Received word I passed my field exam.
We pause for a moment to celebrate…. “YEA!”.
That’s enough celebrating, on to the dissertation proposal.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Increasing Access — Enhancing Public Values to Increase Market Value
Change.gov represents President-elect Obama’s efforts to involve everyone in his efforts to change government. Can this approach work?
{Note to self — study this}
Filed under Government, Uncategorized
Recession – Market Failure?
a search using the terms “is recession market failure” referred someone to this site.
It is a question to study — and to discuss whether public values failure contributed to the market failure.
Filed under Economies, Uncategorized
Market Failure — Lack of Public Information
Websites that dig for news as watchdogs
As newspapers fade away, their business model is no longer viable, a new model is appearing to provide news about your governments. The article mentions several websites that display the work of these “watchdogs” :
There is one in Atlanta, not mentioned, voic.us.
The article does frame the market failure surrounding the demise of traditional news organizations. I call it a market failure because the market has yet to provide a substitute mechanism to keep citizens informed. Thought, I could be persuaded to say this is also a public value failure as the public does not seem inclined to invest time (to read and contemplate information on their government and society) nor resources (money to pay for subscriptions). I guess this is similar to the argument over who is to blame for the demise of American auto companies — the companies for failing to adapt to new types of autos or the public for not demanding American automakers make more fuel efficient and compact vehicles.
From the article:
Mr. Woolley says he has become convinced that the nonprofit model has the best chance of survival. “Information is now a public service as much as it’s a commodity,” he said. “It should be thought of the same way as education, health care. It’s one of the things you need to operate a civil society, and the market isn’t doing it very well.”
Interestingly, Rupert Murdoch says that the news of the death of newspapers is premature:
“The newspaper, or a very close electronic cousin, will always be around,” he said. “It may not be thrown on your front doorstep the way it is today. But the thud it makes as it lands will continue to echo around society and the world.”
So, will the newspaper morph to an electronic cousin?
Filed under Uncategorized
When Past meets Present — Or, how prices fall up quicker than they fall down!
Aug. 8, 2005 — Oil hit a record high of $64. Gasoline hit a record high as well at $1.86 per gallon.
Oct. 27, 2008 — Oil falls below $64. Gasoline is currently priced at national average pf $2.66.
Remember when the price at the pump reacted to the mere news of an increase in spot prices? (Yeah, just last month). That kind of responsiveness is missing today… wonder why? 
[Source of data is AAA]
Filed under Uncategorized
Market Failure – Theory vs. Reality
Greenspan admits he has found a flaw in the theory many believe to be immutable law:
“I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such as that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms,” Mr. Greenspan said.
Referring to his free-market ideology, Mr. Greenspan added: “I have found a flaw. I don’t know how significant or permanent it is. But I have been very distressed by that fact.”
Mr. Waxman pressed the former Fed chair to clarify his words. “In other words, you found that your view of the world, your ideology, was not right, it was not working,” Mr. Waxman said.
“Absolutely, precisely,” Mr. Greenspan replied. “You know, that’s precisely the reason I was shocked, because I have been going for 40 years or more with very considerable evidence that it was working exceptionally well.”
When evidence (fact) is presented that contradicts one’s belief system, one ignores the evidence.
Filed under Uncategorized
Great quote
From the category of “don’t take your discipline so seriously”:
- The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.
[Taken from QuotationsPage.Com]
Filed under Uncategorized
Market Failure — applications of principal agent theory
Just some thoughts that need expanding:
The collapse of the financial systems provides demonstrations of how the assymetry of information can undermine the foundation of a sound, efficient market system. Evidence of adverse selection (principal lacks sufficient information to select the best agent) and moral hazard (principal lacks information necessary to understand whether the agent is performing as contracted). Self-regulation clearly struggles to meet these two challenges, and that is where public interest, and public value, justify public intervention into market regulation.
Washington Post analysis on the possibel demise of American style Capitalism describes the failures:
Given that the United States has held itself up as a global economic model, the change could shift the balance of how governments around the globe conduct free enterprise. Over the past three decades, the United States led the crusade to persuade much of the world, especially developing countries, to lift the heavy hand of government from finance and industry.
But the hands-off brand of capitalism in the United States is now being blamed for the easy credit that sickened the housing market and allowed a freewheeling Wall Street to create a pool of toxic investments that has infected the global financial system. Heavy intervention by the government, critics say, is further robbing Washington of the moral authority to spread the gospel of laissez-faire capitalism.
Filed under Uncategorized
Market Failure – a recession
WSJ economists have now uttered the R word:
This is the first time that survey forecasts for those periods have turned negative. If those predictions bear out, it would mark the first time U.S. GDP—the total value of goods and services produced—has contracted for three consecutive quarters in more than a half century. Economists put the odds of recession in the next 12 months at 89%, up from 60% in last month’s survey.
Filed under Uncategorized
Lots of dust around here
A blog just waits patiently til the muse appears.
Filed under Uncategorized
Jim's Blog 