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Request for requests
What do you wish to hear about? I know I haven't finished all of your older requests, but I surveyed them a bit yesterday and I thought that perhaps the list has evolved since April.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on December 29, 2008 at 05:15 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
I would love to hear some of your thoughts on how systems can be put into place that would better align the incentives of management and shareholders with regard to the balance between short term profits and long term appreciation. Thanks.
Posted by: EZ at Dec 29, 2008 5:21:00 PM
Specifically? Well, Portugal is one place I've never visited - and I believe you've never been there; why is that? As a gormand & traveller it appears to have everything - influencing the world's cuisine (from Japan to Brazil & back) & with a beautiful, unique (if rather mournful) musical cannon... Is there a reason you've never been to Portugal?
Generally - what happened to the bird 'flu posts? And more of the same, keep doing what you do!
Posted by: nick at Dec 29, 2008 5:27:22 PM
How come no prominent politicians carved out the underutilized political resource of opposing TARP?
Posted by: Alex J. at Dec 29, 2008 5:27:58 PM
I'd be curious to hear your views about universities. Are you a skeptic of higher education like your colleague Bryan Caplan. What should undergraduates do to get a better educational experience (I believe you asked this question on behalf of your daughter once before). What would you do to improve higher education.
Posted by: andrew at Dec 29, 2008 5:31:10 PM
I think it is great that Obama's economic advisors know a lot about the "Great Depression", but I wonder how many similarities there really are with the current situation. In particular, I believe that the quantity, quality, and timeliness of information is radically different now than it was then. I don't know how that will affect the situation, but the most obvious is some sort of over-correction. I'm also interested in whether or not we are heading into a new economic era, one dominated by baby boomer's retiring on what is left of their investments, selling more houses than they buy, and generally slowing down their spending. What sort of growth rates will we have after the stock/housing wealth effects disappear...
Posted by: Richard Harrington at Dec 29, 2008 5:35:01 PM
Will the US break up by 2010? Why would a 'scientist' make such a foolish prediction as this map? - listed in the link below:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123051100709638419.html
Posted by: R. Pointer at Dec 29, 2008 5:35:58 PM
Assuming the economy begins to mend next year or so, what is the optimal exit strategy for all those TARP investments?
Posted by: Lord at Dec 29, 2008 5:42:47 PM
Personally, I'm hoping to hear about the worst dining experience you ever had and what made it that way....
Posted by: Ironman at Dec 29, 2008 5:54:11 PM
The role and future of intelligent agent modeling in economics.
Posted by: Dave at Dec 29, 2008 5:55:39 PM
Dear Tyler:
I would think it's time to revisit your 9/30/2008 post:
Did "minority lending" drive the crisis?
In which you concluded:
"Basically not, although in my view these were bad policies for other reasons. They contributed to our current problems by only a small amount and of course these policies have been around for a long time before the housing bubble ever got started."
Clearly, a lot more empirical data and policy history has emerged since then to render your September conclusion premature, to say the least.
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Dec 29, 2008 5:58:58 PM
What would your Wife Swap family look like?
Posted by: Harrison at Dec 29, 2008 6:05:32 PM
Given the age of the Internet and online transactions, why does the "banking day" persist? This is the phenomenon whereby deposits (at counters and ATMs) after X o'clock today will not appear in my account today, but will be credited the next business day or, more likely, the day after that because the bank bundles the checks and bulk processes them after business hours on that "next day."
I realize it's partly protection against fake checks or overdrawn accounts, but many companies do instantaneous withdrawals. For example, my credit card company doesn't process the check when I pay my bill, they scan it and send it to to my bank and draw the money immediately. Why can't banks do the same thing with each other?
Posted by: RSaunders at Dec 29, 2008 6:06:35 PM
How can we construct better incentives for more accurate assessment and reporting of financial risks?
Posted by: Brian Slesinsky at Dec 29, 2008 6:06:42 PM
It may be apocryphal for all I know, but I once read that the editor of the journal to whom Einstein sent his paper on special relativity put it down and realized that physics would never be the same (or something like that).
Is something like that even possible in economics? What would it be like? Say, the Lucas critique times 10?
Posted by: Bob Murphy at Dec 29, 2008 6:10:22 PM
1. What is the effect of a recession on the art market? Of course prices drop for established artists, but do buyers look for deals on good art from new artists? Are good young artists more likely "discovered" during an economic boom or an economic bust?
2. Are you signed up to be cryogenically frozen after your death? If not, why not?
Posted by: David Jinkins at Dec 29, 2008 6:20:40 PM
I'd like to know what's going on in the securitizatoin markets. At some point securitized debt issuance was down 75% and was a big factor in plugging up mortgage issuance, car loans, credit cards... everything lenders want to get off their books before issuing new debt.
Is that still locking up credit markets?
Posted by: Max Rockbin at Dec 29, 2008 6:20:52 PM
Do we have any examples in history that are similar to what a failure of G.M. would look like? Do we know what happens when a company that large fails? If we've never seen anything like that before, how do we know what the effects would be?
Posted by: ao at Dec 29, 2008 6:22:56 PM
- Airlines: Are they the next to go under a la the big 3 carmakers? Can they continue to move in and out of bankruptcy? Why does anyone even lend them money anymore since they seem to operate on the brink all the time?
- Continued thoughts on regulation of financial markets since it seems to be coming. I see lots of calls for "more regulation" but it is unclear what this would be, how it would help, etc.
- More on Complexity Economics, phase shifting/chaotic behavior and the 'future' of prediction :)
Posted by: Jesse Blocher at Dec 29, 2008 6:29:43 PM
Economic growth and the Middle ages and what this has to say for us now.
Posted by: John Mondragon at Dec 29, 2008 6:30:09 PM
I'll second an earlier commenter's call for your take on "The role and future of intelligent agent modeling in economics." What do you think of the economists doing work at the Santa Fe Institute, for example?
But the big question right now is what will it take to spark new endogenous growth within the U.S. economy? Aside from a crisis in confidence, what are the major obstacles? Will it take more than a year for workers in the finance industry to find other productive work to do in other sectors? How many of these workers will the federal government absorb onto its payrolls? Now that the credit markets appear to have bottomed, how long will it take for institutional investors to get comfortable putting money into equity again?
Posted by: Michael F. Martin at Dec 29, 2008 6:35:32 PM
I've read a few pieces suggesting that the roles of IMF and Worldbank may be undergoing some pretty major changes. I'd love to hear your take on that situation as well as any other planned changes to finance at the global level. What exactly came of that big meeting a month or so ago, for example? I recall The Economist was pretty upbeat about progress being made, but they didn't really go into detail.
Posted by: MikeF at Dec 29, 2008 6:35:58 PM
1. I know that, like physics, economics uses mathematics but is, unequivocally, not mathematics. I'm curious what your ideal wish list and more practical wish list would be for how college level mathematics could be reformed to teach econ majors more of what they need to know.
2. Have there been attempts to measure the cost to society of under-education of children from lower socioeconomic classes? Everyone talks about high costs, but I'd like something more specific.
Posted by: cJ at Dec 29, 2008 6:39:27 PM
What are the costs associated with pegging one currency with another? Especially, which part of the society benefits and which suffers if the country pegging the currency is a net importer. For example, Nepal pegs its currency with India's at 1 INR = 1.6 NPR. It probably cannot maintain that peg just by fiat. What policies must Nepal employ to maintain that peg?
Any links to articles analyzing the monetary policies of countries that peg their currencies (such as Hong Kong, Ecuador) would also be appreciated.
Posted by: Babje at Dec 29, 2008 6:40:24 PM
What are the costs associated with pegging one currency with another? Especially, which part of the society benefits and which suffers if the country pegging the currency is a net importer. For example, Nepal pegs its currency with India's at 1 INR = 1.6 NPR. It probably cannot maintain that peg just by fiat. What policies must Nepal employ to maintain that peg?
Any links to articles analyzing the monetary policies of countries that peg their currencies (such as Hong Kong, Ecuador) would also be appreciated.
Posted by: Babje at Dec 29, 2008 6:42:10 PM
How politicians meddle in the mortgage market.
National right to work law.
Free trade agreement with Colombia.
How to protect against massive inflation.
Posted by: jorod at Dec 29, 2008 7:20:34 PM
