Economics of Contempt
"Economics of Contempt is a pseudonym of a structured finance lawyer in New York. He had taken a two year break from all finance-related law, but Lehman's failure put an end to that gravy train. He seems to spend most of his time in airports though. Especially LaGuardia. Which was fine until a plane leaving LaGuardia crash-landed in the Hudson. Now he freaks out every time he hits turbulence. When he's not fearing for his life or billing hours to financial institutions of questionable solvency, he likes to blog about financial markets, economic policy, or whatever else strikes his fancy."
Recently by Economics of Contempt
Apr 16 2009, 11:41AM
"Too Big to Fail" is Not Going Away
The idea that any financial institution that's "too big to fail" (TBTF) shouldn't be allowed to exist has evidently gained significant support. What's discouraging is that people seem to think this is a sophisticated and workable strategy that we should actually pursue, mostly because people like former IMF official Simon Johnson say things like this:
This is the kind of thing people say at cocktail parties to make themselves sound smart without having to do any serious work. It's a preposterous idea.
I have yet to hear a single responsible official in any industrial country state what is obvious to most technocrats who are not currently officials: anything too big to fail is too big to exist.
This is the kind of thing people say at cocktail parties to make themselves sound smart without having to do any serious work. It's a preposterous idea.
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