Brett on Conspiracy Skeptic

Brett is probably too shy to toot his own, but I interviewed him about China, money, the gold standard, and trade on my podcast The Conspiracy Skeptic. Not much conspiracy talk, just some econ 101 stuff:

Merger Posturing and Agency Dilemmas

As I watch takeover announcements, something called the principal-agent problem crosses my mind. Also called "the agency dilemma", it can be described as follows (paraphrasing from wikipedia):

"the difficulties that arise under when a principal hires an agent, such as the problem that the two may not have the same interests"

More specifically, the owners of a company hire managers to run the company on their behalf. Those managers, often called "officers" are better known as the CEO, President and other corner office, executive suite titles. The owners or shareholders elect a board of directors who are supposed to find, hire and compensate managers so that owners' interests are aligned with management's interests. Put more simply, if management makes the company more money, the managers earn more money too- at least that is usually the intent.

My Favorite EconTalk podcasts

Russ Roberts, host of EconTalk, occasionally makes the point economics is referred to as the "dismal science". Those who refer to economics that way have never listened to Russ' podcast. Listening to EconTalk always leaves me feeling a little bit better about the world.

The media and politicians like to spin economics in a way that makes you scared and favorable to whatever solution they happen to offer. Russ in his podcast frequently examines these claims and exposes them either as false or highly misleading. For example, Russ many times points out it's a myth America doesn't make anything anymore, that its manufacturing base is being hollowed out. America is the world's largest manufacturer. America just becomes increasingly efficient over time. America can make more with less people. When your economy can make more with fewer resources (be it iron or human resources) that's actually a good thing for your economy.

Lehman Remembered

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of the anniversary of the fall crap lately. Lehman, being the poster child for that fateful week, is always the topic of conversation. As a commentator on the financial world, I suppose it is my duty, accepted when they let me write a blog, to make some sort of acerbic, snide, honorary mention of Lehman. So, I'm going to do just that:

Lake Woebegone part I

Lake Woebegone refers of course to Garrison Keillor's fictional location in Minnesota. Keillor has been in the news lately, apparently recovering from a stroke and providing a reasonable opportunity to highlight the Lake Woebegone Effect (henceforth "LWE"). In fictional Lake Woebegone, "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."

Tax it out of existence

I was thinking about scotch the other day. My brother recently got married and during the reception my brother came by our table and mentioned to my father and my uncle that the open bar was offering a single malt scotch. My father and uncle seemed to be very much into this beverage, given the rapidity with which they made their way to the bar. If two of my kindred are heading in a direction quickly, as a middle child, I find it hard not to follow. I'm not much of a drinker, enjoying the occasional beer, but I decided in the sprit of the event I would imbibe this spirit along side my father and uncle. That's what the scotch ads tell me to do, in any regard. The bartender immediately handed them a glass with scotch poured over top ice cubes. “Scotch on the rocks” might be the term. My father and uncle were aghast and they requested their scotch with only a bit of water. Since I had no experience with scotch, this scotch-on-the-rocks offering couldn't have offended me so I volunteered to take that glass and not let it go to waste.

SmartMoney Mispeaks

In this post, I am not referring to "smart money" as hedge funds or insiders. Rather, I'm referring to SmartMoney, the magazine. It is a decent publication which seems to straddle the line between sophisticated advice and commentary versus making it palatable, interesting and useful for laymen. It is also a Dow Jones publication and shares some writers with the Wall Street Journal, TLRB's official paper of record. I like to keep on top of what the public reads and hears about financial matters plus it offers one more source of ideas from time to time.

Hockey Fans- help me with this logic

Help me out, because there must be a reason I just don't understand. I play ice hockey two seasons per year and now we've formed a new team, so I'll be playing on two teams each season. Fun! Ever since I started playing ice hockey, I have heard of goalies trying to play for free. That is, they want the league or the team to pick up their league fee. Ice hockey, at least in Colorado, isn't cheap. Something around $475 per player per season.