Rules versus discretion
A long standing theme in macroeconomic policy is the question, when is it best for policy makers to be tied to a rule and when should they have freedom to decide what to do (“discretion”). It’s easiest to see why … Continued
The socialist USA
The ever excellent Peterson Institute for International Economics has a blog post today on the solution to the USA’s crumbling transport infrastructure, namely tolls. Resistance to raising taxes makes it all but impossible for the federal or state governments to … Continued
The IMF and the French
After the embarrassment created by former IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn you might expect his successor to be particularly careful about her words in the area of male-female attraction. But according to a blog at the journal Foreign Policy, you … Continued
China and the Eurozone mess
It’s nice to see the Chinese government making constructive noises about helping the Eurozone and Italy in particular, if only because I speculated about Beijing coming to the rescue earlier this year in class. I also put the idea to … Continued
Dangerous Dimon (contd.)..
I wasn’t the only one to have a go at Jamie Dimon (see this post from June). Paul Krugman, a rather more distinguished blogger than me, has been trying to poke fun at him too. But Dimon’s latest outburst takes … Continued
Reasons to be cheerful
Since I last blogged back in June, the flow of bad economic and financial news has turned into a torrent. Banks have shed jobs, markets have fallen, confidence in governments is even lower than before, the ECB has acrimoniously lost … Continued
Non-finance activities
MFins have many hidden talents. Some of them formed a band this year and were kind/foolish enough to invite me to play along with them on a couple of songs after a dinner at Churchill College. On this rather hazy … Continued
May Week is in June
After the end of the Easter (summer) term there is a week of partying called May Week. This always takes place in June (it once took place in May, hence the name). Undergraduates at Cambridge face a hugely stressful exam … Continued
Financial Times rankings
On Monday 23 June the FT is expected to publish its first ranking of master of finance degrees. The FT consulted a number of business schools about this to try to make sure the rankings made sense, especially in comparing … Continued
Is Jamie Dimon the most dangerous person in finance?
Jamie Dimon is the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase Inc. I’ve sometimes described JPMorgan Chase (hereafter “JPMorgan”) as the world’s least bad bank – in line with my view that most banks are not very good at what they … Continued
Changes to the MFin programme for 2011-12
Changes to the MFin programme for 2011-12 We are making four changes to the MFin teaching programme for the next academic year. Some of these changes reflect an increase in the workload in other parts of the programme because some … Continued
As Confucious apparently didn’t say…
I’ve been accused of writing too much about China, so apologies for more, but there is an interesting story in today’s Financial Times. Like many people, I’ve used the story about the Chinese premier Zhou Enlai replying to US President … Continued
China’s misdirected IT expertise
Yesterday Google revealed a campaign to steal users’ passwords that “appeared” to originate in China. This, though denied today by the Chinese government, is hardly the first time that China has been accused of various “cyber-crimes”. All I can say … Continued
A 50 year old film
Lots of women on Facebook and on dating websites say their favourite film is “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (don’t ask me how I know this, but trust me, it’s true). It’s such a cliché that I wonder if women select it … Continued
Graduation weekend
The MFin class of 2009-10 graduated last Saturday. I need to explain what this means. In Cambridge, you aren’t actually allowed to use the title MFin (or whatever degree you’ve got) unless you graduate, either in person or in absentia. … Continued