Ferdinand E. Banks

Questions Remain on Goldman Sachs / AIG Bailout

Questions remain on the Goldman Sachs bailout you say. Not as far as I am concerned. With a bailout the best investment bank in the world has got to come out on top, and maybe that would have been true without a bailout. Why not find something better to discuss, like the continued involvement in Afghanistan.

Robert Kleinschmidt's Case for a Slower Growing U.S. Economy

A very short article, but it was long enough to tell me that I shouldn't care beans about what Mr K. thinks.

AIG Bailout: A Goldman Rescue in Drag?

I'm spending this lousy, rainy sunday afternoon going over some chapters in my new energy book, and so for a break I turned to SA. Guess what I found: more sad songs about how the new President and his team are ruining the economy. That's OK - we live in democracies - but what is this silly fault-finding with Goldman? Don't you know that the kind of smart people in that outfit will always figure out how to work things so that they come out on top.

U.S. Handling of Financial Crisis - A Less Optimistic View

So the American people are on to Obama, says this author. They see and understand the so-called weakness in his economics.

Well, they weren't on to George W. Bush when he told the lies that led to the problem in Iraq, and those lies were right out there in the open where they could be seen and examined in detail.

As for siding with Summers over Volckner, that's easy. Where economics is concerned, Summers is a genius, and Mr V. is an also ran.

Capping Executive Pay: A Misguided Remedial Effort

Hmm. I was teaching in Hong Kong in 2001, and at least once a week climbed up on a soap box to warn various economists and engineers not to listen to Enron and the like on the subject of electric deregulation. Unfortunately, I could not bond with some members of my audiences because they kept their brains switched off, For capitalism to work the way that these authors want it to work, Joe Six-Pack and his significant other have got to learn how to think.

Diana Farrell And The White House Theory Of Bank Size

Interesting, very interesting, but I know one thing about so-called "big banks". That expression will never be mentioned in a classroom of mine by anyone who desires a passing grade - although instead of failing them I might just tell them a few things that they don't want to hear. Even so, I think that Michael Clark has a good idea when he says that some new laws are needed. The first new law should be one designed to stop people from talking about things that they know absolutely nothing about.

Outlandish CEO Pay: How to Fix the Problem

I wonder what this is all about? When mediocrities and losers get to decide who gets what, then the wrong people will automatically move into the top jobs. That's why there are so many rotten teachers in the universities, and I don't just mean Sweden. John Gordon has the right idea: tie pay to performance. Come to think of it, that's why I was fired from Hughes.

Ben Bernanke at Jackson Hole: The Panic, in Retrospect

Why shouldn't Bernanke call a panic a panic? An ignoramus for a president in September and October. Two wars, both of which had been won 5 years earlier, but even so cost billions every week; and in late October the possibility that a man with health issues would be president - which was OK with me - although what was not OK was Governor Palin becoming vice president. Wasn't that was all that was necessary to touch off the biggest panic in US history?

When Goldman Might Have Failed

These articles about GS are interesting, and for me becoming more interesting all the time. I have taught in about 15 universities, with professorships in 12, and everywhere I turn these days I run into mediocrities who think that their mediocrity gives them some special privileges in the great world of finance and economics. I'm sorry but it doesn't. Better the directors of GS than George W. and Condoleeza.

Goldman Sachs: Still Arrogant and Unrepentant

I love hearing that the compensation issue will be rectified, and hopefully sooner rather than later. Outside of that however I would feel better if I had not read this article.

I taught finance for about 15 years, and was not averse to perusing the financial newspapers and other publications. It eventually became quite clear in my mind that GS was perhaps the best investment bank in the world, as I mentioned in my finance book (2001). That being the case, I really don't see the point in pretending that the US and the world would be a better place if GS was allowed to go into the can.

Moral Hazard, Goldman Edition

I know of some pretty dumb people working for Goldman, but on the whole they are a great investment bank. And as for the moral hazard angle, that is strictly off-the-wall. For a firm like that, with their reputation, to play fast-and-loose with their bread because they think that they will be 'bailed out' if things go wrong is not just nonsense - it's silly.

The Unintended Effects of Bad Policy

Interesting article. The problem is though that it assumes that Ben and Larry are boneheads. I'm not comfortable with that assumption.

Bail Out for Dummies - Part I

Hearing dcb say that there are much better ideas in circulation, I would like to offer one: forget all the fearmongering and concentrate on increasing employment. As for the financial institutions, work with them on a 'piecemeal' basis, remembering that the key idea is to start them - or keep them - lending.

I almost opened one of my macro books the other day, but then I remembered the dummies in my own field - energy economics - who think that they have something to say, but almost always get things wrong. My money is still on Larry Summers' brains and President Obama's brains and charisma. Of course the prez got the energy thing wrong, but I'm willing to overlook that.

It's the Politicians, Not the Public

Recent immigrants believe the US is moving toward socialism because they are completely and totally ignorant of US history and culture. The US has no socialistic philosophy and no political party with a socialistic program, and so any any ownership the government has in large corporations can be rescinded in due course.

Seven Uncomfortable Predictions for the Economy

I like this paper. I like the way the author writes, even if I do not believe in a large part of it. I also like the inclusion of crime in the discussion, although if she were a little more thorough she would have mentioned dope and porn as the big long run factor where that activity is concerned..

As for what I didn't like in particular, it was the expression "bailout boogie", or something on that order. BETTER TO BAIL OUT U.S. BANKS AND BUSINESSES THAN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN.