Capitalist Evolution?

By Rick Bookstaber M&A activity is showing signs of life, activity reaching its highest levels since 2007. What more appropriate symbol of the renewal of the economy, of the emerging spring-time of our business cycle, than the merger of two firms, their culture, management style and business as the genes, and the result of the

Rising economic nationalism

I read a very good piece on the psychology of economic nationalism by SocGen ‘s Dylan Grice earlier today. Because of some relevant thoughts from a reader regarding austerity, I wanted to pass on my thoughts on what he wrote in the context of the present economic situation.

This is going to be more a ‘political economy’ post than an economics or financial one. I take an extremely negative view on economic nationalism; and it would probably take too long to explain why here. But I will lay out the arguments as neutrally as I can so you can see what is happening.

A few quick words on limited government

[W]henever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence,

Context, Content and the Turing Test

By Rick Bookstaber In a recent post I laid the blame for the inadequacies of neoclassical economics and behavioral economics on the failure to take into account human context. By context I mean that humans make decisions that are colored by their assumptions, experience, agenda, and even their sense of foreboding. One way for economics

Ten Ideas That Would Turn David Rosenberg Bullish on the USA

From today’s Breakfast with Dave research note at Gluskin Sheff (highlighting added):

1. An energy policy that truly removes U.S. dependence on foreign oil (shale case, coal, nuclear).
2. A complete rewrite of the tax code that promotes savings, investment, and a revamp of the capital stock. Cut tax rates, eliminate loopholes and costly tax breaks. Tax consumption, promote savings and investment. That is crucial. But it will take political courage (ask Brian Mulroney).
3. A credible plan that reverses the runup in the debt to GDP ratio. This includes not just on-balance sheet items but new rules governing entitlements too. We need delineation of the future of Fannie and Freddie if there is any … they became wards of the government nearly three years ago and there is still no clarification on this file (slightly more important than these periodic consumer spending gimmicks that have surfaced over the past few years). We need a complete rewrite of social contracts and a reversal in sacred cows that have been created over the years that are completely unaffordable. Plus, people are not going to learn to live within their means if our politicians continue to set a bad example. The act of dipping into Social Security, incentivizing companies who are already cash-rich to spend more on new equipment and extending a Bush tax cut that always had a 10-year expiry date at the expense of the already severely strained public purse was political expediency at its worst.
Published by Edward Harrison on 24 January 2011 10:00

The Future of Facebook and the World as We Know It

By Rick Bookstaber (A cross post by Rick Bookstaber which originally appeared at rick.bookstaber.com.) The following reflects my views and not those of the SEC or its staff. Where will Facebook be in ten or fifteen years? In our immediate euphoria, such a long term view may be like taking a good joke too far.

Affordable Schooling

Much ink, real and virtual, has been spilled over the last few days on the macro and micro of the election, QE2, global central banking activities, competitive currency strategies and asset-price targeting. We’re going to give that a rest for today (although we reserve the right to spill some more of that ink ourselves in

The Technology-Driven Consumption Trap

by Rick Bookstaber This reflects my personal opinion, not the views of the SEC or its staff. I just finished reading Robert Reich’s new book, Aftershock. The critical points of the book are well presented in his pre-publication New York Times op-ed piece. I will not be able to do justice to his work in

Random Shots

by Claus Vistesen With course work coming up and with my internet connection just coming on-stream this weekend I hope that I can be forgiven for not posting in the past week. And now that I am I can only find the energy to move in with some random shots since a lot of things

The Determinacy of Income Growth

Will Wilkinson has a post up at his blog called "The Indeterminacy of Income Growth" (pointer to Steve Randy Waldman). He makes a number of points about inflation indices which leads him to conclude that it really can’t be said with any confidence that the rich have in fact been getting richer over the course

Sheryl WuDunn on Empowering Women

The Clinton Global Initiative annual conference ended on Thursday. But, I wanted to highlight one issue the conference spotlighted as one of four action areas – and that is the need for empowering girls and women. We know from recent US census statistics that American women suffer disproportionately from poverty in the US and that

On the role of the state and other links

On the role of the state What is the role of the state? | Martin Wolf’s Exchange | FT.com oftwominds: The Overlapping Crises of Neoliberal Global Capitalism Both Martin Wolf and Charles Hugh Smith have good essays on government. In many ways this debate goes to philosophical pre-disposition. My take? See A few thoughts about