Changes

I continue to work on what will be the short version of "Gambling With Borrowed Chips," my discussion of the role of leverage, speculation, and regulation in a modern economy.  I'm making great progress.

Perhaps it is a sign of my progress that I have now abandoned the original outlines I wrote of the final chapters .  Indeed, as the book has moved along the difference between the actual content of each chapter and the original plan/outline has expanded.

At one time, I had contemplated that chapters 13 to 17 would have the following titles:

13. Bankruptcies and Rescues

14. Public and Private Pensions

15. Home Ownership

16. Energy

17. Conclusions.

According to the latest plan, whatever actually will be their titles, their content will be respectively thus:

13. Early Responses to The Crisis
(Especially focusing on the first year of the Obama administration and things that didn't work.)

14. Labor Unions and Pensions
(Working analytically, from the basic justifications for labor unions to their newer roles and the demographics.)

15. The Ideology of Home Equity
(I'd like to present this in the form of a fable.)

16. Health Care
(The key to the second year of the Obama administration, and its business-cycle significance, along with some philosophizing about biology.)

17. Final Thoughts
(Final thoughts.)

Yes, that might not seem to hang together when put thus, but I've learned that the teller should not fight the tale.