerel here, when considering the nostrum that tax cuts and bailing out the wealthy improves the … Continue reading

Posted in Finance/Government | 3 Comments

The Tea Party Gets it Right (Well…sort of….)

    Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder   Much is correct in the Tea Party’s position, but it lacks historical perspective. To clarify, consider the name of Wilkes-Barre, the Pennsylvania town, founded 1769. The name comes not from its founders but … Continue reading

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Dam the Economists!

  John Cochrane, meet the Hoover Dam I wonder if some economists, like some meteorologists, ever look out the window at the real world. Most of the time, there’s a lot of saltwater-vs.-freshwater-school-of-economics sniping going on, especially in the current … Continue reading

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