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Barry Ritholtz
For Barry Ritholtz's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 20, 2018
What we didn't learn from Bear Stearns' collapse
This weekend marked the 10th anniversary of the collapse of Bear Stearns Cos. The cause of the disaster was a combination of excessive, subprime mortgage-concentrated leverage and poor risk controls.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 20, 2017
Tesla scares the rest of the auto industry
Most all of the major auto manufacturers have been frightened by Tesla into embracing hybrid and/or electric vehicles. Now Tesla has claimed the all-important speed crown.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 5, 2016
What Buffett saw in baseball’s greatest hitter
If more investors were to utilize a process comparable to that of baseball's greatest hitter, they would be much better off.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jul 7, 2015
Greeks stand up to 'lemon socialism'
The latest restructuring attempt has been emphatically rejected by the Greek people as little more than a bailout for European creditors.
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 26, 2015
Are the poor better off than King Louis XIV?
To argue that common folk live better now than royalty did in earlier times is a fatuous and politically inspired attempt to minimize the issue of income inequality.
COMMENTARY / World
May 10, 2014
Frenchman stopped the trickle-down theory
A book by a Frenchman known for his now infamous chart of income inequality in the U.S. dominates the media like no other work of economics since the writings of Milton Friedman or even John Maynard Keynes.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Economy / ANALYSIS
Sep 22, 2013
Busting a myth: Lehman wasn't too big to fail and didn't cause recession
To many people, the 2008-09 financial crisis was a complex, fast-moving news story and an anagram-laden, horrifying collapse. Such events often give rise to false histories, myths and ideologically driven narratives.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 13, 2013
Can two U.S. senators' bipartisan bill finally halt 'Too Big to Fail' mantra?
Last month, an unlikely pair of senators — Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, and David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican — introduced a non-binding resolution calling for the end of the implicit subsidies that "too big to fail" (TBTF) banks enjoy.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 13, 2012
Don't blame Glass-Steagall repeal for the crisis
When the Titanic set sail from Southampton on April 10, 1912, bound for New York, it was called "unsinkable." This was before that chance encounter in the North Atlantic with a large iceberg. You know how that movie ended.
COMMENTARY / World
Feb 6, 2012
Battlegrounds for bringing Wall Street to justice
What shall we make of the surprise pronouncement in President Barack Obama's State of the Union address that a belated investigation has been launched into the role of fraud in the financial crisis?

Longform

Historically, kabuki was considered the entertainment of the merchant and peasant classes, a far cry from how it is regarded today.
For Japan's oldest kabuki theater, the show must go on