My new favorite website is this one, which monitors credit default swaps and displays some useful free data about them (you can pay to get more data). The most interesting statistic is the cumulative probability of default for various sovereign bonds. The site calculates these over a five-year period based on the term structure of [...]

Tags: credit default swaps, cumulative probability of default, finance, risk premium, sovereign debt crisis
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For a long time, Silicon Valley types have been agitating for more immigration visas. One idea is the Startup Visa, which would enable entrepreneurs who get US venture capital investment of at least $100k to move to the United States. Today, Senators Kerry and Lugar introduced the Startup Visa Act in Congress. I support expanding [...]

Tags: economics, financial crisis, immigration, Silicon Valley, sovereign debt crisis, Startup Visa
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One of the great joys (or frustrations, depending on your personality) of being a libertarian is the opportunity to participate in the infighting. Tyler Cowen’s recent post, in which he muses about a VAT in an uncommitted fashion, has generated some of it, e.g. from Fred Sautet and Dan Mitchell. Tyler responds here. My favorite [...]

Tags: Cowen, Mitchell, negative liberty, positive liberty, Rizzo, Sautet, sovereign debt crisis, VAT
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Officials from EU governments have just now pledged to bail out the Greek government. In my view, this is a bad idea, at least for the people of Germany and France, who will bear a lot of the cost. Since I am having some trouble organizing my thoughts into fluent paragraphs, I will present them [...]

Tags: bailout, Carville, EU, Euro, fiscal commons, Greece, optimal currency area, sovereign debt crisis, Wagner
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