Amity Shlaes: The Forgotten Man

French Doors, Swimming Pools, Apartment Shortages

Amity Shlaes — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:24:00 +0000

This Bloomberg column, “No Swimming Pool in Your Future,” looks at whether the consumer is as much an idiot as current policy of both parties suggests. The article doesn’t totally convey the depth of the data base and, therefore, the value of the findings of the authors (Harvey Rosen, Kristopher Gerardi, Paul Willen). Gerardi and Willen have also coauthored with Andreas Lehnert and Shane Sherlund a Brookings Paper, “Making Sense of the Subprime Crisis.”

The big sense is that in future mortgages will be cheap but unavailable. I’m expecting a sort of rent control phenomenon.

Michael Ferri’s Evidence from 2004 Election….

Amity Shlaes — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:22:23 +0000

This article by Michael Ferri in the Journal of Applied Finance provides more evidence that political events, especially the expected outcome of national elections, can move equity markets. His article uses statistical methods to demonstrate that the reversal in expectations of the outcome of the 2004 US Presidential election moved the US equity markets.

Four Trading Days In September

Amity Shlaes — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:10:04 +0000

Here’s a recent column by me on whether markets rise when Congress is confused or inactive. Ali Wambold writes in recalling an event that seems to suggest “confusion = good”. On Sept 18, 2008, Bloomberg carried a story announcing Congress would adjourn and that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said “no one knows what to do at the moment. “

Writes Ali: “When it looked like Congress was going to check out, the Dow rose over 770 points in 2 trading days, over 7% (the S&P500 rose about 8.5%). Once Obama, McCain, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd (not a business person among them) checked in over that weekend, most of the gains were unwound in the following two trading days.”

The Wambold Suggestion: “We should consider having part-time legislators like the UK: the less time they have to “do” things, the safer we are.”

Sunset Necessity

Amity Shlaes — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:45:08 +0000

This week’s Bloomberg column is on the Sunset movement, which seems to me a good movement for both political parties at this point. John Chachas’s plan to run against Harry Reid is tactically interesting because Nevada has a relatively small population. Rep. Kevin Brady and I connected too late in the day for his quote to make it into the column, but it’s important. “I continue to push for a federal sunset law that would hold all agencies and programs accountable to a sunset date.” In other words, Brady too wants less discretion and more structure in the political process.

The Man Who Talked Back….

Amity Shlaes — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:55:26 +0000

In a Forbes column had a chance to describe to describe how Wall Street finally found its voice in Wendell Willkie in the later 1930s. Powerline notes that somebody is speaking out now: Cliff Asness. As Asness notes, complaining might have an asymmetrical set of outcomes. Not much good comes if you complain; but lots bad can happen.

Writes Asness: “The President’s attempted diktat takes money from bondholders and gives it to a labor union that delivers money and votes for him. Why is he not calling on his party to “sacrifice” some campaign contributions, and votes, for the greater good? Shaking down lenders for the benefit of political donors is recycled corruption and abuse of power. ”

Read Asness: “Furthermore, for some reason I was not born with the common sense to keep it to myself, though my title should more accurately be called “Not Afraid Enough” as I am indeed fearful writing this… It’s really a bad idea to speak out.” The point is not to fearmonger. It is that the President’s displeasure matters disproportionately.

Ohanian lays it out….

Amity Shlaes — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:28:16 +0000

Employment data turn out to be the most controversial part of the New Deal discussion. Lee Ohanian testified before the Senate Banking Committee recently, laying out as clearly anyone why labor policy made the Great Depression worse in the 1930s.

Columbus Dispatch’s Torry

Amity Shlaes — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 13:59:28 +0000

Jack Torry of the Columbus Dispatch covered the Senate Banking Committee hearings on the 1930s and then did an interview on TFM. I’m glad I got to talk to him, not just for the interview but coz I like his angle: not a New Deal, but a better deal. Torry took a lot of trouble to figure out the data. All of us involved in the story appreciate that.

Also, one of the most interesting guests at our Second Look conference was Bob Higgs of the Independent Institute, father of the “Regime Uncertainty” concept. Higgs is on C-Span Book TV in a three-hour marathon session this weekend. To give Higgs this time was probably an idea of Peter Slen, one of the great innovators of C-Span. Higgs’s work is hyper-relevant to enterprise. It may be a marathon, but run with Higgs. His work explains a lot.

G-20: Those Who Cannot Remember Past Conferences….

Amity Shlaes — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:03:08 +0000

Forbes column on the original meeting in London, 1933….

The upcoming G-20 meeting is not the first conference held in London several months into a new U.S. administration in the midst of an international economic crisis. International powers also met there in the summer of 1933, not long after Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration. To review that London meeting reminds us just how badly an international conference can flop.

But to the story: The planning for that London….

Obama’s Transcendent Moment

Amity Shlaes — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 03:21:41 +0000

Something’s right in the world and in this administration if the U.S. can have a President who makes a tape like President Obama’s Nowruz commentary. An unforgettably gracious bit of outreach that will have more effect than we can imagine.

Dan Yergin Puts the World on his Shoulders

Amity Shlaes — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:32:30 +0000

Dan Yergin is doing what he did for the oil topic — heavy lifting on the substance — and taking up the task of sorting out what happened in the Great Depression. His take on Chairman Bernanke, NEC Director Summers, and Chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers Christina Romer here. It’s a rough load but if anyone can lift it, Dan can.