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Revision of My Views on Naked Shorting

In August I wrote a piece for Mises.org that lambasted the SEC’s move to ban “naked” short selling of a few financial stocks. I argued that it was a pointless gesture and served only to soften up the public for greater restrictions. Looking back, I think I nailed it on this score. However, in the […]

Is There Going to Be a Bank Holiday?

Back when the Paulson Bank Robbery was still in doubt, I conjectured that there might be an engineered bank panic to get the American people on board. Tim Swanson alerted me to a rumor about Bank of America loading up on signs telling its customers that its branches are closed. He also sent me this […]

A Riddle

Robert Wenzel has a post involving me, and it concludes with the following picture: Try to guess what could possibly make this photo relevant before checking. If you were right, I will give you a mortgage-backed security.

Sarah Palin Is Not Dumb. Evil Perhaps, But Not Dumb

Over at the second best blog in the universe, I have been arguing with Woody about Sarah Palin. He posted a “best of Sarah Palin” compilation (first one below). In response, I posted Obama’s absolutely stomach-turning performance (second one below), and then another compilation including some Biden gaffes and Obama’s piece de resistance where he […]

Mankiw Is Puzzled By Rising TIPS Yields

As I explained in a previous post, analysts who rely on the TIPS yield to get the market’s “risk-free real interest rate” are running into all sorts of trouble. But first, let’s quote from that earlier post to remind everyone what TIPS are: Back in 2003, the Treasury began selling 5-year Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, […]

What’s a Free Marketeer to Think?

Such is the series of columns at American Experiment. The founder, Mitch Pearlstein, invited free market think tanks to contribute essays on the topic. If you go to their main page (linked above), you can see a list of the volumes. Most people are against the Paulson bailout, but some think it is a regrettable […]

"Bailout Doesn’t Resolve Fears on Credit, Economy"

So announces CNBC the day the bailout passes. So let’s see: We’ll be generous and say the bailout only cost $700 billion, even though this thing actually is more, and even though the precedent will allow them to spend trillions when all is said and done. Also, we’ll be generous and say that there was […]

Humor in the VP Debate

The last two nights I have pulled “half-niters” so I have to crash now, rather than doing a full-length analysis. I am sure if I get an important project Friday morning, I will choose to write up more on the VP debate instead of the project… Anyway, I just wanted to note that both candidates […]