Government Shutdown Part Deux?
Comments (0) Over at The Washington Post, Ted Toles nails it.
Comments (0) Realengo, Brazil’s Colombine
By Gregory Taggart, April 10, 2011 9:36 pm
This past Thursday, a young gunman entered a school in Realengo, a neighborhood in Rio, and killed 12 young students. The story has dominated the pages of Brazil’s newspapers and the coverage of its television stations.
And it led to protests in favor of disarming the Brazilian people.
My sympathies go out to those who lost loved ones and to those injured in the gunman’s mindless rampage. That said, this bumper sticker never spoke more sense, even in Brazil:
Brazil, Government, Gun Rights, Law, Liberty
| 
guns, Realengo
The Bubble Bubble?
By Gregory Taggart, April 9, 2011 6:36 pm
Higher Education Bubble Poised to Burst.
The Impending Collapse of the Gold Bubble Part 2
Is this a 2011 Internet tech bubble?
How to trade the popping alternative energy bubble
Is for-profit education a bubble, as Posner and Eisman claim?
Are College Loans the Next Bubble?
Shiller Speaks: Here Comes a Commodity Bubble
JP Morgan Analyst Predicts Bubble Burst For Apple iPad 2 Rivals
Biz Break: Social networking bubble? A warning from Warren Buffett
Is the Porn Bubble About to Pop?
When Will the Next Bubble Burst?
A couple of these links go back as far as March 2010. Most are recent headlines. Can you short the shorts?
Assurance That The Rules Won’t Change Next Week? Who Needs That?
By Gregory Taggart, April 7, 2011 9:44 am
Gary Becker, George Schultz, and John Taylor have a plan to bust the budget. It’s worth reading. To me the most obvious gem in the plan, and the one most sorely missing in all the talk in Washington right now is this:
Assurance that the current tax system will remain in place—pending genuine reform in corporate and personal income taxes—will be an immediate stimulus.
Congress and the President (any Congress and any President) have used the tax code to implement policy choices. It’s time to leave the rules be, so that business can plan, something they are loathe to do when there’s no promise that the rules won’t change next week.
Here’s a Gift Idea for Next Valentine’s Day
By Gregory Taggart, April 7, 2011 9:29 am
Without comment.
Okay, with one comment: Are you kidding me?
The Big Short’s Debt to the Prize-Winning Honors Thesis
By Gregory Taggart, April 6, 2011 10:19 pm
I’ve been listening to Michael Lewis’s book, The Big Short, the first book I’ve read on the financial crisis of 2007-2008 (and who’s kidding whom, the crisis we’re still in). The cast of characters is beyond interesting: Steve Eisman, Greg Lippman, Dr. Michael Burry, and many others.
I went online today in search of some information on the three people I just mentioned, found a little at Wikipedia, and then found this, which lead to this, which lead me to a copy machine.
Among other pursuits, I teach Honors Thesis Writing at BYU. The projects my students are involved in are quite impressive. Can’t wait to read Barnett-Hart’s thesis to see how it stacks up.
Not Enough Money To Go Around
By Gregory Taggart, April 5, 2011 5:50 pm
Alexandre Tombini, president of Brazil’s central bank, said today that the country’s stock and credit markets weren’t up to financing all the projects planned for the country, including projects important to the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. Those markets “don’t have the capacity, by themselves, to handle the demand for investment,” he said. “Other sources of funds will be necessary.” That other source will be a new market for corporate bonds announced today by Anbima, the Brazilian Association of Institutional Finance and Capital.
Not Much More to Say
By Gregory Taggart, April 4, 2011 1:44 pm
Brazil No Longer a Bottom Feeder
By Gregory Taggart, April 4, 2011 12:08 pm
At least at Fitch, Brazil is no longer sitting at the bottom of the ratings. Today, the U.S. based rating agency, upped Brazil’s credit rating from BBB- to BBB in part, says the Brazilian business magazine EXAME, because the country “has signaled that it’s serious about improving its fiscal position,” signals that include spending cuts, a modest increase in the minimum wage, and a steady reduction in loans from Treasury to Brazil’s development bank BNDES.
Themocracy