#TBT: Today we look back to how we used to trade stocks. Slower Trades Our story (sort of) starts 225 years ago on Wall Street with the origin of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Gathering in coffe…
How a Performance Metric Can Lead to a Giant Nail
In government, business and at home, the performance metrics we create always are accompanied by incentives that create unintended consequences.…
Fast and Slow Stock Markets
Goldman Sachs is asking $30 million for a firm that, 14 years ago, it purchased for $6500 million ($6.5 billion). The story (sort of) starts 222 years ago. Wall Street was where our first Congress met…
Presidential "Choice Fatigue"
Because with decision fatigue, the more decisions we make, the less energy we have for making decisions, so we increasingly prefer a default.…
Some Greek Math
With a euro zone update on Greece unfolding (they might lease some islands but we’ll get to that in a moment), here is some Greek math that Michael Lewis presents in Boomerang. Referring to the …
Michael Lewis and the Extra Cookie
During his 2012 Princeton Baccalaureate Address, financial writer Michael Lewis describes a college psychology experiment in which students were divided into teams, each composed of 3 people with a ra…
Greek (Debt) Myths
Maybe sell some islands and an ancient ruin or two? In Boomerang, Blind Side author Michael Lewis repeats what German politicians were suggesting in 2009 when they heard that the Greek debt was much l…
Why Might People Cheat?
When are people more likely to cheat? Behavioral economist Dan Ariely says to look at sweatshirts, the Ten Commandments, dollar bills and cans of Coca-Cola. In one experiment, Ariely discovered that m…
California and Greece
It is good to pay fire fighters and police officers generously. It is good not to raise taxes. It is good to give voters what they want and get re-elected. As Michael Lewis describes in Vanity Fair, S…
Moneyball Economics
A wonderful baseball movie, Moneyball is also about economics. The story focuses on the Oakland Athletics, a second-tier baseball team with a small budget. A speedy runner? A homerun hitter? The stars…