Economics

Having tried and failed for two weeks to find time to give Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder

the thoughtful consideration and worthy review it deserves after hearing author…

Yesterday I blogged about a Wiki I posted to improve the public comment process for federal regulation. I seeded the Wiki with a proposal to let the market solve the short selling controversy by letting issuers or shareholders set their own rules about what investors can do with shares…

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

XBRL US produced a remarkable 29-page document explaining how adoption of an industry standard computer language could expedite economic recovery. The organization’s CEO, Mark Bolgiano, presented it to Congress…

There was much talk about the Great Depression on Meet the Press this morning. Since the Depression, we’ve created nuclear energy, solar energy, lunar travel, Internet technology, and a global economy, so today’s crisis needn’t resemble the Depression. In fact, there’s a great…

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…

Daniel Roth’s new story is up on Wired. It’s the story of how the data standard the SEC adopted on Dec. 17, 2008, can restore Peggy Noonan’s “magic.” As she wrote, “no amount of pessimism will stop it once it starts.” Mr. Roth’s story,

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

A Boston Globe story today, Shedding Light on ‘Dark Pools’, includes this from the head of equities at Fidelity’s brokerage arm:

“I don’t mind if the best price is on an exchange or in my own dark pool,” [Michael]…

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…