Sean Corrigan Archives
Overegging the Pudding
In his latest piece, Frank Shostak approvingly quoted Jeff Tucker's earlier rhapsody as follows:-
But as wonderful as the daily shifts and movements are, what really inspires are the massive acts of creative destruction such as when old-line firms like Lehman and Merrill melt before our eyes, their good assets transferred to more competent hands.... This is the kind of shock and awe we should all celebrate. It is contrary to the wish of all the principal players and it accords with the will of society as a whole and the dictate of the market that waste not last and last. No matter how large, how entrenched, how exalted the institution, it is always vulnerable to being blown away by market forces -- no more or less so than the lemonade stand down the street.
While I approve of the sentiments, I am forced to demur at their application.
Continue reading "Overegging the Pudding" »
Cincinnatus redux?
The extraordinary powers which that champion of Corporativisimo, Hank Paulson, would like to arrogate to himself sparked the following comparison:-
'Dictatorem(que) dici placeret qui rem perculsam restitueret, L. Quinctius Cincinnatus consensu omnium dicitur... et plebis concursus ingens fuit; sed ea nequaquam tam laeta Quinctium uidit, et imperium nimium et uirum ipso imperio uehementiorem rata'
'And they were determined that a Dictator should be appointed to restore their embarrassed affairs, so, by universal consent, they chose Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus... There was a large gathering of the people, but, by no means, did they regard him with equal delight, considering both the extent of his authority as too great and the man vested with such authority as rather arbitrary' Livy, History of Rome, Bk III.26
Of course, old 'Curly' did what he had to to rescue the Romans then went straight back to his plough, leaving the political and economic system undisturbed behind him.
I don't suppose his smooth-headed successor is likely to be quite so obliging!
Ben Bernanke as Solon
With his latest, rather forlorn call for banks to help solve the mortgage crisis by 'forgiving' just enough of their loans to keep people's inability to service their full contractual obligations from triggering foreclosure proceedings, he truly has gone all the way back to Solon and his 6th century answer to Athen's very own sub-prime crisis, the 'seisachtheia' - or 'shaking off of debts'
Continue reading "Ben Bernanke as Solon" »
2007 in song:The Ballad of Alpha, the Bull's Bull, All Geared
December 30, 2007 3:14 AM
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Better stay in Bali, boys, it's cold up here!
December 21, 2007 2:18 AM
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Heroic opposition to the Bali-hoo on AGW
December 13, 2007 7:12 PM
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IMF explicit about carbosocialism
December 9, 2007 10:12 AM
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Carbophobic socialism rules OK!
November 28, 2007 2:42 AM
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GG on Capital
November 7, 2007 2:52 PM
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The Whine of the Ancient Marriner
November 7, 2007 7:55 AM
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Good diagnosis, but quack medicine
October 5, 2007 6:05 AM
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Malthus and Mein Kampf come to Cork
September 16, 2007 4:57 AM
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ABCT and 'Bureaucracy' in China
September 14, 2007 7:23 AM
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Moral Hazard? Yes. Weimar? Not yet.
August 15, 2007 12:21 AM
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Credit crunch + Market Rout = Central bank intervention
August 11, 2007 3:20 AM
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Contra the contrarians II
July 31, 2007 2:17 PM
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Contra the contrarians
July 31, 2007 2:07 PM
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From Bust to Boom
July 22, 2007 3:19 AM
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Food for Thought
June 7, 2007 7:41 AM
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Deniers at large!
February 19, 2007 10:56 AM
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Human Action in Niger
February 14, 2007 2:43 AM
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This man truly is a Santa Klaus
February 12, 2007 5:51 PM
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Those in favour, say, Aye: the rest of you, silence, curs!
February 10, 2007 6:07 AM
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Plug that Nickel!
January 31, 2007 5:43 AM
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An unlikely champion
January 11, 2007 8:41 AM
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What if it IS 'different this time'?
December 7, 2006 2:32 AM
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To hear ol' Jordan roll
December 4, 2006 10:31 AM
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A clear vested interest!
November 29, 2006 1:54 AM
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Yield curves and the business cycle
November 26, 2006 6:25 AM
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"Mission Accomplished" & the Inverted Yield Curve
November 17, 2006 2:44 AM
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Stagflation: an alternative diagnosis
October 11, 2006 1:58 AM
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Three cheers for .... a senator?
September 26, 2006 11:13 AM
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Collectivist distortions!
September 1, 2006 5:47 AM
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Adding to the List of the world's problems
September 1, 2006 2:34 AM
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They shoot horses, don't they?
June 27, 2006 1:50 AM
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"End Liberty NOW!"
January 30, 2006 8:12 AM
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Captain Renault at the BIS
January 18, 2006 4:48 AM
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Spend, spend, spend...
January 13, 2006 5:02 AM
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A fine exemplar for the new Fed Chairman
January 11, 2006 9:40 AM
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The BIS quotes Mises
January 9, 2006 7:15 AM
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A "conundrum", or plain old monetization?
January 3, 2006 6:02 AM
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The New Marxism
December 16, 2005 6:23 AM
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Killing the Golden Goose
December 12, 2005 3:48 AM
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Wipe out for an entrepreneur
December 9, 2005 9:57 AM
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Why worry about Hugo Chavez Frias, when you have Gordon?
December 6, 2005 8:22 AM
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Blackhawk Bernanke down on M3
November 20, 2005 10:43 AM
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Quis custodiet...
November 15, 2005 10:44 AM
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Issing on Hayek & Bernanke
November 8, 2005 8:05 AM
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As bad as Arthur Burns?
November 2, 2005 6:25 AM
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The Gulag beyond the Watford Gap
October 25, 2005 2:42 AM
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Lawson sees Red on Greens...
October 19, 2005 10:41 AM
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No War on Alaska
October 12, 2005 8:42 AM
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Grow your own beef!
October 11, 2005 1:37 AM
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Agenda 21
October 6, 2005 2:53 PM
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'Rothbardian' errors exposed
October 5, 2005 11:48 AM
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Mental kudzu!
September 30, 2005 5:02 AM
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Production or Expropriation?
September 14, 2005 7:50 AM
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Real Bills Raises its Ugly Head, Again and Again
September 8, 2005 11:08 AM
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The state is bad for business
August 9, 2005 5:28 AM
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My New Working Paper
August 5, 2005 12:17 PM
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A Consuming Folly
July 28, 2005 7:30 AM
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Everyone's a winner!
July 27, 2005 7:55 AM
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State to Subjects: Tax Yourselves, please
July 27, 2005 7:53 AM
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A Snow and a shake, please!
June 29, 2005 10:00 AM
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Reckless self-endangerment
June 22, 2005 12:48 AM
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For and Against the Printing Press
June 14, 2005 7:47 AM
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Is the US Still a Good Risk?
May 30, 2005 7:43 AM
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A Gross error
May 23, 2005 7:50 AM
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An Austrian Critique of Jastram
May 6, 2005 7:27 AM
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Oh so that's why
April 3, 2005 2:36 PM
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The Entrepreneur's Guide to the Business Cycle
April 1, 2005 8:22 AM
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Sage Addition
March 22, 2005 11:22 AM
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Screw up, win big
March 3, 2005 1:27 PM
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Why No Movies About Making Money?
February 23, 2005 9:55 AM
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Ghoshal vs MBAs
February 18, 2005 12:07 PM
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One Country, Three Currencies
February 17, 2005 8:03 AM
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We Shoulda Seen it Coming
February 17, 2005 5:31 AM
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A touch of gas
January 20, 2005 11:18 AM
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The Saga of John Law and Richard Cantillon
December 14, 2004 7:59 AM
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North Korea embraces capitalism by default
December 13, 2004 9:51 AM
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To Be an Austrian: A Primer
November 3, 2004 7:19 AM
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Oil, sense and nonsense
November 1, 2004 7:44 AM
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How Empires Really End
October 25, 2004 8:18 AM
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Frying Pans and Chinese inflation
October 4, 2004 12:34 PM
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Ooh Là Là!
September 23, 2004 7:33 AM
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The 51st State
September 10, 2004 7:52 AM
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The Twin Deficits Redux
September 9, 2004 8:11 AM
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The Twin Deficits: Myths and Truths
September 2, 2004 7:30 AM
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Old Wisdom
August 18, 2004 9:59 AM
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Another Member of the Flation Family
August 10, 2004 5:07 AM
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The rise and fall of the "reserve position doctrine"
June 28, 2004 8:09 AM
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Capital Market Research--Vienna
May 25, 2004 8:33 AM
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Reply to Baum on Higher Oil Prices
May 24, 2004 8:02 AM
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A Story Greenspan Would Not Tell
May 11, 2004 8:30 AM
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War Finance: Hannibal ad portas!
May 6, 2004 1:07 PM
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The myth of Fed independence
May 6, 2004 8:19 AM
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Jobs for Life
May 4, 2004 10:19 AM
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RobespiBlaire's Committee of Public Safety
April 25, 2004 8:22 PM
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Conservatism and Imperialism
April 22, 2004 1:59 PM
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Doubts creep in
April 19, 2004 3:35 PM
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Anatomy of Growth
April 15, 2004 10:54 AM
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April Fools!
April 13, 2004 10:34 AM
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War Socialism at Work
April 2, 2004 5:42 PM
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Ravishankar Feels Really Badly about it all
April 1, 2004 9:16 AM
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BIS Chief on the Fed's New Bubble
March 22, 2004 3:27 PM
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Close your eyes, wish hard
February 26, 2004 7:31 AM
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Inflated Rhetoric
February 25, 2004 11:00 AM
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Hayekian Competition
February 18, 2004 7:13 AM
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Who would have thought?
February 17, 2004 3:36 PM
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Chairman Al and Orphan Annie
February 11, 2004 7:22 AM
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Feed the World
February 2, 2004 4:28 PM
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Macromancers' Muddle
February 2, 2004 3:30 PM
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Considerable difficulties
January 30, 2004 1:13 PM
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Fine in Theory...
January 27, 2004 5:53 AM
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And we know who helped break it
January 22, 2004 4:10 AM
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