Hacktacular

I don't have much to add about this incredibly hackish piece in Newsweek by Niall Ferguson.  James Fallows at The Atlantic has blasted both the content and it author, most effectively.  Brad DeLong and Paul Krugman also raised welts.

I have to confess to having held academics at elite places such as Harvard in high regard.  In my own field, most of them really are superstars, worthy of such admiration.  Clearly, as one moves to more subjective disciplines such as history, such distinctions become blurry.  This fellow has a long history of getting important things wrong in his articles, yet Harvard actively recruited him as the "Laurence Tisch Professor of History."  I will need to recalibrate my thinking on the relative quality of Harvard faculty.

Update:
Here's a nice summary of the whole Ferguson crap show, from John Cassidy at the New Yorker.

Margin Call

I've watched the movie Margin Call a couple of times, and found it quite engrossing.  It's been suggested that the company to which all the principal characters belong is a fictionalized version of Lehman Bros, complete with a CEO whose surname is very similar to Dick Fuld, the guy who oversaw the collapse of Lehman.  However, it is left uncertain at the end of the film whether the firm will go under, or whether, in fact, they may have saved themselves with their ruthless divesting of toxic assets.

In any case, one of the scenes that has really stuck with me is a monologue by Stanley Tucci's character, risk analyst Eric Dale, in which he describes to a former colleague the consequences of a bridge that he built in an earlier career as an engineer.  I guess I found it affecting because it seems to so perfectly capture the contrast between practical, real-world accomplishments on the one hand, and the endless churning of commoditized products by the financial sector on the other hand.  And guess which one always makes you richer.

Anyway, here's the clip.  Enjoy!

Haha

What DougJ said:

Establishment media will cluck and say “both sides do it” no matter what, so we may as well actually do it. If the refs are just handing out double technicals, you should get your money’s worth and kick the other guy in the balls as hard as you possibly can.

No Balls...or No Money?

Matt Taibbi rakes Holder's DoJ over the coals for deciding not to prosecute Goldman Sachs.  However, as MisterMix points out, the constant starving of the beast imposed by Republicans may have left them pathetically overmatched against Goldman's billions.

Back

Folk Fest was great:  perfect weather all weekend, and Geoff Berner more than lived up to my expectations, complete with an awesome, bowderlized version of Daloy Polizei.

Where I'm Gonna Be

For the next few days, my attention is going to be occupied by this.  I've been going for years (probably a total of 13 or 14 times), and the music never lets me down.  The people sometimes, and the sheer logistical nightmare of securing a good tarp position on the hillside, but this year I have resolved not to care about where I sit for the main stage performances.  It will be all about the side stages.

There is one main stage act I am really looking forward to:  these guys.  And if you happen to be there at the right time, check out this guy.

Monsters In Our Midst

Bryan Caplan describes his rationale for cutting away at the welfare state.  This appears on the website Library of Economics and Liberty, funded by the Liberty Fund.

The Liberty Fund is a tax exempt foundation "...established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals."  Does this sound like the usual libertarian smokescreen?  Why yes, yes it does.  The Wikipedia entry for this foundation includes the following:  "In his book The Assault on Reason, Al Gore says that between 2002 and 2004 that 97% of the attendees at Liberty Fund training seminars for judges were Republican administration appointees.  Gore suggests that such conferences and seminars are one of the reasons that judges who regularly attend such conferences 'are generally responsible for writing the most radical pro-corporate, antienvironmental, and activist decisions.'"

Caplan is a member of the Economics Department at George Mason University, home of such luminaries as Tyler Cowan, and point source for many of the vilest right-wing trial balloons to appear over the last few years.  Truly, this is a cesspit of sociopath assholes, and I imagine Caplan feels very much at home.