Leave a Comment

More interesting and/or useful links about the current financial unpleasantness
Newmark's Door — 122 economists, most from some of the top economics and business departments in the nation, express "great concern" about the Poulson plan. (Link via Marginal Revolution.) Steven Landsburg concurs, separately. (With some interesting comments.) John Berlau, writing on the Competitive Enterprise Institute"s blog, thinks the Poulson plan "would likely make mark-to-market and hence the credit crisis worse". "How close was the financial system to melting down?" Supposedly, very close. As ...

If Banks Disappear, It Doesn't Mean Lenders Will
CARPE DIEM — ... Or approach one of the hedge funds that seem to be swimming in cash? Or borrow abroad? In other words, I'm not sure these big Wall Street banks are really necessary, and I'm not sure we'd miss them much if they were gone. Maybe there's something I'm missing, but if so, I think it should be incumbent on Messrs. Bernanke, Paulson and above all Bush to explain what it is. ~Steven E. Landsburg "Not Buying It" in The Atlantic

Readings on the Financial Crisis
The Distributed Republic — ... blog posts on the topic before us: McArdle - The Nightmare Scenario if the financial markets collapse. Credit Crunch or Not? Yes: McArdle - There is a Credit Crunch Brad Delong - Real side of the economy feeling the pain Ezra Klein - Commenter "Profane & Informed" says Frak Yeah theres a crunch. Arnold Kling - Comments on Higgs & McArdle's takes on the Crunch No: Landsburgh - Not buying the crisis. David Johnston - Where's the beef? Robert Higgs (Boson) - No ...

More Commentary on the Financial Mess
Greg Mankiw's Blog — Lucian Bebchuk Steven Landsburg Anne Krueger Glenn Hubbard, Hal Scott, and Luigi Zingales Richard Epstein Sebastian Mallaby Robert Samuelson Nouriel Roubini Bruce Bartlett

Micro is from Earth, Marco is from Cuckoo land
winterspeak.com — I attribute Steve Landsburg's complete failure to understand the credit crises to the fact that he's well versed in microeconomics (which is sane) and therefore feels that macroeconomics is too (which it is not -- it is fundamentally nonsensical) ...