Graeme’s

Fixing capitalism: reactions and replies

Posted by Graeme in Economics, Politics at 11:33 am on Sunday, 22 November 2009

The reactions to my post on fixing capitalism have surprised me: almost everyone who has blogged or tweeted on it agrees with the broad thrust of what I advocate. For proposals so far from the political mainstream, what does that mean? Perhaps is shows how for the politicians are from a popular demand for change. There also a few points that need replies. (more…)

Comments (18)

The market is just inefficient enough

Posted by Graeme in Business & Investment at 5:48 am on Saturday, 21 November 2009

Richard Beddard’s extensive comments on my last post on efficient markets deserve a full reply. He is correct that I did not make it clear that the paper says that a behavioural explanation of the abnormal returns is possible. (more…)

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How to fix capitalism

Posted by Graeme in Economics, Politics at 11:40 am on Friday, 20 November 2009

The recession and the crisis and banking are the least of the reasons for thinking that we need reforms. the crisis of capitalism goes much deeper: the influence big business has on governments (and the warped policies this leads to), increasing central control of the economy and the general move away from free markets.. I have some modest proposals on how to fix capitalism. (more…)

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Evidence for market efficiency

Posted by Graeme in Business & Investment at 8:30 am on Friday, 20 November 2009

A working paper that is nicely summarised on the Empirical Finance Research Blog shows how markets react to information rapidly, that they are not perfectly efficient, and how those setting the efficient market price are rewarded. (more…)

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Two economists on labour and value

Posted by Graeme in Economics at 3:04 pm on Thursday, 19 November 2009

I came across two interesting quotes from two famous economists of the 18th and 19th centuries: (more…)

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Time for growth investing

Posted by Graeme in Business & Investment at 2:37 pm on Wednesday, 18 November 2009

I am hardly the first person to recommend switching to growth investing. There has recently been crop of strategists arguing that we are at the point in the cycle where growth is likely to out-perform, as economic growth returns. (more…)

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Educating Lucy: Maths

Posted by Graeme in parenting at 9:05 am on Saturday, 14 November 2009

As I have said before, I do not like the way in which schools teach maths, so what do I do instead? Do stuff that is fun, that encourages the underlying skills rather than focusing on arithmetic. (more…)

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Value investing, efficient markets and CAPM

Posted by Graeme in Business & Investment at 7:00 am on Thursday, 12 November 2009

The value effect, does not cast doubt on the efficient market hypothesis (as Richard Beddard suggests), but on CAPM. Nonetheless, I still think investors should use CAPM, or something very like it. (more…)

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How big business undermines the free market.

Posted by Graeme in Market failure at 9:19 am on Wednesday, 11 November 2009

The FT has the best mainstream media take I have seen on something I have been saying for a long time. (more…)

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Why teach toddlers to read?

Posted by Graeme in parenting at 3:34 pm on Tuesday, 10 November 2009

As promised in my post on how we taught my daughter to read, here is why I think children should be taught to read as young as possible. There are three good reasons, and the first one is more than enough. (more…)

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