Links to my posts over the last three years on the causes of the crisis. This is an ongoing project, and I’ll add new items to the Financial Crisis page as they are posted. Ten posts: 1. What is the US economy? Introduction. Before blaming the economic crisis on either government regulation or free enterprise, […]
Collected posts on the financial crisis Read More »
Forthcoming in January 2012. Profiles in Liberty main page.
Profiles in Liberty — series trailer Read More »
In this third Socratic seminar on the Best Arguments against Free-market Capitalism, we take up three arguments: a) the paternalist argument that human beings are incapable of living freely, b) the collectivist argument that wealth is a social creation (at 11 minutes), and c) the religious argument that value is not of this world (at
Three more anti-free-market arguments (UFM seminar) Read More »
As part of an invited lecture series, I led several seminars on the topic The Best Arguments against Free-market Capitalism. The format is Socratic and the participants are professors at my host, Francisco Marroquín University. In this second seminar, we take up the arguments that: a) We live in a world of scarce resources, and
Two anti-capitalist arguments: scarcity and depravity (UFM seminar) Read More »
At Francisco Marroquín University, I led a series of seminars on the Best Arguments against Free-market Capitalism. The format is Socratic, with lively back-and-forth between me and an impressive group of UFM professors. In first session, we take up the argument that Free-market capitalism is dog-eat-dog. The video’s editor, Luis Barrueto, provides a useful thematic
“Capitalism is dog-eat-dog” — UFM seminar Read More »
I am neither Catholic nor Protestant, so I do not have a dog in that fight but rather a cultural history question about the financially bankrupt PIGS or PIIGS countries in Europe. With the exception of Ireland, all are in southern Europe. Including Ireland, all of them are traditionally Catholic [except Greece, which is mostly
PIGS, Catholicism, and Protestantism Read More »
Here is a simplified flowchart, developed for my business ethics courses, reflecting my understanding of subprime mortgages’ contribution to the crisis. Let me emphasize that this is only about the subprime contribution of the overall crisis. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac enabled much spillover into non-subprime mortgage sectors, government-set capital requirements and other regulations enabled
Subprime mortgage crisis — history flowchart Read More »
Following up on my post entitled “When was the financial sector deregulated?” Another crude measure of regulation or deregulation is to count the number of pages in the U.S. Federal Register. The Federal Register is the government’s daily publication of new and proposed rules. Some of the rules are trivial and some have large impact;
Deregulation? The Federal Register’s size Read More »