CSB Commentary
Did Government Housing Policy Cause the Financial Crisis?
The financial meltdown of 2008 impacted the global economy on an unimaginable scale. Many economists consider it the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It resulted in the threat of a total collapse of the global financial system, the bailout of many major banks by national governments, and downturns in stock markets around the world. In many areas,…
Read MoreBitcoin: Fails as a Solution to Double-Spending
A few years ago the world was introduced to Bitcoin; the brainchild of Satoshi Nakamoto; It is not the first crypto currency created, but certainly the most widely held. Bitcoin was built to address a very specific problem, Nakamoto coins it “double-spending.” E-commerce from the very beginning has relied on financial institutions to act…
Read MoreCatholic Economic Teaching
The recent controversy over Pope Francis’s economic views has raised the related issue of whether these views are consistent with the traditional Catholic economic teaching. While the answer is in the affirmative, the pope has decidedly added a new emphasis and a more urgent tone to this teaching. Catholicism is, of course, primarily a…
Read MoreThe Fraud Triangle: Reducing Fraud
Fraud is a serious issue, and while there is no way to guarantee it will not happen, it is important to try to understand why people commit it to try to prevent it. The fraud triangle simplifies the complicated structure of fraud by breaking it down to three elements: pressure, opportunity, and rationalization. When all…
Read MoreIs the Stock Market a Casino?
Detractors of the stock market often liken it to a casino. There are certainly some similarities. Many stock traders, not unlike gamblers, develop addictive personalities, are filled with greed for easy and quick riches, and often overestimate their chances of success. In addition, just like casinos, most stock markets seem to be skewed in favor…
Read MoreWhere is the Inflation Monster Hiding?
For the past several years, there has been concern that higher inflation is just around the corner. It is a valid concern, given the damage that high inflation can wreak on an economy and the Fed’s expansion of the money supply. But caution should be exercised in attempting to preempt rising inflation since the facts…
Read MoreNo More Black Box Approach to Teams: Blending Team Diversity and Task Structure to Increase the Efficacy of Teamwork
There are various ways to classify and examine diverse attributes in teams as such diversity (team diversity) reflects a variety of demographic, cultural, experiential, and personal differences that individual members possess which in turn influences team processes and outcomes. For example, observable individual differences and underlying personal attributes are often used to examine various outcomes…
Read MoreEmerging Business Models: Conscious Capitalism and Peace through Commerce
If globalization is considered the most challenging development of modern times then bioterrorism may be its most pressing concern. Increasingly, the connections between health, development and security are becoming clear. The advances in biotechnology, directed toward improving health status, facilitate the reality of bioterrorism, directed toward destroying quality of life and security. Bioterrorism, which involves…
Read MoreEmpiricism and Rationalism in Economics
Empiricism and Rationalism are two schools of philosophy, dating back to the ancient Greeks, dealing with how we obtain our knowledge of the external world. For Empiricists, such as Aristotle, this is best done through the evidence of our senses, that is, through empirical observations and experiments. For Rationalists, such as Plato, however, our senses…
Read MoreIs the U.S. National Debt Excessive?
As the recent tapering of the Fed purchases of government and mortgage-backed securities indicates, the efficacy of monetary policy in stimulating the US economy has started to face diminishing returns. Indeed, much of the 3.4 trillion dollars of new money pumped into the economy by the Fed over the past six years in response to…
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