My blog
Personal, scientific and economic freedom are under attack by ill-informed politicians and their supporting media, where claims of superior morality suffocate the exchange of rational arguments. The populist instinct is to call for a larger state and limit the power of markets. Nothing could be more damaging for the future of our children.
I am regularly stunned by some journalists’ or politicians’ obvious display of ignorance (for the most basic foundations in economics and Finance) or partisan interest. Soaking the rich and violating property rights is regarded a panacea for all problems with the positive side effect of creating social justice. This form of lazy thinking has bothered me in the past, so I (my wife) decided to squeeze my occasional anger into this blog. My blog will dissect political statements and newspaper articles from the perspective of well established academic knowledge in economics and finance.
You’re invited to comment on my thoughts, share your own views or never visit this site again. Keep your comments on topic, refrain from insults or abusive language and don’t hide your real name.
Me
It’s time to take a stand. My name is Bernd Scherer. I regard myself as common sense libertarian. I am a finance professional, author and ex-academic (professor of finance at EDHEC). During my professional career I worked in senior positions for Morgan Stanley, and Deutsche Bank in New York, London and Frankfurt. My academic work has been published in Journals like the Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Financial Markets, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of Economics and Statistics, Quantitative Finance, Journal of Derivatives, Journal of Portfolio Management, Financial Analysts Journal, Journal of Investment Management, Risk, Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Journal of Asset Management etc. I am also the author/editor of 8 books on quantitative asset management for Risk, Springer and Oxford University Press.
Of course I am not really anti-state. Free markets are not anarchy. The government needs (at the minimum) to guarantee non-invasive freedom rights (human rights, property rights,…) and provide institutional safeguards that do not allow the state to personally or economically surpress the population to its own advantage.