Food for thought

Is this what's coming?

"Imagine a situation in which inflation has reappeared, and the Fed and other monetary authorities have been forced to tighten interest rates to fight inflation. The prices of government bonds will decline, to take account of new higher yields. Some countries and highly leveraged companies will get into difficulties, forcing a further write-down of their debt obligations. Commodities prices will decline, as the cost of holding inventory will have substantially increased and there will no longer be the chance to speculate at very low financing cost. And finally, global stock markets will decline sharply, both because corporate earnings will be adversely affected by the new higher financing costs (the rise in US corporate earnings in the past decade has itself been a bubble) and because rising bond yields will deflate mechanical valuation models, thereby reducing price-earnings ratios."

Education: what's its real value?

Why don't we get interesting information or ideas like this from the political class? They seem to be the least intellectually stimulated bunch among us -- and yet they claim to represent and lead us ever onward and upward.

The changing economics of college education

Right on the money

This guy gets it right very often.

Deleveraging

Good read: Why Krugman is wrong

He's an easy target, given his "Stimulus now!" (think Seinfeld) approach to most economic problems.
Here's a good essay on why he's just not willing to allow that policy mistakes contributed to the financial mess.

Why Is Paul Krugman Blaming Foreigners for the Financial Crisis? - By Raghuram G. Rajan | Foreign Policy: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"