The Subprime Solution

The Subprime Solution: How Today’s Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It
by Robert J. Shiller

Bubbles and banking crises are not new phenomena. Robert J. Shiller recalls one housing boom in California, in the 1880s, as settlers rushed westward for “the wonderful climate, beautiful scenery, and California lifestyle.” Somehow, housing prices managed to escalate and collapse within that decade, despite the housing rush taking place in a state still vastly underdeveloped. How could a bubble occur, Shiller asks, when there was no sense of scarcity?

Though that century-old …

January 21, 2009

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How Will Non-Profits Survive?

January 13, 2009

At the Los Angeles Central Library, Zócalo will host a panel of experts on how non-profits can survive the economic downturn. Like nearly everyone else, those working in non-profit organizations …

David Skeel on Bankruptcy

December 26, 2008

David Skeel wrote the book on bankruptcy. That is, his Debt’s Dominion explained why American bankruptcy law is the way it is. Bankruptcy is bound to be a big issue …

Paul Krugman

October 25, 2008

Paul Krugman fought jet lag and “the small dog living in [his] throat” to deliver his Zócalo lecture to a packed room. Before that, the Nobel Prize winner, Princeton professor, …

Knock knock…Nobel Calling

October 14, 2008

A week after putting American fiction in its place, Sweden’s Nobel Committee has awarded the prize in Economic Sciences to one of America’s most popular public intellectuals, Paul Krugman, Princeton …

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