Archive for Christopher Mayer
The Dreaded D Word
Deflation is a much-feared economic phenomenon, perhaps because it is most often associated with the Great Depression of the 1930s or with the recent troubles in Japan. and yet deflation has not always been coincident with periods of depression. The general record of the nineteenth century, in sharp contrast to that of the twentieth, was [...]
1May2002 | Christopher Mayer | 1 comment | ContinuedIllusion of Control
Christopher Mayer is a commercial loan officer and freelance writer. Every day at noon a man shows up at a street corner with a green flag and a bugle. Every day he waves the flag and blows a few notes on the bugle. Then he goes away. A police officer notices this man’s behavior and [...]
1Sep2001 | Christopher Mayer | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Positive Nature of Risk
Christopher Mayer is a commercial loan officer and freelance writer. There would be no risk if the future were known and all of one’s plans played out exactly as expected. Because of pervasive uncertainty, a variety of risks permeates all human endeavors. It is a common human desire to want to feel secure, to want [...]
1Aug2001 | Christopher Mayer | 0 comments | ContinuedEgalitarianism Run Amok
Christopher Mayer is a commercial loan officer and freelance writer. There has seemingly been nothing but ebullient praise for the SEC’s new disclosure regulation. Dubbed Regulation FD (for “full disclosure”), the new rule has been hailed by journalists in financial magazines and newspapers across the country as a big win for the “little guy.” As [...]
1Jan2001 | Christopher Mayer | 0 comments | ContinuedPatents and Monopoly Privilege
Christopher Mayer is a commercial loan officer and freelance writer. “Discovery can give no right of ownership, for whatever is discovered must have been already here to be discovered. If a man makes a wheelbarrow, or a book, or a picture, he has a moral right to that particular wheelbarrow, or book, or picture, but [...]
1Oct2000 | Christopher Mayer | 1 comment | ContinuedFree Trade and Flexible Markets
Christopher Mayer, a commercial loan officer, is studying for his MBA at the University of Maryland. International trade plays a critical and often overlooked role in the prosperity of the world’s economy. Imprudence on the part of governments can stifle growth and trigger painful unnecessary contractions. The Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930 was a major cause [...]
1Apr2000 | Christopher Mayer | 0 comments | ContinuedProtection for Bad Managers
Christopher Mayer, a commercial loan officer, is studying for his MBA at the University of Maryland. My home state of Maryland is considering adopting anti-takeover legislation to protect the small number of major corporations with headquarters in the state. The legislation would allow the directors of Maryland corporations to adopt defenses against takeovers without the [...]
1Aug1999 | Christopher Mayer | 1 comment | ContinuedMarket-Share Sophisms
Christopher Mayer is a loan officer at a bank in Maryland and an MBA student at the University of Maryland. There are few more widely held fallacies than equating market share to power over consumers and competitors. That great companies maintain dominant positions in their markets is a red flag for regulators and anti-capitalist moralists, [...]
1Jun1999 | Christopher Mayer | 2 comments | ContinuedA Modern Pyramid
Christopher Mayer, a loan officer at a Maryland bank, is studying for his MBA at the University of Maryland. In Anything That’s Peaceful, first published in 1964, Leonard Read took aim at U.S. efforts to put a man on the moon.[1] He was right on target. His powerful comments have tremendous relevance today in light [...]
1May1999 | Christopher Mayer | 1 comment | ContinuedPaper Tiger
Christopher Mayer, a commercial loan officer, is studying for an MBA at the University of Maryland. Gadflies have long been predicting the exhaustion of critical natural resources—especially oil. Despite the doomsaying, a barrel of oil is cheaper today than a pair of movie tickets. As Daniel Yergin pointed out in a recent editorial in the [...]
1Apr1999 | Christopher Mayer | 1 comment | Continued-
The Latest
Contraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
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The Snow Plowers’ Petition
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Super Bowl versus Education?
In the spirit of Super Bowl weekend I’d like to deconstruct a Facebook status update that a friend... Read More
Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
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