Good question. "Why Does Joe Biden Keep Remembering Things That Didn't Happen?"' But it's O.K. "In an incredibly unique spin, this report claims Biden's gaffes don't matter because he makes so many of them."

So much for "transparency". Eli Zabar tried it and it doesn't seem to be working. (Well, it is the Upper East Side.)

Note two points from the New York Times article on A.I.G.. There's arrogance, there's damn arrogance, and then there's this:“It is hard for us, without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of realm of reason that would see us losing one dollar in any of those transactions.”...

Two inventive analyses using rock music. I don't believe in Peak Oil, but I do believe in Peak Rock. "Sha Na Na: Founders of the Modern Conservative Movement". So move over, Hayek, Goldwater, and Buckley. Your contributions to conservative thought were helpful, but it was Sha...

"Ladies and gentlemen, the 42nd president of the United States". Finally, a worthy competitor for Primary Colors.

Nicely done. Economist Steven Horwitz posted "An Open Letter to My Friends on the Left".One of the biggest confusions in the current mess is the claim that it is the result of greed. The problem with that explanation is that greed is...

Another form of "discrimination" disappears with better research. Do moms earn less than childless women after controlling for differences in productivity? It had seemed so. Discrimination! Maybe not so much. Maybe it's just moms want more of their compensation in the form of health benefits. (And I would...

An account of why risk management failed. From Saul Hansell in the New York Times:“There was a willful designing of the systems to measure the risks in a certain way that would not necessarily pick up all the right risks,” said Gregg Berman, the co-head of the...

An unusual opportunity?. As I noted last Friday, there's a reasonable chance that hedge funds will have to raise a lot of cash soon. Business Week writer Matthew Goldstein noted this, too:With so many hedge funds—including some very large ones—posting negative returns this...

Remember Fantasy Island? "The plan, Boss, the plan!" (Sorry.). By the time you read this, the Mother of All Bailouts may already be law. But I want to note my old boss Ed Leamer's questions, and also those of the Manhattan Institute's Nicole Gelinas. (These pertain to the original...

The Mother of All Excuses. Noted economist Paul Krugman, 10:44 a.m. today:But putting myself in Barney Frank or Nancy Pelosi’s shoes, I’d look at it this way: the Democrats could start over, with a bailout plan that is, say, centered on purchases of preferred stock...

"10 Online Ways to Track Financial Turmoil". PC Magazine offers their favorite sites for financial "news coverage or commentary over the past week". (I had already been looking at most of these, and I agree that the listed sites are at least interesting and useful.)

Cool: economics, statistics, and possible anchoring bias in one example. "What is the net present value of a JD?" (Conglomerate Blog, 9/26)

"Moral hazard?" Be careful how you use the phrase. Economist Bob McTeer--he formerly ran the Dallas Fed--cautions us on the proper use of "moral hazard". "

Dominoes falling over. It's what the story Wall Street two weeks ago sounds like. "Lehman's Demise Triggered Cash Crunch Around Globe" (yesterday's Wall Street Journal).

"Pension Spiking Will Cost Californians". Economist Gary Galles notes a problem that we'll see a lot more of unless taxpayers wake up.

Business models for the digital age. Summary of a 2004 paper by noted economist--now Google employee--Hal Varian, that offers "14 business models that allow content creators to make money even if they cannot stop the content from being distributed for free". Varian has been making this...

Prices in New York City, 40 years ago and today. New York magazine's 40th anniversary issue is out. One piece included is "A look at the exponential rise of New York's cost of living over the past 40 years". (Geez, I don't like that "exponential" has been corrupted to mean...

Four miscellaneous pieces on the mess. Economists David M. Levy and Sandra J. Peart note [link added; thanks, Ken Hirsch] that an SEC decision distorted the incentives of the ratings agencies. (The huge mistakes of the ratings agencies, at least partially induced by governmental actions, were...

The SEC and the FASB have just put mark-to-market accounting on hold. Recall my earlier list of contributing causes to the mess: mark-to-market-accounting was on it. But at 5:03 p.m. yesterday Frank Ahrens of the Washington Post reported:The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Accounting Standards Board have just made an...

Further argument that a lot of hedge funds are about to keel over. Felix Salmon thinks hedge funds could well be dumping a whole bunch of stock soon.In any event, the hedge-fund shakeout over the coming months could be brutal, and have nasty systemic consequences if hundreds or thousands of hedge funds are...

DonorsChoose. I've written about DonorsChoose before, but here's another brief plug. It's a worthy charity: you help some K-12 teachers do their vital jobs and you show some kids that it's possible for strangers to be rooting for them. (From the...

Sound advice on marriage. I wouldn't give a plugged nickel for its news coverage, but the NY Times continues to run interesting and useful "back of the book" pieces. Here's advice that some high-profile married--now divorced--people should have heeded.TALK AND SHARE GOALS Before walking...

What if there's a tie in the electoral college?. Interesting discussion at 538.com. Noted political scientist Larry Sabato's thoughts. And MSU grad student Mike Sheppard asks, and answers (for all previous presidential elections), "What is the smallest number of total votes that need to be switched from one candidate...

If you think stronger regulation is a good answer, heed Buffett. Warren Buffett gave a three-hour interview in August. Here's an interesting bit from the transcript:QUICK: If you imagine where things will go with Fannie and Freddie, and you think about the regulators, where were the regulators for what was happening,...

Got an idea to improve the world?. Google is offering $10 million in prizes for good ideas.

Like most good things . . .. . . . some optimism is fine, but you can have too much.

For would-be orchestra conductors. I don't know if it will be offered in 2009, but it sounds like this workshop was great for people who want to wave the baton.

P. J. O'Rourke. P. J. has been diagnosed with malignant cancer, albeit a type that's very treatable. He states that he has a "95% chance of survival" and cracks that, given his fondness for smoking and drinking, "my chance of survival of has...

New DOJ report. Competition and Monopoly: Single-Firm Conduct Under Section 2 of the Sherman Act. 200 pages of antitrust-geek goodness.

Nobel Prize prediction. Thomson Reuters thinks that Armen Alchian and my thesis advisor, Harold Demsetz, have a chance at the economics Nobel this year. That would be very cool. (Link via Greg Mankiw.)

"Kindle killer". If the maker can offer this at a reasonable price, it looks good and should do well.

The Economic Consensus v. Politics. Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution writes that the "consensus among [academic] economists is now clear". He mentions two Ivy League economists and three Chicago economists--that represents, or at least used to, close to the two ends of our ideological spectrum--as...

Five more good ones from "Overheard in New York". Jane Austen: Bitch, Please. Get Beat Up a Lot, Pencil Neck? . . . Without Sashimi. I've Been Highlighting My Hair for Years in Preparation. Why John Bought a Laser Pointer.

Aw . . . .. "Dog Dials 911 When Owner Has Seizure".

You may have read about it . . .. . . . but now, thanks to the magic of the Net, you can watch clips of Slovakia's 82-0 beatdown of Bulgaria in women's ice hockey. That's right, 82-0. I'm no expert, but it looks to me like Bulgaria's defense...

We are about to witness another example of Stein's Law. You know: "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." Example, coming soon: "Zimbabwean Inflation Reaches 531 Billion Percent". Practically speaking, that means that a loaf of bread today probably costs many times more than an entire house cost...

B-schools now studying failures. Old and busted: determining what makes a business successful. The new hotness: studying "restructuring and downsizing".

"How Banks Hedge Counterparty Risk". "Ultimately, you try to hedge what you can hedge; what you can't hedge, you try to quantify; what you can't quantify, you try to understand; and what you can't understand, you keep small enough not to sink the firm." That...

"Rate My Resume". Six individuals, with different backgrounds and ages, have their résumés evaluated by "hiring managers and HR experts". Interesting. Also see this brief "inside scoop on what businesses are really looking for when they post job listings".

Two more articles on the coming hedge-fund shakeout. Disaster or opportunity, you decide:So depending on the leverage in the hedge fund system, multiple $100 Billion x (amount of leverage in those hedge funds) and that's how much selling could potentially go on in the 4th quarter to meet...

Two academic papers relevant to the current mess. Roger D. Congleton, "Toward a Political Economy of Crisis Management: Rational Choice, Ignorance, and Haste in Political Decision Making". Democratic crisis management is more error prone than normal democratic policy making is, because it is based on less information, less...

Graduate school and saving the world. Two interesting and useful posts from Chris Blattman, assistant professor of political science at Yale: "How to get a Ph.D. *and* save the world". "Which is for you: MPA, MPA/ID, or Ph.D.?"

Nice catch by the Amateur Economist. "Bootleggers, Baptists, and Car Washes". Some politicians and do-gooders in Indiana Washington [thanks, Reggae] want to ban people from washing their own cars in their own driveways.And guess who supports it? The International Carwash Association. (ht: Debbie Schlussel)

Looking forward to more electoral fun and games in Palm Beach Country?. "First elections officials said there were almost 3,500 ballots unaccounted for. "Now, after an intensive re-re-count by hand, they say they have 139 too many ballots when compared with the original election night total."

Cruel, so cruel. Blogger checks how the beginning-of-2008 stock picks of Fortune, Barron's, and Smart Money have actually done. Not well. Gawker excerpts some of the more embarrassing predictions.

Which cities will see a cut in airline service. Raleigh-Durham is one of the "biggest losers", with a 15.2% cut in scheduled service this November from a year ago.

A feature, not a bug. Aaron Schiff thinks it's bad to be an economist right now. I kinda think we should enjoy the attention while it lasts.

All the oxen get gored in this one. This was a link to an SNL skit, but NBC pulled the video! For speculation on why, see Michelle Malkin. (It must be nice to have as much money as George Soros.) Michelle also has posted a transcript and screenshots....

"SARS Response Offers Lessons for Credit Panic". Granted, I think a physical illness is a little different than the financial mess we're currently in. But I think the main point of Kevin Hassett's piece holds up. The Singapore response sets a goal for policy makers. They need...