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Markets Aren’t That Stupid 13 Aug 2013 | 12:51 am
By James Kwak In finance, there are rarely battles between good and evil. Instead, you have battles of, say, greedy and corrupt versus greedy and ruthless. This is roughly the case in the debate betw...
The Problem with 401(k) Plans 9 Aug 2013 | 08:25 pm
By James Kwak Apparently my former professor Ian Ayres has made a lot of people upset, at least judging by the Wall Street Journal article about him (and co-author Quinn Curtis) and indignant respons...
The Lame “Uncertainty” Defense 5 Aug 2013 | 04:30 pm
By James Kwak The indefatigable Brad DeLong has devoted his energies to singlehandedly protecting Larry Summers from the Internet (although, he makes pains to say, he likes Janet Yellen almost as muc...
Toxic Trait To Avoid #1 26 Jul 2013 | 12:22 am
By James Kwak I generally refuse to be drawn into the Yellen-Summers horse race because (a) everything that can be said, has been said, (b) I have no original information or insight, and (c) it’s all...
Wealth Taxes? Don’t Hold Your Breath 24 Jul 2013 | 10:47 pm
By James Kwak Tyler Cowen thinks that we are entering an age of debates over wealth taxes. If only. It’s true, as Cowen notes, that national debt everywhere is a relatively small fraction of nationa...
Yes, We Should Worry About Public Pensions 23 Jul 2013 | 12:09 am
By James Kwak In the wake of the Detroit bankruptcy, Paul Krugman has a post pooh-poohing concerns about public pensions. His conclusion: “Nationwide, governments are underfunding their pensions by ...
Remember Citigroup 15 Jul 2013 | 01:57 am
By Simon Johnson On Thursday of last week, four senators unveiled the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act. The pushback from people representing the megabanks was immediate but also completely lame – th...
The Costs of “Good” Economics 8 Jul 2013 | 12:22 pm
By James Kwak If there is a central argument to 13 Bankers, it is that politics matters. The financial crisis was the result of a long-term transformation of the financial sector and its place in the...
CEO Salary Justification Season Is Open 5 Jul 2013 | 12:47 pm
By James Kwak Proxy season is over. Then comes the annual compilation of executive compensation data. Equilar and the Times, for example, reported that the compensation of the median CEO at a large p...
What Does 9.5% Mean? 4 Jul 2013 | 06:19 pm
By James Kwak This week, the Federal Reserve approved its final rule setting capital requirements for banks. The rule effectively requires common equity Tier 1 capital of 7 percent of assets (includi...
