The Probability Of Ten Consecutive Heads Is

It Seems Superfluous To Constrain Trading In Some Of The Newer Derivatives And Other Innovative Financial Contracts Of The Past Decade. The Worst Have Failed; Investors No Longer Fund Them And Are Not Likely To In The Future.

Corruption, Embezzlement, Fraud, These Are All Characteristics Which Exist Everywhere. It Is Regrettably The Way Human Nature Functions, Whether We Like It Or Not. What Successful Economies Do Is Keep It To A Minimum. No One Has Ever Eliminated Any Of That Stuff.

And Whatever Their Publicized Angst Over Saddam Hussein's 'weapons Of Mass Destruction,' American And British Authorities Were Also Concerned About Violence In An Area That Harbors A Resource Indispensable For The Functioning Of The Word Economy. I Am Saddened That It Is Politically Inconvenient To Acknowledge What Everyone Knows: The Iraq War Is Largely About Oil.

I Have Long Argued That Paying Down The National Debt Is Beneficial For The Economy: It Keeps Interest Rates Lower Than They Otherwise Would Be And Frees Savings To Finance Increases In The Capital Stock, Thereby Boosting Productivity And Real Incomes.

This Decade Is Strewn With Examples Of Bright People Who Thought They Built A Better Mousetrap That Could Consistently Extract Abnormal Returns From The Financial Markets. Some Succeed For A Time. But While There May Occasionally Be Mis-configurations Among Market Prices That Allow Abnormal Returns, They Do Not Persist.