House of Cards: A review

"House of Cards" by William D. Cohan has a very captive non-linear format. Cohan starts with the ten day crisis that faced Bear Stearns during the financial crisis. I remember when I started reading the book and I was telling my friends, "This book is intense! It starts off with Bear Stearns saying one day 'We have billions and billions of dollars' to ten days later 'We're gone.'" You get sucked in quickly with that initial story, but after that initial story the book slows down considerably.

The second part of the book is the Golden Age of Bear Stearns, and it tells the story of the three biggest players in Bear: Cy Lewis, Ace Greenberg, and Jimmy Cayne. One gets a feel as to how Bear was run and what the culture was like inside of it. Furthermore I found it amusing how Bear was able to have such a successful organization for so many years with the three above personalities under the same roof.

The third part is where the cracks in the dam start to show for Bear beginning with its hedge funds and eventually leading up to the ten day crisis. Again it is slow here but it puts into context the first part of the book, and anyone who wants to know how Bear collapsed should read this. The final part is an afterwords of sorts with a quick explanation of the Lehman Brothers, another investment bank sometimes called "a larger Bear Stearns," collapse and what happened to most of the Bear executives.

If there is one reason to read this book it is to learn from history. One of my favorite quotes is, "If there is one thing we learn from history it is that we learn nothing from history." "House of Cards" is full of lessons that one can take away from history so as to not repeat the same mistakes (Although I would argue they are going to happen again regardless of how much we know). Lessons such as, know your investments (a Warren Buffet rule), watch out for hubris (Shakespeare is big on this one), and be careful when you are playing with other people's money (OPM).

On a final note I am coming away with Ace Greenberg definition from this book: Poor, Smart, and Desire to be rich or PSD. Only reason I'll remember this is because I consider myself one of them; hey maybe I will start an investment bank! Mortgages look good, right?

Links from the weekend and today

Finally had some spare time this weekend between playoff hockey games (Go Sabres!) to finish "House of Cards" by William D. Cohan. Opinion above.

• Tax Relief, Obama Style

• Denying Shakespeare

• The public choice economics of spending cuts (Tyler Cohen about Canada)

• Can the Elites Save the United States (Arnold Kling rebuttal of Tyler Cohen)

• Canada's Road to Balanced Budgets (David Henderson's two cents on Mr. Cohen and Kling)

• 5 reasons why the Tea Partiers are right on taxes

• The perils of the value-added tax (George F. Will)

• Drunk-Driving Deaths Are Way Down, But... (Another article that proves my point that life is not priceless)

• Americans Are More Skeptical of Washington Than Ever

• Congress vs. Honduran Democrats (It is just silly that we cannot get this one right)

• Back to a Better Normal: Unemployment and Growth in the Wake of the Great Recession (Christina Romer)

• Christina Romer vrs. the bloggers (Arnold Kling's response to Christina Romer)

• Is current unemployment all about aggregate demand? (Tyler Cohen's two cents on Ms. Romer and Mr. Kling.)
  

My Side Project: Self-Consolidating Concrete

Now most of my posts have something to do with either economics or politics, but I have mentioned many times that I am studying to be a civil engineer. As a matter of fact I am graduating in three weeks. However the road to graduation had one pitfall: I was short one professional elective. I did not catch my screw up until half-way through the semester, and I began trying to rush to find and add a course. Thankfully Spencer Thew allowed me to do some research on Self-Consolidating Concrete for him. Also as I have mentioned before I turned that project in last week, but I feel as though the project is incomplete.

I feel as if I have not given Self-Consolidating Concrete the justice it deserves. The project for Spence had a limited length so I could not just keep compiling information upon information for him. Blogs on the other hand can be as long or as short as I want them to be. So I am creating another blog much similar to this one only all about Self-Consolidating Concrete. I will try to regularly post links of what I am reading about SCC and post my project and update my project as needed. So please if you have time visit: Joe Bushey's SCC.

PS-I will try to write for those who are not Civies, but apologize if I assume you know civil stuff you do not.

Links from yesterday (again)

Computer problems are slowing me down incredibly these past couple of days. However here is what I was reading yesterday

• How to Save the Catholic Church

• Too Big Not to Get Right

• The Greens' Ground Zero

• The Case Against Gene Patents (Joseph Stiglitz and John Sulston quite the duo, and for a follow up listen to Michael Heller on EconTalk discuss the tragedy of the anti-commons)

• Don't Blame High Unemployment on the Unemployed (Letter to the Editor from Larry Summers)

• Summers on Demand (The WSJ response to Larry Summer's letter)

• The Donner Party's Wikipedia (They were in the news so I figure I should brush up on the story)

• A Guest Post by John Galt (on Greg Mankiw's Blog)

Finally I want to present this link to a video that shows a how big our budgets are and how little savings we are getting from the current administration. (I wish I could embed, but I cannot so the link should suffice)

GO SABRES!

Links from yesterday

I went to post these links yesterday and I started to play some Lady Gaga. I noticed my computer's sound was all sorts of messed up; so naively I tried to fix it. Four hours later and multiple curse words later it still was not fixed. So now I am rocking out to "Fear the Boom and Bust" on my Zune.

• Europe's VAT Lessons

• Why Republicans Are Winning the Tax Issue

• How to End America's Addiction to Oil

• George W. Bush's 2010 Tax Miracle

• We're Number 61!

• The Looming Entitlement Fiscal Burden-Becker

Links the past couple of days

I have been spending most of time working on my Self-Consolidating Concrete Independent Study so I have not been able to post what I am reading, so here is a sample from the past couple days:

• Greece's Debt Lessons (New York is headed down the same path)

• Did FDR End the Depression?

• The Jobs Picture Still Looks Bleak (I read this just for its rosy optimism)

• Fewer Students, More Teachers

• How Free Were American Women in the Gilded Age?

• Only a brave few acknowledge an entitlement crisis

• Incentives Not to Work

• Reaganism, New Jersey Style
  

• Women, Liberty, and the Gilded Age: A Reply to My Critics

• Postcard from the Gilded Age

• Why smoking should be regulated, but not by the government.

Finally I must acknowledge a video that I was introduced to by one of the bloggers I follow (I apologize, I cannot remember who). It is a Youtube video on the IRS by a student at William and Mary. Now I am not going to comment on her arguments about the tax system; I am going to save that for a later blog. However I will admit if she taught Economics or anything for that matter at my college I would gladly attend every class and ask for extra help on every homework regardless of whether I needed it or not. I wonder if anyone can figure out why:

Not for profits are crazy

Received an e-mail from my senior class president asking for donations from the graduating senior class. Thankfully it got caught by the university's spam blocker even though it was coming from a university address (ironic) because I consider it spam anyways. For craps and giggles I decided to have it delivered and read it, and here are some entertaining excerpts:

The Senior Class Gift is a final opportunity to leave your mark and impact the future of our great institution.......The 2010 Senior Class gift is a fire pit that will be located outside of the new student center. The fire pit and its surrounding area will provide the campus community with a place to relax, mingle with friends and keep warm during the frigid winter months.......we want at least 30% of our class to participate and help us reach our goal of $30,000.

$30,000 for a fire pit?! Hell I would do it for $29,000, and I am sure that is not the market price. Actually I could use more beer money right now just pay me minimum wage and I will go dig a fire pit for you! I am a young strapping lad so it probably would only take me a good day's work. That would be 8 hours at $7.50 an hour for a grand total of 60 bucks which is equal to about 2.5 thirty packs of my favorite hometown beer, Genny Light. Assuming I consume 10 beers per night and I only drink 3 times a week. That would last me 2.5 weeks not including my current stock of Genny and suitable replacements like cheap tequila and vodka.

I should have seen this crazy logic coming after the parking space e-mail. My incredibly rational university decided it needed more parking spots for its employees. That is cool, but how they went about it made me tilt my head say "What the hell?"

During the upcoming Spring Break, a parking change will take place in Cheel upper parking lot #9. To accommodate more staff moving from Downtown Old Snell Hall into Graham Hall, additional parking spaces will be required. The staff parking area adjacent to the roadway and Price Hall will be extended to take up the entire first row giving an additional 20 spaces. To make up for these lost spaces primarily used by students, for the remainder of the spring semester, we will remove the "No Parking 2am- 6am" signs on the north side of Cheel Lot along the woods to accommodate student parking. This will give an additional 25 spaces for that use.

So let me get this straight, the university permanently took away 20 parking spots from the students, and gave them 25 parking spots during the hours 2 AM to 6 AM? Now in perfect SNAFU fashion the parking spots in the 2 AM to 6 AM are no where close to any residential building. Actually the parking spots closest to the residential buildings are the 20 that are reserved for employees now. Wonderful! I had to forward this e-mail to my father just to show him the crazy logic and his response had an even better idea:

Why doesn't someone suggest that staff walk from Old Birnam Woods to High Dunsinane. That will give an additional 20 spaces plus the additional 25!

After four years of this I must agree with, Byran Caplan not for profits are crazy.

Links of What I am Readng

• Goldman Tells Its Side of '09

• GM Reports $4.3 Billion Loss (When I read the article anytime I read GM, I said "Government Motors")

• The Dodd Bill: Bailouts Forever

• Presidential Interns

• War on Interns

• Against Libertarian Nostalgia

• How to Cut Government Pay (This reminds me, some of the best ideas are the short and sweet ones)
  

On a much more personal note, I have been exchanging emails with a family member about autism and repercussions of autism in the world. Hence I have been reading lots and lots about it so I suggest anyone if they have the time read up on autism do so. It is more common then one thinks, and who knows when it might affect you. (I hope to have the exchange of e-mails posted someday)

Unpaid Interns

President Obama and his administration are concerned that unpaid internships are a violation of the minimum wage laws. I can understand their argument, but let me be frank and personal about this and leave my libertarian views on the sidelines. In today's economy, I will gladly take an unpaid internship! I am in an unfortunate position where I am about to graduate as a civil engineer and I have never done any real world work in civil engineering. I was not able to get an internship or co-op in my four years at this school so my experience is essentially zero. So that makes me a less valuable candidate for every job I am applying for. Furthermore since firms have been letting people go there is a new supply of more experienced smarter civies out there. Increased supply and decreased demand is putting a downward drive on the price of our services.

I figure why not offer my services for free? It would look great on my resume, and it would be hugely cost effective. However the employer would run the risk, and I would readily admit I would be up front about this, that I am going to leave the instant I got a paying offer. The employer would have to hedge his or her bets that I would be there for a long enough period of time to justify bringing me in free of charge to do some work.

So for all you civil engineering firms out there, one free intern right here at your own risk.

What I read before my Transpo Test

• The White House and Writedowns

• The Cost of Government

• The Immorality of Protectionism

• US Court Rules Against FCC on 'Net Neutrality'

• Elton John Backs Lady Gaga To Sing Next James Bond Theme
  

People need to read

Thanks to Don Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek I have been blessed with the ability to read a passionate debate between a free trader and a protectionalist. I will admit I have some bias here; I am really into the whole free trade thing. I found one mistake that the protectionalist made that made me sick.

In the third blog, Scott Lincicome (free trader) wrote:

"inalienable," rights (as expressed in the Declaration of Independence)

Notice he mentioned the Founders idea of inalienable rights and where to find it (Declaration of Independence). One would think this is really easy to find now, but Ian Fletcher (protectionalist) replied:

I see no mention in the Constitution of the "inalienable rights" to which you refer.

Really? Well that is surprising. I should examine this phenomenon. I find no mention of Hamlet in Macbeth. Nor do I find any mention of Count Dracula in Frankenstein. Wait there is no mention of the starship Enterprise in any of the Star Wars movies. What is wrong with all this?

Oh yeah I am looking for something in the wrong place. Maybe you should look for those in alienable rights in...I don't know...maybe THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE where he said it was! Let me quote the Declaration of Independence:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,

I could be wrong though maybe Mr. Fletcher was being facetious because the Founders used "unalienable" instead of "inalienable." I do not believe he was, but the moral of the story is read what is sent to you fully!

The links to the blogs: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Funny How Economics Works

In an effort to get people to fill out the census forms on campus the resident advisers organized a two hour event involving free beer and filling out census forms. Now of course I will be the first to admit I had ZERO intention of participating in this census. Actually I was incredibly frustrated with the advertising campaign Uncle Sam had launched to guilt me into participating. I was telling my friends, in less then polite vocabulary, how it was all a ruse by the government; it does not determine where the money goes or how political districts and such are measured. I would tell my buddies that the census has no control over these things, but your local politician does. This creates its own perverse and crazy incentives by itself, but that is for another blog.

Even with all my opposition to helping out the Census Bureau the offer of a free beer made my intention of participating 100%. I obviously understand that there is no such thing as a free beer, and the opportunity cost of me spending ten minutes to run to an academic building to do it and then having to redeem the beer at the local school sponsored bar and blah blah blah. IT WAS A BEER that did not cost me my most valuable resource, money, but instead cost me something I have plenty of as a college student, time.

However I will admit if it was not for they checks and balances that the resident advisers had in place, i.e. checking my name and ID, I would have filled out 10 census forms. The census bureau would be trying to figure out for years why there are 20 Joe Busheys all living on the campus in the same year!

All in all I must applaud the RAs for proving once again how incentives change people's behavior. Oh yeah and thanks for the beers....I mean beer.

Monday Morning Links

• Glenn Harlan Reynolds: "We're governed not just by people who do screw up constantly, but by people who can't help but screw up constantly."

• The Common-Sense Case for Pacifism

• Thoughts on Market Socialism

• Mary Anastasia O'Grady: Curb Your Enthusiasm for Brazil

• Electronic Underpants Sends Text Message When Wearer Wets Himself

• MPAA, RIAA receive Condoms from Vector torrent site
  

Assorted links I have not posted because I have been outside

• Daniel Henninger: Would the Founders Love ObamaCare

• The Permanent Mortgage Crisis

• Drilling Bits

• Spend Your Own Money for a Change

• Why are economists More prominent than historians

• Tribeca Festival Adds "Freakonomics" Film to Lineup

• The Woman Who Just Might Save the Planet and Our Pocketbooks: An Interview with Nobel Laurette Elinor Ostrom

• Brosnan Couldn't Compete With Damon In Spy Stakes

• College Grads' Outlook Grim

• The 2010 Recovery