2004 Archives
We Got Him!
January 2004
Eliot A. Cohen
Eliot Cohen discusses the capture and possible fate of Saddam Hussein.
Deleveraging The World
February 2004Dr. Hans Black
With the change in the wording of its latest interest rate policy statement, is the Fed taking steps to head off the latest bubble?
His Master's Voice
March 2004 Dr. Hans Black
When the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve gives his semi-annual testimony to Congress on the state of the economy, the world listens. The chairman was refreshingly candid on some areas of the economy at his most recent Q&A session.
Europe's 9/11
April 2004 Dr. Hans Black
The devastating bombing of commuter trains in Madrid on March 11 has had an impact far beyond the tragic loss of life.
Will The Dow Googol?
May 2004 Dr. Hans Black
The upcoming IPO for search-engine company Google is a major investment event. But Dr. Hans Black wonders what it will do for the company, and for its investors.
Derivatives Are Booming
June 2004Dr. Hans Black
The exposure of international banks to derivative contracts boggles the mind. Have we not learned anything since the LTCM debacle?
Mid-Summer Musings
July 2004 Dr. Hans Black
Dr. Hans Black contrasts the confidence in large financial centers as London and New York with the relatively poor performance of markets worldwide, and cites the reemergence of hedge funds and the growing popularity of their latest manifestation, the fund of funds, as underlying reasons for this change of heart.
Economic Roundtable
August 2004 Hans Arthur Black
For a week in June, Hans Arthur Black was among thirty graduate students who had the opportunity to discuss a variety of current topics with some of today’s most distinguished economists. This month’s article is an overview of what the various participants had to say as well as the opinions of the students on a range of issues from financial instruments to the Internet.
The Burden of Empire
September 2004 Eliot A. Cohen
This article is taken from an essay that appeared in the July-August edition of Foreign Affairs by Eliot Cohen. In it, he examines the arguments for and against the notion that the United States has taken on the mantle of Rome and Great Britain as an imperial presence in international affairs. Despite differences, there are lessons for current U.S. policy in the way these former empires grew — and declined.
Embedding Ethics in Science
October 2004Dr. Margaret Somerville
We present a report by Dr. Margaret Somerville, a professor of law and of medicine at McGill University, on three recent international conferences. Ethics in science was a major topic at each and, within that context, the danger posed by the (mis)use of new technoscience in bioterrorism and biowarfare, and the need to develop ethics to ensure such threats are not actualized, was a common theme.
Revisiting China
November 2004 Michelle Cao
Following her first visit to China in four years, analyst Michelle Cao reports on the enormous changes taking place on the level of physical infrastructure and the economy. The significance of the country’s first interest rate increase in nine years is both in its impact on markets around the world and in the government’s embrace of market-driven reforms as it moves to open its financial markets at the end of 2006.
That Was The Year That Wasn't
December 2004 Dr. Hans Black
Dr. Hans Black looks back at this year of surprises — at what happened as much as at what did not happen — and sets the tone for next year.