1. How they almost gave “Vertigo” a different title.
2. The Dynosphere.
3. Who will write the piece on Mormon Keynesianism?, and Spain does have a public debt problem (in Spanish, by XSiM, full blog here), and A Crisis in Two Narratives (Raghu Rajan).
4. Good R.A. analysis of recent British economic performance.
Because you have both Mormons and Jimmy Stewart (Vertigo) in there, I’m reminded of the old Christmas movie he did with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081190/), Mr. Krueger’s Christmas. Does anyone know how/why he was in that?
No, but he did appear in 1980′s “Afurika monogatari” (a terrible awful Japanese safari picture), because he and his wife were on vacation at the African locale where the filming was going on. The director recognized and approached Stewart, and the actor agreed to appear in a scene (as a Western tourist no doubt).
Rumor is that he liked the Tabernacle Choir and wanted to conduct it as a lark. They agreed if he’d do it as part of a movie.
Oh, I rather like “My Madeline”
#5 I’m pretty sure the law was written in such a way as to be misunderstood.
#5 – Here is what I have.
When SEC (2004) waived investment banks’ leverage (debt to equity) rule to go from 12:1 to 40:1 – only five largest received the waiver: Bear Stearns (defunct – $30B cost taxpayers); Goldman (now a BHC); Lehman Bros. (bankrupt); Merrill Lynch (sold at huge loss to shareholders); Morgan Stanley (now a BHC);
Looks like Britains banks are restoring their balance sheets before lending, and that businesses are cutting back from an austerity program.
Who’d a thought.
Maybe Keynes.
What austerity? It looks mostly like tax increases and few spending cuts.
Few spending cuts?
“Cry from the Rooftop” is not bad, but I don’t know what is wrong, from the studio’s perspective, with “Vertigo”, which is a snappy, memorable title. I first thought that someone was being too literal minded, but Hitchcock’s title refers to a key element in the plot.
I assume they were worried that people would not be familiar with the word “vertigo.”
Re Mormon Keynesianism:
Actually the Mormon Church implemented a global building freeze for the first year of the recession – 2009-2010. The huge commercial real estate project mentioned by Douthat was begun well before the recession (plans were being developed in 2005, construction began in 2007). In fact, the Mormon leader responsible for the project has said
“if he’d known seven or eight years ago that “we’d be facing the second-worst recessionary period in our history, I may have not suggested we proceed this quickly with the City Creek project. But knowing there would be on any given day upwards of 1,700 jobs in the community — and that could bless the lives of a lot of families,” the church decided to move forward.”
So what is this project, anyway? Basically the Mormon Church owns a good chunk of downtown SLC and embarked on a massive, 20 acre downtown revitalization. There are a lot of numbers floating around estimating the total price tag – $1.5 billion on the low end, $8 billion on the high end. It was paid for with Church investment funds rather than tithing (see this PBS story). Even though the majority of SLC residents aren’t Mormon, the city is the headquarters of the faith, and so the Church took it upon itself to keep downtown DC attractive and commercially vibrant in order to maintain a good environment surrounding the sprawling Church headquarters.
Unrelated to that development project, during the recession the Church has significantly ramped up the welfare program mentioned by Douthat. In 2009 the Church updated the guidelines for welfare assistance and did a global broadcast to train lay Church leaders. The broadcast covered everything from what to do when members ask for help paying their mortgages, to whether church leaders should encourage members to seek government welfare assistance in addition to church assistance
“And what both Mr Krugman and Mr Sumner miss is the trouble in British bank lending. ”
I’m not sure the article has much to back up this assertion. I’m no economist but my sense is that Sumner knows that this is a problem that he believes NGDP targeting would address.
Well, I think it is misleading to compare the welfare policies of Mormon Church with the government’s. First of all, these are no entitlement programs in any way. There is a very strong moral component here (you can only receive help if you show you are trying to get out of that situation) and there is no guarantees of whether you will actually receive what you need.
A lot of help is given outside of the official structure – that is, neighbors bring food when people are sick, mown your lawn when you can’t, etc.
I think that it is also important to note that the Mormon Church’s welfare project is completely funded with donated dollars and time. A member can be found in “good standing” with the church even when he/she declines to participate in the program. Mormons are given free agency to choose when, how much, and if they want to participate. Our government doesn’t give it’s citizens the option to participate, thus a persons tax dollars may be taken involuntarily and used towards funding “needs” that may conflict with the tax payers moral code or economic views.
38. Steps on the Stairs??? That’s either WTF or Duh!
Someone in the business preferred ‘The Face Variations’ (which sounds like an 80s band) to ‘Vertigo?
Sure, Spain has problems paying public debt, but it is because economic activity is down the toilet, and more fiscal austerity will not help economic activity pick up. Rajoy’s new policies seem suicidal to all but the most devout members of the church of Mises.
But how can a country return to growth if it is terrified of public deficits and has no control over ther currency? Internal devaluation, which sends young talent abroad?
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