act:ualise | what we think

This is a long-overdue response to SavageSays’ excellent post rebutting the idea that protectionism (even if in the form of buying local or FairTrade) can ever be a good idea. He argues that buying local isn’t necessarily better for the environment, citing three pieces of research: A study by Lincoln University in New Zealand arguing [...]

Much has been made of Iceland’s economic demise and the stepping down of the then government leadership. Their dramatic and undignified end was widely reported, the male bankers and ministers all shown leaving in a flashbulb frenzy, scurrying back to their multi-million Krona homes. What a surprise then that little to no mention is made [...]

Last month, I referred to Michael Lewis and David Einhorn’s excellent New York Times article and mentioned my opinion that it’s utterly foolhardy to relax accounting regulations by dropping the mark-to-market standard. In this posting, Yves Smith gives a great explanation as to why dropping it is such a bad idea.

Piers Fawkes asked on the PSFK blog recently “is buying local considered protectionist?” It’s a current question given the softening of the protectionist language in  Obama’s stimulus package bill. And the answer is, yes, it is protectionist. Any action to restrict trade between nations (whether through buy-local requirements, tariffs, quotas or whatever else) is protectionist. But [...]

Michael Lewis and David Einhorn published this outstanding article in The New York Times regarding the “misaligned interests” at which we should be pointing fingers for the economic crisis. In it, they identify a set of structural failures: When ratings agencies such as Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s are paid by the very organisations whose [...]

It’s helpful when trying to gain new perspectives on a situation to elevate the altitude of the analysis. I thought I’d apply this to the current economic crisis by considering the study of economics. Called a “social science”, economics bears similarities to other sciences in that it’s about describing coherent stories that explain what we [...]