J. Bradford DeLong's Blog, page 2312

Eleanor Roosevelt Liveblogs World War II: May 12, 1940

Eleanor Roosevelt:

My Day: The news that Holland and Belgium had been invaded came over the radio on Friday morning, but I could not write about it that day. I had a curious sense of having lost the last vestige of hope that the imprint of civilization still made any dent on certain parts of the world.... [W:]e, in the democracies, have prepared ourselves for a civilized, peaceful world, and we have almost forgotten that a bandit may turn up who does not understand our language nor...

links for 2010-05-11

General Discussion of Rajan (2005): Has Financial Development Made the World Riskier? (pdff







Rajan (2005): Has Financial Development Made the World Riskier? (pdf)







Battle of Arras (1940)







May I Say That One Thing the Atlantic Monthly Does Not Repeat NOT Need Is More Plague-on-Both-Their-Houses-All-Poiticians-Lie "Commentary"?







...

Is There Any Gold in Here?

There are 155 comments to Martin Wolf's

Must large capital inflows always end in

How many of them are worth reading?

(My answer to Martin Wolf's question "whether it is possible for countries to accept large net inflows of capital from abroad, without ending up in crisis" is "yes": If you: 1. borrow in your own currency; and 2. keep a reasonably tight rein on the leverage of your banks, real-estate firms, and operating companies; then you can accept large net inflows of...

The iPad Is a Force Multiplier for Martin Wolf

A correspondent notes:

Now that I have an iPad, the podcasts of Martin Wolf are accessible to me during the commute in a way that they simply were not before.... And now my chief complaint is that he doesn't do enough of them.... The iPad is going to be a huge boost to people who can talk coherently and intelligently at moderate length.

And who can remember to look into the camera as if it were a human being...

And to Think This Clown Is the de Facto Leader of the Republican Party...

Back at the start of the Clinton Administration National Review annointed Rush Limbaugh "the leader of the opposition." Ever since, it has been true: he has been the de facto leader of the Republican Party.

And he is truly a clown: his latest clown show is his claim that the addition of the XIII Amendment abolishing slavery made the Constitution imperfect.

Media Matters:

Why is Rush Limbaugh defending slavery?: Rush Limbaugh attacked Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan for citing former Justice...

How Can I Not Drop Everything and Spend the Rest of Today Reading This Book?

From Francis Spufford, Red Plenty (Faber and Faber):

In the twentieth century Russians stopped telling skazka. And at the same time they were told that the skazka were coming true. The stories' name for a magic carpet, samolet, 'self-flyer', had already become the ordinary Russian word for aeroplane. Now voices from the radio and the movie sreen an television began to promise that the magic tablecloth samobranka, 'self-victualler', would soon follow after. "In our day" Nikita...

Darrell Duffie on the Dorgan FinReg Amendment

Darrell Duffie:

Among other things, [the amendment:] means a big limitation on the entire
securitization market, since in many cases the loan default risk is
transferred into the structured credit product through a CDS. (This is
not to be confused with a synthetic CDO, which is much different, and
not such a big loss in my view.) So, lots of loans to ordinary
individual Americans (their credit card loans, home equity loans,
mortgages, and so on) and American operating...

Should We Ban Naked CDSs?

I say, narrowly, no--that if we can get proper clearing, transparency, and capital adequacy requirements in place banning naked CDOs would not do any good and would do a little bit of harm. But it is a close call. And if we can't get proper clearing, transparency, and capital adequacy requirements in place then we should ban them.

Let's go back to first principles. The direct benefits of having more developed, liquid, and sophisticated financial markets are threefold:

They allow people to...

Oberkommando des Heeres Liveblogs World War II: May 11, 1940

OKH:

After crossing the borders of Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg, the German West Army has repulsed the enemy border troops everywhere in Holland and Belgium and, despite the [enemy's:] destruction of countless bridges, and despite obstructions of every kind, is on the offensive and advancing rapidly.

Paratroops and airborne troops have landed and are about to carry out their security missions.

Luftwaffe units, flying in relays, are supporting the advance of the Army...

links for 2010-05-10

The Big Idea: Guy Gavriel Kay « Whatever







Donald Luskin: Stocks Slide--It's About Time

A friend who wishes me ill emails: "Wow! His record as a perfect contrary indicator remains untarnished!"





Why is Rush Limbaugh defending slavery? | Media Matters for America







Ed Whelan smears New Yorkers in attack on Kagan | Media Matters for America





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