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Great WSJ Article on Effects of Short-Sale Ban

Back on September 29, Arturo Bris had a great piece in the Wall Street Journal on the counterproductive effects of the SEC’s ban on short-selling financial stocks. As readers of this blog know full well, I have been pounding on the fact that the ban will actually make prices more volatile (here’s an example from […]

A Man, a Plan, and a Short-Selling Ban

Yes, I invented the title but no, it is not a palindrome. As usual, I wrote on a topic for different outlets, stressing different themes depending on the audience. EconLib is for super econ geeks, so I get fairly technical (at least by Internet standards) in this piece on the recent financial coup. For example: […]

"October 1, 2008: The Coup in America Took Place"

So argues Naomi Wolf (not to be confused with Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine). Now folks, Robert Wenzel sent me this 27 minute YouTube, and I wrote back, “What part should I listen to? I don’t have time for this whole thing.” And he just said, “The whole thing, man.” He was right. […]

Despite "Rescue," Markets Continue to Get Pummelled

I really don’t take pleasure in pointing this out, not the least reason being that I have a (very modest) retirement account in global equities. But we were told we needed to fork over $700 billion to reduce volatility and shore up confidence in the financial system. Well, as of this writing, the Dow is […]

Lifting the Offshore Ban [Apparently] Gave Immediate Price Relief

Here’s a link to a fairly impressive demonstration that might surprise those who thought the offshore ban had nothing to do with current prices. The money chart: NOTE: In the interests of complete academic honesty, I should note that after I wrote the above article, someone asked me if the price for natural gas looked […]

What They Said About Fan and Fred

This compilation was in the Wall Street Journal on October 2. It sat on my counter for a few days, as I couldn’t work up the effort to actually see just how dumb some of these politicians’ confident statements about the mortgage giants were. I’ve finally read the compilation, and it’s worth it. My favorite […]

Why Does God Let Bad Things Happen?, Part 28

One of the most challenging academic questions for theists is, “Why does God allow bad things to happen?” Unlike other brain teasers involving God, this one really hits home, for obvious reasons. Now I think part of what is going on–and I am a born-again Christian, so that colors my explanation here–is that God wants […]

Why Tyler Cowen Could Be Today’s Hayek, & Why Rothbard Could Be a Real Jerk

One of the biggest sources of regret I have is that I never met Murray Rothbard. So I acknowledge that in the following observations, somebody from Auburn, AL could easily destroy me by saying, “Bob, I knew Murray Rothbard. He was a friend of mine…” Annnywho, here’s what led me to understand why Rothbard could […]