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Author: David Merkel

How Long, To The Point Of No Return?

Alea posted a paper, and The Big Picture a slideshow on sovereign debts, by the same author.  We have had a blessed period post-WWII, where there have been no defaults of major nations.  But that is not normal.  Nations default...

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A Question of Cultural Failure (II)

Good cultures balance short and long-term goals.  Focusing too much on the long-term can lead to overinvestment, and problems like Japan still faces.  Focusing on the short-run can lead governments and companies to focus on...

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A Question of Cultural Failure

I’ve said this before in different ways, but I will say it once more, “Governments are smaller than markets; markets are smaller than cultures.”  The reasoning is simple: Governments can only control a fraction of what an...

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A Pox on Liquidity Derivatives

I know I have written about ideas like this before, but I cannot remember where.  Let me start with a story.  I was at a Society of Actuaries conference in 2001 when I bumped into an actuary who was well-known to most before a...

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The Rope Limit, Redux

Sorry I haven’t written much recently.  The recent snowstorms have tossed me around, as I care for my family, and those around me.  It is amusing in a backwards way, to see Washington, DC frozen at a time when there is so much...

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Balking in Winter Blunderland

The place that got the most snow during the recent storm was Howard County, Maryland.  Elkridge had 38″, Columbia 34″, and at Aleph Blog Global HQ we got a measly 30″.  Here are some photos: looking out the front of the house...

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