POW: Ha-Joon Chang

LSE sponsored an interesting lecture by Ha-Joon Chang.  An asia centric economist, worth listening to for his dismissal of western veneration of entrepreneurialism (stability matters).

Cool Quote

The history of finance is partly the history of a struggle for a stable, secure way to measure value.

I like that.  It captures how measure is both integral to the economy and uncertain.  It makes for interesting conversation when you have to explain things like IBNR reserves to a SOX auditor.  The whole article is interesting, even a little prescient of the current political layout.  What else has this guy written?

Russ Roberts better get moving

If he wants to preserve his narrative that the real estate bubble was because of Fannie and Freddie.  Conservatives jump all over government when it fails to live up to it’s ideals, but they give a pass to private businesses even when they engage in blatant fraud and embezzlement.  Private enterprise has no inherently virtue, and when scaled up to the size of investment banks their missteps are every bit as consequential as anything the government does.  So why the free pass?

POW: Debate at Cato Institute

I came across a pretty interesting podcast from the Cato Institute, a debate over whether terminal patients should be permitted to take experimental (and unproven) drugs. The issue seems clear cut at first blush- why shouldn't people be able to take them if they're willing to assume the risks- but the debate highlights some surprising consequences. The topic manages to entwine medical ethics, privacy rights, constitutional law, high level economics and the nitty-gritty economics of pharmaceuticals.

A description of the court case referenced in the podcast is here.