Update from Sicily

by | 28 09 2010 | Blog

Over the weekend my wife Dawn and I headed to Sicily for a vacation.  You might think that I have been preoccupied with food, wine and surf here in Taormina, and you’d be right!  However, I also have been tuning into the state of the Italian economy. Taormina is...

Rest in pieces Blockbuster

by | 23 09 2010 | Blog

This morning sees news of video store rental chain Blockbuster’s bankruptcy declaration.  The closure of what was once one of the world’s most vibrant and exciting retailers makes for a good brief capitalist case study. I want to use the Blockbuster story...

The post unemployment recovery haze

by | 21 09 2010 | Blog

Yesterday the National Bureau of Economic Research’s “Business Cycle Dating Committee” declared that the recession that almost all of us have limped through officially ended in June of 2009.  The economic damage has been deep: 4.1% of the economy was...

Pulling the curtain back on window dressing

by | 16 09 2010 | Blog

There has long been a distasteful practice on Wall Street known in the parlance as “window dressing.”  As a quarter nears its end, banks and other financial institutions (like mutual funds) will take advantage of the massive liquidity of most financial...

Excellent exports tally from the Germans

by | 16 09 2010 | Blog

Good morning! Yesterday, Germany’s Federal Statistical Office released the export tally for the country’s first 6 months.  The numbers are very positive.  Specifically exports were up 17.1% as compared with the first 6 months of 2009.  Additionally, the...