Month: October, 2008

The troll under Massachusetts’ bridge

17 October, 2008 (08:13) | Massachusetts, Policy, Regulation | No comments

“None shall pass …”
 
In Scandinavian literature, trolls live under bridges, preying upon those who have to pass.  For this story, bridges make a good metaphor – everyone has to use the bridge to cross the river, and everyone is happier to be on the other side; meanwhile, the troll lurks below, having done nothing to [...]

What the financial crisis isn’t: Part 3, the way forward

16 October, 2008 (08:33) | Capital markets, GSEs, Housing, Policy, Subprime, US News | 1 comment

[Continued from yesterday's Part 2 and the previous Part 1.]
 
So far we’ve seen that almost everybody is wrong about what the financial crisis is …
 
1. Not an asset bubble … a systematic under-pricing of risk.
2. Not caused by subprime lending … although that was the miner’s canary.
3. Not principally about the GSEs … because other financial institutions [...]

What the financial crisis isn’t: Part 2, the blame game

15 October, 2008 (08:20) | Capital markets, GSEs, Housing, Policy, Subprime, US News | No comments

[Continued from yesterday's Part 1.]

Yesterday we knocked off a handful of things the credit crisis wasn’t:
 

 
1. Not an asset bubble … a systematic under-pricing of risk.
2. Not caused by subprime lending … although that was the miner’s canary.
3. Not principally about the GSEs … because other financial institutions are in much worse shape
4. Not just [...]

What the financial crisis isn’t: Part 1, the situation itself

14 October, 2008 (09:06) | Capital markets, GSEs, Housing, Policy, Subprime, US News | No comments

Abandon all logic, ye who write about the financial crisis
 
So far a lot of nonsense has been written – mostly in the popular rather than professional press – about what the financial crisis is.  In fact, the Panic of 2008 is a global repricing of risk, the hangover from a decade of binge financial risk-taking [...]

Windows and the biological thermostat

10 October, 2008 (09:55) | Configuration, Housing, Maintenance, Weather, Windows | No comments

What’s the best way to manage a home’s indoor climate?

 

 
As I type this blog post, our house’s fan is running behind me, circulating air – and directly in front of me is a lovely bank of fifteen-light windows through which I can see our back garden.
 
Why don’t I just turn off the fan and [...]