Article Archive
The End of the Art of the Turnaround
The road back for a broken company has always been long and hard. But today it is longer and harder than ever. What’s needed is serious regulatory relief and some very big, very long overdue tort reform.
Geithner’s View from the Top of the Bubble
What a careful, informed, balanced, and intelligent discussion of risk management tells us about the high price of extreme risk.
Facebook and the Importance of Being Unimportant
Many companies make things you'd never discuss at a cocktail party, yet are indispensable for other things that you would.
Fearful Symmetry: Six Decades of Treasury Yields
Interest rates in the market for U.S. Treasury debt display surprising behavior—behavior that previous market participants considered simply impossible.
How to Think about Private Equity
If the overall pattern is so positive—for investors, companies, and even employment—why is private equity so controversial?
Austerity America
Britain has begun to make the United States appear, by contrast, a nostalgic bastion of unchanging political custom and ideological continuity.
The Federal Reserve’s Real Mandates
The Federal Reserve has a 'triple mandate.' Grasping this allows us to understand why the Fed, while not doing so well at stabilizing prices or maximizing employment, has nonetheless gained ever greater power and status.
Greece’s Unhappy Anniversary
One year after having received a $150 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund and European Union, Greece is back at the public trough asking European taxpayers for another bailout package.
Will 1970s Haircuts Ever Come Back into Style?
We have a lot to learn from Gerald Ford’s response to New York City’s fiscal crisis.
Please Actually Read My Research
Galen Institute founder Grace-Marie Turner’s recent opinion piece on the Medicaid drug program is deeply misguided.
The Fed vs. the FDIC on Lehman’s Failure
A recent FDIC report on Lehman Brothers’s financial condition before its failure puts in doubt the Federal Reserve’s account of its decision- making, and raises significant questions about the nature of the financial crisis.
Green Energy: Don’t Envy Germany
Germany’s promotion of renewable energies is commonly portrayed as setting a standard for the rest of the world. It is instead a cautionary tale.
Pride and Prejudice: Contrarian Speculation on Wall Street’s Future
Why Larry Summers’s experience on Wall Street is cause for hope.
Drugs: The Price Is Right
AARP continues to mislead the public about the true trend and nature of pharmaceutical prices by maintaining a narrow view of the market.
Is Startup America Bound to Fail?
The White House’s Startup America program’s diversity goals clash with its economic aim of boosting growth.
Are Federal Policies Toward Small Business Contracting Succeeding?
If the goal is to help historically disadvantaged groups get a larger share of federal dollars, the answer is yes. But if the goal is to encourage federal bureaucracies to shift their contracting dollars from large businesses to small businesses, the answer is no.
How the Fed Should Operate in Treacherous Waters
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would be wise to learn from the Titanic and slow his second experiment with quantitative easing, the expansion of the central bank’s balance sheet known as QE2.
Fool's Gold
Eight centuries of Western monetary history show that bullion-based systems offer no benefits over paper-based systems.