A list of all of Doc Werlin’s writings pertaining to economics.
Our commercial banking system does not currently provide the needed financial lifeblood for our society. As New York University professor Nouriel Roubini, founder of global economic and financial analysis firm RGE Monitor pointed out [...]
Brother, can you spare a dime? Although I studied the Great Depression as an economics major in the 1960s, its dread faded. I even underrated the relevancy of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's expertise [...]
The extraction in the U.S. of oil and natural gas from shale rock remains controversial. On the one hand, the benefits from this domestic power source are so great that they have changed the [...]
I spent two years in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the height of the American automobile industry (1966-1968). Many of my colleagues took positions with automobile related companies. If Detroit would have enjoyed the weather [...]
World stock markets have dropped 5 percent to 10 percent following the G-20 meeting that ended Nov. 16. Investors lack confidence that governments can halt the slumping world economy or unfreeze credit markets. For [...]
This past week, executives from the Big Three automakers -- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler -- pitched key congressional leaders for an increase in bailout funds to $50 billion. Mounting legislative opposition, especially from [...]
Those were the days, my friend. We thought they'd never end. Alas, the good times ended! It is hard to believe that just 12 months ago, the world seemed so rosy. We explicitly believed [...]
In this week’s Barron’s, Jack Willoughby interviewed Anna Schwartz, one of the most respected economists of our time. Ms. Scwartz felt that the bailout plan was too opaque and ad hoc to work. Ms. [...]
This past week witnessed almost a complete meltdown of the global financial system after derivatives knocked down Lehman Brothers and AIG. Worldwide losses from speculative excesses could exceed $1 trillion, and the word "derivative" [...]
By Jon Hilsenrath, David Enrich and Deborah Solomon A year into a credit crisis that started with troubled mortgages to sketchy borrowers, the financial system is reeling once again, casting a pall over a [...]
As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac totter toward a government bailout, we might recall that they may have been "conceived in sin." In an July 28 New Yorker article, "Sponsoring Recklessness," James Surowiecki pointed [...]
In today's Mad Hatter World, we might remember the Queen of Hearts, the mean-spirited sovereign created by Lewis Carroll in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." She sentenced her subjects to death for the slightest offense, [...]
Since the cracks that turned into earthquakes began convulsing the economy in the summer of 2007, pundits have actively debated both the depth of the financial downturn and its duration. More than $300 billion [...]
Over the past decade, the fortunes of Russia and its leading oil and gas company, Gazprom, have improved dramatically. A decade ago, the price of oil was languishing and Russia was facing possible bankruptcy. [...]
In order to convince his subjects of the wisdom of surrendering after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced over the radio to his beleaguered people that they [...]
'If summer were spring and the other way round, Then all the world would be upside down." In 1781, the above ditty, "The World Turned Upside Down," was reputedly played as the defeated British [...]
Transcript of Charlie Rose’s interview with Gladstone Duck, The Senior Economic Advisor to the third party candidate Mickey Mouse. Charlie Rose: I want to welcome back Gladstone who has been my guest on many [...]
Transcript of Charlie Rose’s interview with Gladstone Duck, The Senior Economic Advisor to the third party candidate Mickey Mouse. Charlie Rose: I want to welcome back Gladstone who has been my guest on many [...]
During the past few weeks, a consensus has emerged that Wall Street has entered a new era of lower returns on equity, thinner profits, fewer jobs and more federal oversight. The declining fortune of [...]
In recent weeks, key economic data highlight concerns that the economy will not rebound until sometime in 2009. In at least three key areas -- housing, automobiles and retail sales -- recently reported numbers [...]
The proposed purchase of Calpine Corp. by NRG Energy Inc. would create the largest independent power company in the United States. The nearly $11 billion takeover would double NRG's capacity in the United States [...]
The showering of rice on a newly wedded couple has always been symbolic of wishing prosperity and good luck. To this day, rice remains a token of a life of "plenty." Unfortunately, a dramatic [...]
The United States has advocated free trade policies of unrestricted imports and exports since the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. This principle of refraining from imposing tariffs or quotas remained the case even after [...]
The need to achieve energy independence is as important for the U.S. today as obtaining hegemony in the space program was in the 1950s after the USSR launched Sputnik. Most experts feel that our [...]
Much like it picked Amazon Inc. Chairman Jeff Bezos in 1999 because he personified the field of e-commerce, Time magazine should choose Uncle Sam for its next Person of the Year, since he is [...]
The expected merger between Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines represents another blow to the deregulation policies of Jimmy Carter that ushered in many upstart airlines. Advocates of a "laissez faire" role for government [...]
Although I am not aware any statues of Alan Greenspan being toppled by irate crowds, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve has certainly fallen from a lofty perch. Once hailed as the "greatest [...]
When I reflect on major economic events in the first quarter of this year, I visualize a whole flock of black swans descending around me. One might ask, why black swans? I have become [...]
In the fairy tale "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," Goldilocks seemed happy enough to have a few bites of porridge from Mama, Daddy, and Baby Bear's bowls. But when Jamie Dimon, the CEO of [...]
“If it is too good to be true, then it not true” If you are counting on the Wall Street Firm that sold you the bonds, to now make a bid near par for [...]
In reading about recent events, I share the bewilderment of the central character of The Gods Must be Crazy. In this 1980 movie comedy, the central character, N!xau, embarks on an odyssey filled with [...]
“Economies Evolve, and so, too, must economic policy” -Hyman Minsky “Sometimes you have to shoot stray horses and their negligent keepers.” For the sake of G_D, we surely should not pay errant gate keepers [...]
A Demon of our own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds and the Perils of Financial Innovation By Richard Bookstaber “You do not deliberately obliterate hundreds of billions of dollars of investor money. The financial markets that [...]
“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for a merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or is some contrivance to raise prices” —Adam Smith 1776 [...]
The proposed acquisition of Chrysler by a private- equity firm, Cerberus, reflects a growing trend throughout the world. That is, between twenty and twenty-five percent of all mergers and acquisitions over the past year [...]
Morgan Stanley’s Pristine Heritage “At all times, the idea of doing only first class business, and that in a first class way, has been before our minds.” J. P. Morgan Junior read into the [...]
