News From Respected Sources

• Pushing My Luck on the Preakness 2012/05/19
  (Photo: Tsutomu Takasu) The dangerous thing about gambling is that you happen to win sometimes, just by chance.  The gambler is quick to take credit for successes, but can always find some external factor to blame for losses. Case in point: my Kentucky Derby picks.  I picked three horses out of twenty starters: one to win, one to place, and one to show.  The […]
  Steven D. Levitt
• Update on the Millennium Villages controversy 2012/05/19
  G., a loyal MR reader, writes to me: I imagine you may find this interesting… The blog post: http://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/the-millennium-villages-project-impacts-on-child-mortality The retraction on the MVP website: http://www.millenniumvillages.org/field-notes/millennium-villages-project-corrects-lancet-paper The retraction in the Lancet: ht […]
  Tyler Cowen
• Assorted links 2012/05/19
  1. Edible stop signs in food. 2. Will smartphones alter psychology? 3. Ask Cowen Anything (on food), and Jerry Weinberger reviews An Economist Gets Lunch. 4. How do science fiction futures change over time? 5. Why is American mobility declining? 6. Saez and Diamond on taxes. […]
  Tyler Cowen
• Derivatives need a priest 2012/05/19
  By Sell on News, a macro equities analyst. Cross posted from MacroBusiness Imagine two ways of framing a financial trading choice. The first way is in the pseudo scientific language of finance. “An optimal trading strategy will be to go short on Greek and Spanish government bonds to exploit a high likelihood of sell off and debt restructuring which will keep […]
  Lambert Strether
• Incentives matter 2012/05/19
  Divorce lawyers and wedding planners have been gearing up for the Facebook IPO, waiting for the influx of wealth in Silicon Valley to stir up drama in romantic relationships, for better and for worse. “When Google went public, there was a wave of divorces. When Cisco went public there was a wave of divorces,” says Steve Cone, a divorce attorney based in Palo […]
  Tyler Cowen
• Regulatory Complexity and Uncertainty: The Capital Requirements Directive IV 2012/05/19
  Editor’s Note: The following post comes to us from Vincent O’Sullivan, member of the FS Regulatory Centre of Excellence, PwC, UK, and Stephen Kinsella, Lecturer in Economics at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick. Regulation is the most important factor influencing strategic change at financial institutions and is the second largest threat - af […]
  Noam Noked, co-editor, HLS Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation,
• The AIG Story with Hank Greenberg 2012/05/19
  I am pleased to report steady progress on my book project, The AIG Story, which I am writing with Hank Greenberg, who headed the company for 35 years before its nosedive that began in March 2005 and culminated in the government takeover/bailout of September 2008. The AIG Story chronicles the strategic growth of American International Group (AIG) from a modes […]
  Lawrence Cunningham
• Links 5/19/12 2012/05/19
  Lambert Strether (Yves being on vacation). Millennia-old Microbes Found Alive in Deep Ocean Muck Scientific American Facebook IPO huge but no pop San Jose Mercury News Much ado about nothing Felix Salmon Morgan Stanley made big bet on Facebook Reuters NIFA rejects Nassau, Morgan Stanley privatized sewers deal Long Island Business News (MS). JPMorgan returns […]
  Lambert Strether
• Why did the U.S. financial sector grow so large? 2012/05/19
  Edward Conard, author of Unintended Consequences: Why Everything You’ve Been Told About the Economy is Wrong, offers a hypothesis.  He suggests the underlying cause is the (relatively recent) prevalence of risk-averse foreign capital: With an abundance of risk-averse offshore capital, the constraint to increase investment and risk taking has been the capacit […]
  Tyler Cowen
• Daniel in the Looter’s Den: My Adventures at the UN 2012/05/18
  By Daniel J. MitchellI was at the United Nations yesterday for something called “The High Level Thematic Debate on the State of the World Economy.” Most speakers, including the secretary general of the United Nations, the president of the European Commission, Paul Volcker, and Joseph Stiglitz, to varying degrees blamed private markets for the fiscal and fina […]
  Daniel J. Mitchell
• NATO Summit Highlights Alliance's Infirmity 2012/05/18
  The NATO summit starts Sunday in Chicago and will be the largest gathering ever held by the alliance. This is fitting given NATO's desire to act around the globe, attempting to remake failed societies and anoint winners in civil wars. Cato scholars have long argued that NATO in the 21st century constitutes a costly commitment with little benefit for Ame […]
  Cato Institute
• Yes, the IRS Can Use Liens and Incarceration to Enforce ObamaCare’s Individual Mandate 2012/05/18
  By Michael F. CannonHere’s a poor, unsuccessful letter I sent to the editor of the Washington Post: A recent article [“Could the health-care law work without the individual mandate?”, Mar. 28, A8] claims the IRS “will be barred from using … collection tools such as placing liens or threatening incarceration” to enforce compliance with the requirement that Am […]
  Michael F. Cannon
• You Do Know What Makes It a ‘Free’ Market, Right? 2012/05/18
  By Michael F. CannonHere’s a poor, unsuccessful letter I sent to the editor of the Washington Post: “Health-care provision at center of Supreme Court debate was a Republican idea” [Mar. 27, A7] describes the health care law Mitt Romney signed while governor of Massachusetts as comprised of “free-market ideas.” Really? RomneyCare’s individual mandate, now mir […]
  Michael F. Cannon
• Jared Diamond reviews *Why Nations Fail* 2012/05/18
  There is much in the review, excerpt: In their narrow focus on inclusive institutions, however, the authors ignore or dismiss other factors. I mentioned earlier the effects of an area’s being landlocked or of environmental damage, factors that they don’t discuss. Even within the focus on institutions, the concentration specifically on inclusive institutions […]
  Tyler Cowen
• If Thomas Edison Had to Submit His Innovations to Medicare, You Would Be Reading This by Candlelight 2012/05/18
  By Michael F. CannonTwo articles in the Washington Post sparked these two poor, unsuccessful letters to the editor. First this: I’m no Republican, but “‘Innovation advisers’ chosen for ideas to improve health care, cut costs” [Jan. 21] gives short shrift to those who oppose the new health care law’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation when it reports […]
  Michael F. Cannon