5/8/23 For weeks, I’ve been struggling with the question of what Biden’s posture should be in the face of the issue of the debt limit. As of today, the two sides are at a standstill with no indication of either giving in: Biden is insisting on a clean bill to…

5/1/23 As most appreciate, the Supreme Court serves as the ultimate court of appeals — i.e., the final authority for settling disputes within our judicial system. Usually, a case gets to the Supreme Court following an earlier circuit court decision, but almost universally, the decision to hear the case or…

4/23/23 Any objective observer would have to admit that while the economy is by no means perfect, it’s actually in pretty good shape. The most common whipping boy on the economic front these days continues to be inflation, but even this measure has been on an improving trend for more…

4/15/23 The concepts of “supply” and “demand” are central to understanding how markets function. These two considerations ultimately determine the quantities and prices for virtually all goods and services. At any given price, if the quantity demanded equals the quantity supplied, the market would be said to be in equilibrium…

4/11/22 With some lapses, for the most part I’ve been an indexer. Motivated by the plethora of academic studies that debunk the notion that one can consistently beat “the market,” I, like many, have rejected the strategy of picking individual stocks and opted to invest in equities using a variety…

3/31/23 Despite the volume of ink spilled covering the indictment of Donald Trump, I’m afraid a critical opportunity is being wasted. …

3/28/23 The efficiency of financial markets depends, at least in part, on a high level of transparency as to the credit quality of market participants; and credit rating agencies have an important role to play in that regard. At the moment I’m not sure the crop of credit rating agencies…

3/22/2023 Along with the heightened sensitivity about the health of the banking sector, business media have reflected a heretofore under-appreciated recognition of the importance of interest rate risk management in banking. Recent reporting and editorializing leaves the impression, however, that we wouldn’t be facing this onslaught of failures and rescues…

3/14/2023 I’ve been struggling to understand how and why the recent spate of bank failures happened and what the appropriate policy response should be. Elizabeth Warren seems to hold bank regulators responsible. I’m not so sure. By way of background, as a rule, banks hope to earn the spread between…