"
In my conversation with Ms. Warren she told me that one of the reasons she’s been pushing reinstating Glass-Steagall — even if it wouldn’t have prevented the financial crisis — is that it is an easy issue for the public to understand and “you can build public attention behind.”
She added that she considers Glass-Steagall more of a symbol of what needs to happen to regulations than the specifics related to the act itself.
"
— Reinstating an Old Rule Is Not a Cure for Crisis - NYTimes.com
"Contrary to Obama’s message, wealth creation is not just the obsession of rich investors; it is the key to prosperity. Precisely because of the discipline imposed by the possibility of failure, individuals concerned only about their own profits create more jobs accidentally than central planners who “take into account everybody” can hope to create on purpose."
— Wealth Creation Is Not the Enemy - Reason.com
"Giving undue financial advantage to one special interest over another is not the only negative effect of the building codes. The codes also work to suppress the creativity of engineers and architects by applying an immutable, one-size-fits-all straight jacket to their designs. Not only does this negatively affect the potential greatness and novelty of building designs, but it also hampers the introduction of safer buildings because thinking outside of the box is discouraged."
— Central Planners and Pagodas
"The FDIC’s deposit insurance will always serve as another incentive for banks to expand credit and take riskier positions. The solution isn’t for the bureaucrats in charge to come up with new operating rules and “be more conservative in our risk management and assumptions,” it is to finally do away with the implied socialization of losses. The fact that taxpayer funds were put at risk to aid the speculative errors of a politically favored industry is demonstrative of the insidious nature of state intrusion into the market."
— Barry Ritholtz Mistaken on FDIC
"Desire is infinte, so there’s no limit to consumption.” (utilitarian fallacy) False: the desire for consumption is limited both by cultural values and by time. Even though the Christian monastic tradition has left our culture the idea that consuming less is “renouncing,” and that therefore, consuming more would be the spontaneous result of our “natural” desires, the truth is that studies on the behavior of lottery winners show that a sudden increase in wealth doesn’t produce a conspicuous change in the quantity of consumption or a general in consumption patterns. Curiously, lottery winners wind up contributing a significant part of their winnings to charitable institutions."
— Five argumentative fallacies and one methodological fallacy without which degrowth cannot stand
