The US economy faces recession: To stimulate the economy, the fed is lowering interest to near zero and the government handing out six hundred dollars to everyone. But what the US faces is not recession, but stagflation, and handing out free money is not the cure for stagflation. Stagflation was first observed in the first …
Month: March 2008
Moral hazard:
Financiers know that if they misbehave, the Federal Reserve will print money and give it to them in return for worthless collateral. Public knows that when the central bank prints money, its value diminishes, and thus the public become reluctant to sell, and unable to buy. Hence stagflation.
Cargo Cult Science.
xkcd.com is the ultimate geek cartoon. Getting the joke usually requires esoteric knowledge of some combination of science, maths, popular culture, and internet trivia. In today’s cartoon, Zombie Feynman shows up, seeking to eat brains, but then again explains the essence of the scientific method. He then implies that string theorists have no brains. This …
The global warming swindle
Anthropogenic global warming is a swindle in that the scientific method has been abandoned, the evidence is in substantial part lies, and so on and so forth. But it is not a swindle in that it is provably false. It could be true. The evidence vastly overstated, and the effects vastly overstated, but it could …
The global warming swindle
Anthropogenic global warming is a swindle in that the scientific method has been abandoned, the evidence is in substantial part lies, and so on and so forth. But it is not a swindle in that it is provably false. It could be true. The evidence vastly overstated, and the effects vastly overstated, but it could …
Yes, the Fed can just keep on printing money.
The business times quotes an anonymous “senior London Banker†Someone will go under in this crisis, that’s for sure. The question is whether they stay under or get rescued. Let’s see whether this latest round of stabilisation helps, but if it doesn’t, it’s difficult to see what Plan B is. The Fed can’t just keep …
Fed blows three hundred billion in one day.
Yesterday, the fed, in an effort to restore liquidity, “loaned†the banks three hundred billion dollars with mortgage backed securities as “securityâ€. Because these securities are not worth @#$% it in fact purchased these securities. And because the mortgages backing these securities are not worth @#$% it in fact purchased the mortgages. And because the …
Which is irrational, the Fed or the market?
The economist is puzzled that the very rational Fed is having such difficulty bringing rationality to those terribly irrational markets: the more frightening tremors in the system are those generated by the seemingly irrational unwillingness to hold safe investments, thereby making the safe unsafe. And to cure this terrible irrationality, the Fed is injecting liquidity …
Global warmers lie again 1
According to a statement issued by the World Wide Fund for nature a few hours ago: “Hundreds of newborn seal cubs risk dying of hunger and cold because global warming is making ice in the Arctic Circle melt too fast“When the ice melts too fast, the cubs end up in the ice water before they …
Cause of International Inequality
Arnold Kling is much puzzled by the inequality of nations. I don’t know why. The answer is pretty obvious. Firstly, you require capitalism, which requires not mere formal laws recognizing private property, but a culture of respect for entrepreneurship, for property rights in productive capital and freedom to do business. With that respect, the laws …