Dirk Niepelt

In the Daily Local News, Sue Buchel and Parry Desmond report about a Liechtenstein born immigrant to the US who died on his way back to Europe, 134 years ago.

In the FT, Edward Luce writes about America’s class distinctions. The real story, as depicted by historian Nancy Isenberg, author of White Trash, is that America was founded amid highly conscious class distinctions. African slaves were not the only group to be disenfranchised. … It would be difficult to read America’s history — or decode the 2016 presidential election — without reference to the struggle between poor whites and the descendants of former slaves. Lyndon Baines Johnson, who...

In the FT, Eric Platt reports that US Congress has passed emergency legislation allowing Puerto Rico to restructure its debt. Unlike US cities and municipalities, Puerto Rico and other territories do not have access to protections under the US bankruptcy code. The legislation gives the island and its debt-issuing entities that right, so long as they have made “good-faith” efforts to negotiate with creditors and have received sign-off from the control board. With the deal, Puerto Rico...

Luigi Zingales argues that this is the underlying reason for the Brexit vote and the rise of Donald Trump.

Letters to the editor of The Economist lay out the pros and cons of curbing free speech. Some views: Who is “just” offensive should not be prosecuted.  Insulting religious feelings is ok, but not at a place of worship. Freedom of speech for the purpose of debate needs to protected, but not if it is only “intended to insult or inflame passions.” Clark Kerr, president of the University of California (1958–1967), defended free speech on campus with the wordsThe university is not engaged in...

The Economist reports about cyber thieves “outsmarting” a smart contract. Well, what does that mean? Engaging with a code that runs in all states of the world is to engage with a complete contract. How can one outsmart a complete contract? Previous post on smart contracts and commitment.

A progress update by the Bank of England describes the Bank’s intention, over time, to extend direct access to RTGS to non-bank Payment Service Providers (firms granted the status of E-Money Institutions or Payment Institutions in the UK), collectively known as PSPs. By extending RTGS access, our objective is to increase competition and innovation in the market for payment services.

In the NZZ, Andrea Köhler qualifies the micro aggression debate on US college campuses as a “witch hunt.” Um keine Missverständnisse aufkommen zu lassen: Der allgemeine Konsens, Diskriminierung zu ahnden, ist hier nicht gemeint. Selbstverständlich gilt es, traumatisierte Menschen zu unterstützen und Minoritäten zu schützen; letzteres hat das Attentat von Orlando einmal mehr deutlich gemacht. Doch die Hypersensibilität an den Universitäten unterminiert jede Form des intellektuellen...

Jonathan McMillan proposes a systemic solvency rule which stipulates that [t]he value of the real assets of a company has to be greater than or equal to the value of the company’s liabilities in the worst financial state. (p. 147) That is, the financial assets of a company have to be financed by equity. This reminds of Kotlikoff’s limited purpose banking, see here and here. McMillan (who is actually two persons, a banker and a journalist) argues that Kotlikoff’s proposal is a step in the...

Presentation and Q&A session at an event organized jointly by the CFA Institute and the CFA Society Switzerland. Live webcast.