dimelab dimelab: shrinking the gap between talk and action.

libraries Topic in The Credit Debacle Catalog

NY Public Library (2); Stephen A. Schwarzman Library (1).

Wed 2009-09-16 19:19 EDT

Why Default on U.S. Treasuries is Likely | Library of Economics and Liberty

Almost everyone is aware that federal government spending in the United States is scheduled to skyrocket, primarily because of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Recent "stimulus" packages have accelerated the process. Only the naively optimistic actually believe that politicians will fully resolve this looming fiscal crisis with some judicious combination of tax hikes and program cuts. Many predict that, instead, the government will inflate its way out of this future bind, using Federal Reserve monetary expansion to fill the shortfall between outlays and receipts. But I believe, in contrast, that it is far more likely that the United States will be driven to an outright default on Treasury securities, openly reneging on the interest due on its formal debt and probably repudiating part of the principal. Treasury default considered likely.

default; economic; liberties; libraries; likely; U. S. treasuries.

Language Log Wed 2009-09-16 18:57 EDT

Language Log >> Google Books: A Metadata Train Wreck

.This is almost certainly the Last Library, after all. There's no Moore's Law for capture, and nobody is ever going to scan most of these books again. So whoever is in charge of the collection a hundred years from now -- Google? UNESCO? Wal-Mart? -- these are the files that scholars are going to be using then. All of which lends a particular urgency to the concerns about whether Google is doing this right...you need good metadata. And Google's are a train wreck: a mish-mash wrapped in a muddle wrapped in a mess.

Google Books; Language Log; Metadata Train Wreck.

Mon 2008-12-15 00:00 EST

Bagehot: Lombard Street | Library of Economics and Liberty

Walter Bagehot, Lombard Street: A Description of the Money Market (1873) | Library of Economics and Liberty

Bagehot; economic; liberties; libraries; Lombard Street.

Tue 2008-09-02 00:00 EDT

EconLog, Freddie Mac: My Chapter, Arnold Kling: Library of Economics and Liberty

``I was "present at the creation" of Freddie Mac's risk management culturethe Foster...Van Order approach to pricing mortgage default risk. That was the approach that [Freddie Mac CEO Richard Syron] rejected''

Arnold Kling; Chapter; econlog; economic; Freddie Mac; liberties; libraries.

Mon 2008-03-24 00:00 EDT

AlterNet: NY Public Library 'Trades Naming Rights' to Greedy Hedge Fund Billionaire for Big Bucks

AlterNet: NY Public Library "Trades Naming Rights" to Greedy Hedge Fund Billionaire for Big Bucks, by David Morris; Stephen A. Schwarzman Library for $100 million

AlterNet; Big Buck; Greedy Hedge Fund Billionaire; NY Public Library; Trades Naming Rights.