The Risk of the Slow Bleed after the Debt Crisis

Adam Davidson has a good article in the New York Times about the risk of the long term loss of faith in United States government debt following a debt ceiling crisis.

The Unreformed Repo Market

Gretchen Morganson has a column in the New York Times that explains how important the repo market is to the financial system and how the lack of reform there makes it still vulnerable to crisis.

Rule of Thumb Macro - Legacy of Wynne Godley

The New York Times has an article on Wynne Godley, who built macro models based on the idea that people follow rules of thumb in behavior (rather than be maximizes). Paul Krugman weighed on the topic and how it fits into the development of macoeconomic thought as "Hydraulic Keynesianism".

As an interesting history of economic thought connection, William Phillips (who developed the Phillips Curve) also built a model of the economy using literally the idea of Hydraulic Keynesianism to build the MONIAC.

Long View Charts of Economic Crisis

Business Week has a good sent of charts showing how parts of the economy have progressed since the 2008 Crisis.

Economic History Through the Dow Industrial Index

The New Yorker has an interesting article that discusses how the history of the American economy can be tracked through the company listings on the Dow.  This is not a new idea, but the graph below would be a good discussion piece.

Estimate of the Cost of the Financial Crisis

The Dallas Fed has a good paper with the cost of the 2008 Crisis - slightly less than a full year of GDP, assuming the economy returns to trend by the early 2020's.  This is the graph showing that per capita is output is 12% less than previous recessions:

Ronald Coase is Dead

Ronald Coase, Nobel Prize winner who is immortalized by the Coase Theory explaining the conditions under which private individuals could resolve the problem of externalities without government action, died on September 2nd at 102.  The story of him first presenting his Coase Theorem to the Economics Faculty at the University of Chicago in which he used the force of argument to rethink their initial rejection of his work and recognize that it was correct, is the stuff of legends.  The Free Exchange column in the Economist had an remembrance of his work and impact on economics.  Robert Frank has a column in the New York Times that explains how important Ronald Coase's work is and what it says about the role of government regulation - which is different than how most people think about it.

Origins of the Financial Crisis

The Economist has started to run a five part series on the origin of the 2008 financial crisis in a section called the Schools Brief.  The Schools Brief is a long running occasional series in which the writers of the Economist break down an issue for use in schools - originally to help British students do well on their "leaving exams".  Keep an eye on the Economist web site for the other four parts of the series.

This is the link for part two on the Dangers of Debt.

This is the link for part three on how the crisis changed Central Banking.

This is the link for part four on the debate between Stimulus and Austerity.

This is the link for part five on how Making Banks Safe.