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New York Today and Tomorrow

Bruce MacEwen
November 11, 2008 21:46

Our texts for today come from (in inappropriate order) the New Testament, as it were, and Peter Kalis, the chairman of K&L Gates: "The metaphysical question is whether you can have bulge-bracket Wall Street firms without Wall Street," says Kalis. "The capital markets, when...

Recent Articles

Adam Smith's Home Town

Bruce MacEwen
May 16, 2009 16:58

If you've never been to Edinburgh, I highly commend it to you.  And that's not just because of the Adam Smith connections, although that's what I'll very briefly mention here. We're staying about 200 yards down the Royal Mile from Adam Smith's new statue, unveiled 4 July 2008, and about 400...

Interest Rates or Collateral?

Bruce MacEwen
April 14, 2009 12:18

Every once in awhile, a genuinely novel idea comes up in economics, and you would think that given the generally impenetrable, contradictory, and confused commentary emanating from far and wide about our current situation, now might be a propitious time for a truly new idea to arise....

The Balance Sheet Recession

Bruce MacEwen
April 08, 2009 12:33

More than ample is the ink that's been spilled over trying to explain just exactly what we're going through economically: Is it a bad recession? A near depression? Is it analogous to 1929? Is it analogous to....? Does our salvation lie in monetary policy? In fiscal policy? Are trillion-dollar...

What We Know & What We Don't Know

Bruce MacEwen
April 02, 2009 13:56

Just as McKinsey's consulting practice centers on corporate America, certainly its core clientele and expertise, as opposed to law firms, where they have no domain expertise that anyone would notice, the McKinsey Quarterly surveys do not encompass law firm leaders, but global corporate executives....

Is Capitalism Dead?

Bruce MacEwen
March 28, 2009 15:09

Is capitalism dead? The Financial Times has an ongoing series, The Future of Capitalism (I haven't read it all, but "dubious" would seem to be the most apt one-word review so far),  Knowledge @ Wharton has "revisited" the question whether capitalism is...

What I'm Reading

Bruce MacEwen
March 23, 2009 14:34

From time to time, people ask me what I'm reading when trying to figure out what is going on in the economy these days. A glib response might be, "anything I can get my hands on," but the question deserves a more thoughtful response, so herewith a book review and a few pointers to online...

The Profit Imperative

Bruce MacEwen
March 17, 2009 22:33

The news out of Dewey & LeBoeuf--that 66 partners, or about one in five of their 350 partners, have seen their compensation cut over the past 15 months by up to 80%--begs for an explanation, or at least some commmentary. First, what's going on in the firm's own words: The reductions are...

The Human Toll

Bruce MacEwen
March 15, 2009 22:17

Time for a time-out. In all the obsessiveness and compulsiveness about the impact that this little economic interregnum we're gamely marching through is having on our firms, our P&L's, and even our personal balance sheets, let us pause for a moment to consider the genuine human toll of...

The Non-Equities (& Others) Heard From On "The Great De-Leveraging"

Bruce MacEwen
March 14, 2009 00:14

Well, that'll teach me... The volume of commentary following my publication earlier this week of "The Great De-Leveraging" has been unprecedented.  Depending on your attitude, that is either deeply gratifying or almost overwhelming.  As one who takes the positive view by default, I choose...