Luigi Zingales, who teaches at the University of Chicago’s business school, had an op-ed in Bloomberg provocatively titled “Do Business Schools Incubate Criminals?” He argues that business schools are “partly to blame” for the decline in ethical standards in the business world, and urges that ethics not be taught as a separate course by lightweight … Read more
The two finance personality stories of the day were Timothy Geithner’s appearance before the House Financial Services Committee for a periodic Financial Stability Oversight Council Report, and former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill’s unexpected conversion to the “smaller banking is better” faith. As Adam Levitin and Dave Dayen recount, Geithner reverted predictably to a combination of … Read more
Recently I came across this assertion in a comment box on one of my favorite websites: “The cost to fuel your car has never been higher as a percentage of disposable income.” Really? I know gasoline prices are high, but you just can’t make that assertion without looking at incomes and fuel economy, too. I … Read more
Immigration is an issue it would be easy to file away in the “too difficult” drawer. Is it one of those where good economics – most economists would say it brings net benefits for the country – can never be good politics? Or is it a bit more complicated than that? A few days ago … Read more
Now here’s Déjà vu all over again. You might remember the name Rebecca Mairone from a few years ago. She’s back in the news:“Rebecca Mairone, formerly a top official at Countrywide Financial, has been named in an amended complaint filed earlier this month by Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New … Read more
The World Cup was not the only event of global significance to take place in Brazil this summer. The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa met in the city of Fortaleza and announced the formation of two new financial institutions. One is the New Development Bank (NDB), which will finance “sustainable development” projects, … Read more
Growth from the fourth quarter of 2013 to the first quarter of 2014, originally thought to have been about +0.1% in April, was revised last week to –2.9%. That’s at a seasonally-adjusted, annualized rate (SAAR)—the way the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) usually reports real GDP growth. News reports varied between shock and concern. … Read more
On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.13 percent in June. What does such a figure really mean? Is it a measure of inflation or of the change in the cost of living? Until recently, I would have answered … Read more
Our conference begins today in London and runs for three days. This is a spin-off of an INET project that Mariana Mazzucato and I are heading, which explores an integration of Keynes, Schumpeter, and Minsky on financing the capital development of the economy. I’ll report more on our research later–the project comes to an end … Read more
There is a rush by U.S. Corporations to flee the country for more business friendly locations in Europe. One of the latest is Walgreens, but they were preceded recently by Medtronic, Mylan, AbbVie, Salix and an attempted takeover of AstraZeneca by Pfizer (Wall Street Journal 2014). The process is not new, but it has accelerated … Read more