Somehow it seems inappropriate to wish one another “Happy Memorial Day.”
During the past several years, depending upon the location, we have tried to attend Mass or services on Memorial Day to pray for those who have died on behalf of our country and to pray for those who have suffered losses of family members and friends and to […]

Today’s Heard on the Street commentary in The Wall Street Journal, “Trouble Hid in the Hedges,” reminded us that we have been meaning to write about nedges and sledges for some time.  The regular reader may have noticed that we are rather pedantic, particularly about the meaning of words.  In financial risk-related activities, three words are […]

Senator Joseph Lieberman has an opinion essay in today’s The Wall Street Journal, which is based upon a speech that he gave on May 18. In it, he supports John McCain and criticizes the Democratic Party’s foreign policy, including Obama’s proposed tactic of talking with terroristic regimes.
In the print edition’s synopsis, he states: “My party needs to relearn that we won’t […]

There is a decent article in today’s The Wall Street Journal about econ professors at Princeton researching financial market bubbles.  We write “decent” because there is much with which to both agree and disagree. In fact, one could write a book on the topic, and several have.  Today, we offer only a short post.  Our goal is […]

…If You Tell Us!
We had two separate conversations yesterday that provided very nice examples of the antithesis of managerial discipline, particularly the commitment not to penalize a subordinate for truth-telling, which is almost always necessary if one is interested in actually learning the truth (of what the person privately knows).  We have discussed these general issues and provided other examples in various blog posts and in several essays listed under […]

Our favorite daily newspaper seems to be slipping, by the, err, well, day.
Monday’s The Wall Street Journal included a special section called Business Insight, which contained a feature article “Does Being Ethical Pay?” The authors claim that their research shows that consumers will pay more for “ethically” produced goods.
First, they provide no evidence that consumers do pay […]

Per our posts on May 1st & May 2nd regarding the trade-off between economic liberty and the (potential) market distortions caused by speculation, yesterday’s The Wall Street Journal had several reports that both House and Senate committees plan to investigate the issue, particularly as it relates to unregulated energy markets.  As we mentioned two weeks […]

We’ve posted a new essay on performance measures: If One Is Bad, 400 Must Be Good.  It discusses budgeting and performance measures at a firm with coordination problems.  It illustrates the notion that too many measures may confuse subordinates (and superiors), and it shows that symptoms are not root problems. Attempting to cure the symptoms need […]

Our previous post regarding tenure reminded us of an amusing and informative anecdote that we like to tell.
Many years ago, we were conversing with an acquaintance at an academic conference.  She was ecstatic.  She was to be reviewed for tenure during the following academic year, and during the current year, a departmental colleague was under review.  She […]

Or how tenure is like plea-bargaining
 The exterminator visited world headquarters on Friday.  He mentioned that in this part of the county, 90% of his business involved spraying structures to keep carpenter bees from boring and yellow jackets and other hornets from nesting and annoying.
After he sprayed, we spoke for a few minutes, and he asked about the […]

Per our previous entry on commodity bubbles, here is a nice quote by Keynes:
“Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a […]

Generally, we don’t like to label events as “bubbles.”  However, we think that by the end of the year, many commodity prices could be at one-half or one-third of their current levels.  In particular, oil could be $40 per barrel by 2009.  Like the gentleman we cite below, we find it difficult to believe that the increase in […]

Yesterday in the Corner, which is National Review’s blog for those readers not in the know, there was a brief discussion of Rousseau and Voltaire.  The exchange included a remark about Voltaire’s cleverness and a few paragraphs about the nature of cleverness by John Derbyshire.
We, too, have reflected on that trait for awhile—both its positive and negative connotations.  However, unless one dislikes positive traits like intelligence, wit, and […]