«It’s The Bank Secrecy Law, Stupid!»

Posted on February 7, 2010 | by Markus Stocker

The German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has spoken: “Switzerland’s bank secrecy law has no place in the 21st century.” For starters, what in Switzerland in German is called Bankkundengeheimnis — bank client confidentiality– is the safeguard of financial privacy, not the secrecy of the bank, as I argued almost a year ago. I’m sure Mr. Schäuble [...]

A Spot From Which I Make Sense

Posted on January 13, 2010 | by Markus Stocker

Recently, I stumbled across the Summers memo (Wikipedia). It is actually only an excerpt of the original. I think, this doesn’t matter as the excerpt is informative and provocative enough. The memo was written by Lawrence Summers in 1991 while he was Chief Economist of the World Bank. A few days ago, I forwarded the [...]

On The Affinity Of Individuals

Posted on January 3, 2010 | by Markus Stocker

I was inspired to finally write about something I have been wondering on and off in quite some time without ever finding a train of thought that seemed promising in leading to an answer; the question whether we — human beings — are (rather) similar or dissimilar. This problem shows up when I’m generalizing or [...]

On Mutual Respect

Posted on December 27, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

The one Xmas present that swung on the day into my house this year was rather unusual. I think, I am as close as never before to the place where Santa Claus is said to have his residence but this year it came from across the ocean. It wasn’t delivered by Santa Claus, I argue [...]

On The Beauty Of Forgetting Intoxication

Posted on December 6, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

Likely you have heard of the chicken or the egg causality dilemma, ”which came first, the chicken or the egg?” I think, Samuel Butler‘s statement about egg & hen is more intriguing: “A hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg.” In The Botany of Desire (2002), Michael Pollan writes about apples, tulips, cannabis and potatoes [...]

The Rationale Of Burning Profits

Posted on October 31, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

Today I have yet another post on external costs and how they may lead to potentially irrational decisions with disastrous effects. The discussion is based on the flaring of natural gas by Shell in Nigeria. BBC reported on this awhile ago. In a nutshell. The natural gas — a by-product of crude oil extraction — [...]

Tragedy. Designed.

Posted on October 13, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

Are we always supposed to find words? Must we always be able to write an essay on whatever topic? I know, this article has affected my thoughts today. The corresponding blog of Thomas and Amanda Stansel — The Stansel Journey —  did so, too, as did at least one of their family picture. Read. Think. Comment.

Do We Need Perfect Information?

Posted on August 15, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

Last year a friend suggested to me “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” as a must see for what had been called my own personal documentary film festival. After having seen “The Corporation” almost a year ago, this was the second documentary for this festival. I still have at least three to go. This [...]

Does The Environment Have Intrinsic Value?

Posted on July 1, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

In their book “Free Market Environmentalism,” the authors Anderson and Leal emphasize an assumption that is fundamental to the way of thinking underlying the book’s arguments, namely, that the environment itself has no intrinsic value. I wonder if the assumption may lead at best to an incomplete and at worst to a wrong analysis of [...]

 

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