Asymptosis: Always Approaching

Month: June 2008

  • Regulating the Ratings Agencies: Low-Hanging Fruit?

    Among all the furious post-almost-apocalyptic discussions of financial industry regulation (i.e. here, here, here, here, and here), I'm stunned how rarely people mention the single biggest leverage point: regulation of ratings agencies. If Moody's et al had rated mortgage-backed securities properly, we simply wouldn't be in the fix we're in now. Those securities would have…

  • Another Free-Market Straw Man

    I get so tired of reading these pointless free-market commentaries that do nothing but state the obvious and grind the axe. Today's find: William Easterly's Financial Times article, "Trust the development experts – all 7bn of them." Easterly ridicules a recent (rather impressive, though judicious and occasionally mealy-mouthed) World Bank report on development, arguing that…

  • Manzi (and Me) on Equality and Prosperity

    Jim Manzi was nice enough to drop me a note in response to one of my comments, and he pointed me to his National Review piece, “A more equal capitalism: preserving the free-market consensus.” I ended up writing some lengthy responses, and not being one to waste perfectly good copy, I decided to post them…