A highlight of my life was visiting with Milton and Rose Friedman in their San Francisco apartment and being served homemade cookies by Rose near Milton’s Nobel Prize hanging on a nearby wall. A few years later I asked Rose to confirm that she really made the cookies herself. She said if she served them, [...]
The front page of today’s New York Times reports on the results from the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. It is largely about who polls the lowest between President Obama and the Congress, President Obama and the Republicans, and Republicans versus Democrats. It made me wonder whether poll results can go below zero. Here [...]
Notes made for remarks to the Federalist Society on November 13, 2009 It’s an honor to be on this panel with all these distinguished people. But I’m afraid I was invited because I’m considered soft on bailouts. That’s a terrible reputation to have. What is it they say about poker? “If you look around the [...]
Last Friday's weak jobs report accelerated discussions of a possible second stimulus package. Will wonders never cease? I agreed that the first stimulus package should've been large and have come soon. We got large and we got soon, if soon is defined by the date of the legislation. Not soon as defined by when it [...]
In my opinion, the average watcher of financial cable TV and reader of the financial press can be forgiven some confusion. Experts are found at opposite extremes of many issues. For example, *We need more spending, but budget deficits are bad. *Debt is bad, but we are adding debt at a record pace. *Consumers and [...]
I've had quite a few blog postings recently on various aspects of the financial crisis and the state of the economy. Scrolling through them to find something of interest is not the easiest thing to do. Since I'm out of pocket briefly, I thought it might be useful to present a list of recent postings [...]
Here are three interviews I did March 9, 2009 at the World Money Show Orlando. Click on the links to view the clips: Extreme Measures Are Needed Evils of Mark to Market Stimulus Efforts Need Focus
I'm finding it hard to think originally about how best to fix the mortgage mess; I keep falling back on the homilies of childhood. My Dad used to say it rained on the just and the unjust alike. I accepted that even though I wasn't always sure if the rain was a good thing helping [...]
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Not so when the word is nationalization. That word appears to have trimmed a few more percentage points off the stock averages in the past few days.
In my previous piece I focused on a simple trap that we all fall into when we count what happens (jobs) but forget to count what doesn't happen (other jobs). We forget to net it out. In this piece, also mercifully short, I hope, I would like to make the case that "job creation" is [...]