The Associated Press has a story about about a man stopped trying to leave Italy with a $500 million check. It’s not clear exactly what kind of check; the implication is that it’s a cashier’s check, or the Italian equivalent. And the other implication is that it’s real. Says the Associated Press story: The man [...]
At the risk of turning away even more of the potential audience, I want to take a couple of minutes to talk about … Aristotle. Yes, the Greek philosopher. Which (if you’re counting) makes this entry even less timely than the one about the Jamestown colony. Aristotle’s Poetics divides men into “higher,” or noble, and [...]
If you’ve read anything about business in the last couple of months, and I’ll work under the assumption that almost all the readers of this blog have to avoid repeating all the sordid details, you know about the subprime mess. The basic story line goes like this: Irresponsible and unscrupulous bankers offered borrowers loans at [...]
… as long as you don’t mind losing everything every once in a while. The thought occurred to me as I read the profile of hedge fund manager Victor Niederhoffer in the New Yorker this week. As the profile was being written, Niederhoffer’s flagship hedge fund blew up. And this wasn’t the first time. Niederhoffer, [...]
Former Qwest CEO Joseph P. Nacchio, convicted of insider trading charges in April and sentenced to six years in prison, is appealing his conviction, the Journal reports. Full disclosure here: I reported on Nacchio’s shenangans at Qwest for Fortune in 2003, so I’m not unhappy to find the Joe Nacchio saga come to a conclusion [...]
I wanted to do an item about the economics of exploration on Columbus Day, but now it’s two days late, and I’ll take advantage of another, related anniversary: 400 years since the founding of the Jamestown Colony in Virginia. Yes, that was a long time ago. I wouldn’t stop the presses for this either. If [...]
Writing about economics gives me plenty of chances to zig when everyone else zags. The rest of the blogosphere is going to be telling you about last night’s Republican debate. So I’ll talk about what’s on TV tonight: Dirty Sexy Money, the new ABC show about the mega-rich. Yes, I know. This probably means my [...]
The New York Times has an extraordinary story today about getting mosquito nets to the poor. It’s billed as science section story, but it’s an instructive economic story too. Mosquito nets treated with DDT or other insecticides are a key line of defense against malaria in poor countries. They cost, according to Reuben Kyama and [...]
Of the ideas batted about for cutting greenhouse gas emissions and slowing global warming, few have gotten traction as powerfully and suddenly as the notion of taxing carbon dioxide emissions. Unlike most other plans that have the word “tax” in the title, this is one that has found takers among both Republicans and Democrats, left [...]
Thanks, Justin. That was an extraordinarily graceful and generous introduction. I’m now going to repay it by turning your economics blog into a forum to talk about Britney Spears. I just checked the new Billboard Hot 100 chart of top downloads: at No. 1, Britney Spears, “Gimme More”. I had a hunch she might be [...]
