The Institute for New Economic Thinking was founded two years ago with funding from George Soros. It held its first ever conference here in Cambridge, where possibly the greatest combination of leading economists ever assembled for one meeting debated how … Continued
Amid the gloom on the Eurozone, sluggish growth in the US and worries over a real estate collapse in China, some students ask me if there’s any future for the financial system? Understandably their main concern is jobs. I can … Continued
In the interests of balance, and because frankly I find it more convincing, I must mention another new report from the Peterson Institute for International Economics, by Simon Johnson and Peter Boone. Called “The Eurozone Crisis Deepens“, it rather depressingly … Continued
I recently gave a talk to Cambridge alumni on what I think the major Chinese banks might do in the future. I’m giving a version of the talk in Singapore and Hong Kong in February. There is a short video … Continued
It is widely believed, especially by Americans, that US capital markets are superior to those in Europe and elsewhere. But whatever the general truth of this may be, in one area the US client gets a far worse deal than … Continued
Rogue traders, like the poor, seem always to have been with us. Liaquat Ahamed, in his excellent “Lords of Finance” tells us on page 422 how the head of Lazards, one of the City’s most illustrious banks at that time … Continued
I mentioned in class recently that utility stocks are in some respects like bonds. Which prompted the question, do you value them like bonds then? No. Utility shares are still equities and must be valued as such, but they are … Continued
Econometrics is a branch of applied statistics that deals with the sort of data found in economics (including finance). I believe it’s important for anybody aspiring to a senior position in finance to understand the basic elements of econometrics. These … Continued
The late Professor Wynne Godley of Cambridge University, used to teach that one must be very clear about stocks (amounts of things defined at a point of time) and flows (volumes defined over a period of time, usually a year). … Continued
British people have been known to play a rather childishly condescending game called “name five famous Belgians”. Part of the problem is some people thought to be French turn out to be Belgians in fact (such as TinTin creator Hergé). … Continued
It’s not something readily spoken of, but one reason for doing and MBA (or MFin perhaps) is to find a wife or husband. Very few people will own up to this, though I have had someone personally tell me this … Continued
President of the EU Commission, José Manuel Barroso, recently proposed a “Tobin tax” for the EU. Named after the brilliant economist James Tobin, this tax is on transactions in financial markets. Its deceptive attraction is that it is levied at … Continued
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
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