Debt

Judge Posner’s Wall Street Journal op-ed on Thursday got me thinking.

Equity spun out of control in the 1920s, crashed, severely damaged the economy, and was controlled not only by forcing equity to be more…

Hernando de Soto’s brilliant Wall Street Journal op-ed today, “Toxic Assets Were Hidden Assets,” contains a wealth of common sense.

There’s an interesting discussion here that for the most part speaks for itself. I’ll only add that consensus is building that more useful data is required. Decisions about what to do with the data needn’t be made now, and uses will evolve over time, just as reporting of…

Here’s the text of a letter published by the WSJ from me commenting on the excellent column by Gordon Crovitz last week:

Let’s Use Technology to Help Value Toxic Assets

The previously blogged ideas — broadening the SEC’s XBRL requirement and using an industry standard computer language to create a more efficient 21st century version of the RTC — would require a sponsor to implement. A smart post from Chris…

This may be a tad circular, but good conversation is remarkable.

As journalist, lawyer, radio producer, policy director, and adviser, I’ve talked with a lot of fascinating people to elicit information. Then came the business of organizing, simplifying, and publishing the…