…Calmly observing the changing world

You might be forgiven if you thought that last week’s big news was about what details were in the health care bill, or how it got passed, or who said what afterwards.  You could have thought the biggest news was the fact that the nations with a triple-A credit rating were put on notice.  Or [...]

The threats to a republic are many, and the idealized federal republic may be more mythical than real – but it is at the very least, an excellent goal. The republic seeks to tread carefully in that slimmest of passageways between the tyranny of the majority and the tyranny of a minority. It thus eschews [...]

Six weeks ago, President Obama prominently chastised the court for a recent ruling while the judges bristled in their seats (Alito, visibly), being constrained by decorum during the State of the Union.  Last week, Chief Justice Roberts openly wondered, “Why we are there”, and referred to the State of the Union as a “political pep [...]

Despite the thoroughly German ECB being disinterested in bailing out Greece, and the German people overwhelmingly opposed to the same, the German government itself is vowing to help in smaller ways (like buying up newly issued Greek debt so interest rates on Greek bonds don’t spiral out of control).  Not all German officials feel the [...]

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is known for many things, but mostly he is known for pointing out just how stupid it is to try to predict the future.  The future is full of so many unknowns at every level that predictions are just bound to be worthless. And if your prediction happens to come true anyway, Taleb [...]

In a surprise move today, the Federal Reserve raised the somewhat low-profile discount rate from 0.50% to 0.75%. Supposedly, they are backing away from “emergency” operations and things are slowly getting back to “normal”. In the great scheme of things, this doesn’t sound like much, but rate cycles are long term events and while we [...]

As surely as the dollar seems doomed to decline in status, one might assume that the Euro would be preparing to take its place. And while some in Europe would love for this to happen, the problem with the Euro is simply that it’s impossible to set a European-wide policy that works for the various [...]

Towering over the desert-city landscape in Dubai, you can now find the world’s tallest building . At more than 1000 feet taller than its nearest rival, “Dubai Tower” as it was thought to be named before today, represents – well… it depends who  you ask. A little known secret is that if you build it, [...]

When we are children, we conceive of banks as places to safely deposit money. If, by chance, you grew up watching It’s A Wonderful Life every Christmas, you probably have the idea that money deposited in banks is loaned out into your community: If modern banking truly worked this way, you would understand that when [...]

Sometimes our modern age can feel so anchorless  that we long for something real to rid ourselves of the detached feeling. Often, the more our jobs deal with the abstract, the more we crave the concrete in our private lives. Neel Kashkari ran the infamous TARP program in Washington, DC. He didn’t ask for the [...]