26 July-26 October 2020 In the closing passages of Elinor Ostrom’s Governing the Commons (1990) she states that the “intellectual trap” of much of … public policy is that scholars “presume that they are omniscient observers able to comprehend the essentials of how complex, dynamic systems work by creating stylized descriptions of some aspects of those systems.” The implication … [Read more...] about Leithner Letter No. 249-252
Leithner Letter No. 245-248
26 March – 26 June 2020 Some Americans have much higher income and wealth than others. Former President Barack Obama explained, “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.” An adviser to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who has a Twitter account called Every Billionaire Is A Policy Failure tweeted, “My goal for this year is to get a moderator to ask ‘Is it morally … [Read more...] about Leithner Letter No. 245-248
Leithner Letter No. 241-244
26 November 2019 – 26 February 2020 [The U.S.,] and with it most of the Western world, is presently going through a period of inflation and credit expansion . As the quantity of money in circulation and deposits subject to check increases, there prevails a general tendency for the prices of commodities and services to rise. Business is booming. Yet such a boom, artificially … [Read more...] about Leithner Letter No. 241-244
Leithner Letter No. 237-240
26 July – 26 October 2019 A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000. Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of ″eco-refugees,” threatening political chaos, said Noel Brown, director of the New York office of the U.N. … [Read more...] about Leithner Letter No. 237-240
Leithner Letter No. 233-236
26 March – 26 June 2019 “Here’s the truth, Brothers and sisters, there’s plenty of money in the world. There’s plenty of money in this city. It’s just in the wrong hands.” [So said New York City’s Mayor, Bill de Blasio, in his State of the City address on 10 January 2019]. American politics is in part an eternal battle between those who prize freedom and those who demand … [Read more...] about Leithner Letter No. 233-236
Leithner Letter Nos. 229-232
26 November 2018 – 28 February 2019 Ask yourself … what imprint will you leave in the sands of history? Did we take risks? Did we dare to defy expectations? Did we challenge accepted wisdom and take on established systems? … Or did we just go along with convention, swim down-stream so easily with the current and just give in because it was the easy way, it was the traditional … [Read more...] about Leithner Letter Nos. 229-232
Leithner Letter Nos. 226-228
26 August – 26 October 2018 The academic world is the natural habitat of half-baked ideas … You might think that the collapse of communism throughout Eastern Europe would be considered a decisive failure for Marxism, but academic Marxists in America are utterly undaunted. Their paycheques and their tenure are unaffected. Their theories continue to flourish in the classrooms … [Read more...] about Leithner Letter Nos. 226-228
Leithner Letter Nos. 222-225
26 April 2018 - 26 July 2018 California Governor Jerry Brown said legal rulings may clear the way for making cuts to public pension benefits, which would go against long-standing assumptions and potentially provide financial relief to the state and its local governments. Brown said he has a “hunch” the courts would “modify” the so-called California rule, which holds that … [Read more...] about Leithner Letter Nos. 222-225
Leithner Letter Nos. 215-221
26 September 2017 - 26 March 2018 Alan Jay Levinovitz recently put forth the provocative argument that economics is The New Astrology. … The failure of the field to predict the 2008 crisis has also been well-documented. In 2003, for example, only five years before the Great Recession, the Nobel Laureate Robert E. Lucas Jr told the American Economic Association that … [Read more...] about Leithner Letter Nos. 215-221
Leithner Letter No. 213-214
26 July 2017 - 26 August 2017 My impression is that “strategists” are very skilled at summarising and expressing current conventional wisdom, i.e., knowing what presently excites the herd. They don't influence mass expectations, and still less do they create them: instead, they reflect them. … On average since the mid-1920s, the S&P 500 has increased, on average, by x% per … [Read more...] about Leithner Letter No. 213-214