User talk:Nick Gardner

Tasks: start a new article • add basic, wanted or requested articles • add definitions • add metadata • edit new pages

Welcome to the Citizendium! We hope you will contribute boldly and well. Here are pointers for a quick start, and see Getting Started for other helpful "startup" links, our help system and CZ:Home for the top menu of community pages. You can test out editing in the sandbox if you'd like. If you need help to get going, the forum is one option. That's also where we discuss policy and proposals. You can ask any user or the editors for help, too. Just put a note on their "talk" page. Again, welcome and have fun! Regards, Anton Sweeney 17:36, 8 September 2007 (CDT)

Economics articles

Thanks for your contributions to economics articles: they are a massive improvement! I hope we can bring on board some more economists [retired or otherwise] to help with the CZ effort. The wikipedia approach to economics is a far cry from what I would consider clear and erudite thinking on these issues, and I would like to avoid repeating that on CZ. --Martin Baldwin-Edwards 16:44, 17 September 2007 (CDT)

Thank you for your words of encouragement. I am intrigued with the possibility of conveying the basic ideas of economics in simple verbal logic without the aid of equations and diagrams. I may try that approach on the main economics article.

I need some advice, however. I should like to see much of what is written in that article transferred to an article on the history of economics thought. I suspect that to be beyond the power of an author? If so, how could it be arranged? Nick Gardner 02:55, 18 September 2007 (CDT)

I don't see why it is beyond the power of an author, as long as there is no opposition. I am not opposed, and the main author of these economics articles left CZ. Put the proposal on the Talk page, so that it is all transparent, and people can object if they want [they won't!]. Wait a few days, then go ahead. Message me when you have done it, so I can check it out. Seems ok in principle, to me. Bear in mind that other people may come along later and modify things, but this is true for all articles on CZ. We control such changes with editorial oversight. --Martin Baldwin-Edwards 17:03, 18 September 2007 (CDT)

Will do. Nick

Workgroup label

Forgive me for changing your page, but the Workgroup label is only for articles. I saw that you appeared on the Economics list as an article :-) Best wishes --Martin Baldwin-Edwards 07:21, 24 September 2007 (CDT)

Hi Nick!

Do you feel shy about coming to the Party? Or did you not know about it? Not sure? What the devil is this person talking about?? Click on the link, come on in and edit an article. Or start a stub. Or ask a question. Eat something at Hayford's Bar and Grill. Or just drink some vodka or grog. Or beer. What the hey! Aleta Curry 16:11, 7 November 2007 (CST)

Approval of some economics articles

Nick, I think we should go for approval of some of the developed articles: the process may bring in some more comments, but otherwise we will just go ahead with your texts. I will make some minor edits first, and any comments that occur to me in the process of looking more carefully. Can you suggest which articles you would like nominated? I think Microeconomics and History of Economic Thought are looking good. Possibly Economics and Macro... Tell me whzt you think, and let's try to get these done! Best wishes, --Martin Baldwin-Edwards 06:05, 11 November 2007 (CST)

Microeconomics

Congratulations o your first of many Approvals! --D. Matt Innis 18:43, 16 November 2007 (CST)

Two down, 1000 to go! Competition policy --D. Matt Innis 19:19, 21 November 2007 (CST)

Also, my thanks to the most important contributor in Economics on CZ !! --Martin Baldwin-Edwards 19:32, 21 November 2007 (CST)

Subpages

Nick- make sure that the talk page has the {{subpages}} placed at the top ;). Also, when you fill out the metadata page, make sure to also include the name of the page in both the "Page name" and "abc" fields. --Robert W King 10:46, 4 February 2008 (CST)

Also, another tip: The definition template is used as follows: Template:Def_nameofthinghere, for example see: Template:Def_Ice_hockey. --Robert W King 09:12, 6 February 2008 (CST)

Gross Domestic Product

Congratulations on approval! D. Matt Innis 10:55, 26 February 2008 (CST)

Careful!

Please be careful typing in page-names. You created "Bank for International Settlements (note extra "), but we already had Bank for International Settlements. You should move any useful content to the second, and we will delete the (erroneous) first one. J. Noel Chiappa 16:52, 7 April 2008 (CDT)

Ah, I see, you just created Bank for International Settlements - I went to move the former one to the right place, and the move failed, and so I assumed it was a pre-existing page which you didn't see because of the ". If you ever need to move a page to a different name for any reason in the future, can you please use the "Move" tab (at the top)? Please never use cut-and-paste to move a page, as we need to keep the page history intact for copyright reasons. (In this case there's no harm, because you're the only author.) Thanks! J. Noel Chiappa 17:08, 7 April 2008 (CDT)

Hey sorry I can't give better feedback on economic articles

Hey Nick, I saw your forum post and glanced through a couple of your articles. I wish I knew more about economics and could contribute. I would suggest linking all of the articles in the forum post so people can click on them and give feedback. Tom Kelly 15:55, 11 May 2008 (CDT)

Revisions to user page

I am open to reasoned suggestions about how to present my user page, but I am not prepared to allow uninvited alterations, even if well-intentioned.Nick Gardner 16:03, 12 May 2008 (CDT)

In that case you did the right thing. :) Sometimes its just easier just to show rather than tell. Chris Day 16:10, 12 May 2008 (CDT)

Draft for article diminishing returns

Hi Nick, thanks for your comment! I have replied there. I am new to Citizendium. Can you tell me whether it is better to reply on the author's page or to reply where the comment has been made? Greetings! --Paul Schächterle 13:14, 15 May 2008 (CDT)

I'm no expert on CZ protocol either. I suggest you ask an editor. Nick Gardner 16:18, 15 May 2008 (CDT)

Sabbatical

I do not wish to cause offence by not replying to messages, so I should explain that I have embarked upon an indefinite sabbatical from CZ, and for that reason I shall not be responding to messages posted here, except on matters directly concerned with articles that have been put forward for approval. Nick Gardner 15:30, 15 May 2008 (CDT)

:-( Sorry to hear that. Hope you'll be able to add more at some point; we all did notice all your work, we're just busy elsewhere. J. Noel Chiappa 16:20, 15 May 2008 (CDT)

Thank you. I appreciate your support and I am quite prepared to wait - especially for initiatives from fellow-economists. Nick Gardner 16:32, 15 May 2008 (CDT)

As far as I can tell, there has been no activity of any sort among the economics authors in the past two months, but I have returned to the extent of dipping a toe into the water that lies at the interface of economics and sociology (social capital) and I am waiting to see if I get any response there. I am not holding my breath! I might try behavioral economics next. Nick Gardner 04:56, 6 July 2008 (CDT)

Attempts to provoke the sociology authors failed, and nothing seems to have disturbed the torpor of the economics authors, but I plan to continue to probe the interdisciplinary aspects of economics with a foray into philosophy, in the hope of finding some response there. There must be life out there somewhere! Nick Gardner 16:21, 28 July 2008 (CDT)

International economics

Way to go! --D. Matt Innis 21:23, 22 May 2008 (CDT)

Hello

Thanks for you e-mail. In fact i've been waiting for a French citizendium to be launched, but since there nothing new about this...

Of course I can comment your article if you ask me. Maybe can you correct my English for it is not my native language. I am currently working on IS/LM model but opportunity cost should be checked too (my English in particular).

I'll try to convince some friends who are waiting for a French version to try to contribute in English. For that I need to finish IS/LM model to prove it is possible.--Sylvain Catherine 10:37, 12 September 2008 (CDT)

Hello Sylvain

I had no particular article in mind - I should welcome your comments on any that I have contributed to. They are listed in my user page [1].

I should be happy to help with your English (which in any case seems good).

I am glad that someone is working on IS/LM: I had been putting it off because I don't like drawing diagrams.

I'll have a look at both articles before long, and comment on them on their talk pages.

Nick Gardner 11:19, 12 September 2008 (CDT)

Your recent work

You've been doing a great job with the contributions you've made recently regarding the current debacle. I just wanted to swing by your talk page and thank you for your hard work. So... Thanks! --Joe Quick 15:01, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Indeed. I'll repeat my comments from a while back - we're a small crew, stretched thin, and so most are busy elsewhere, but your contributions are both noted and valued. J. Noel Chiappa 16:39, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Thank you both for your encouraging messages. Nick Gardner 18:11, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

Hang in there!

Are you sorry you started crash of 2008 yet?

Hang in there, I know it's a pain when something gets nominated for approval, seems suddenly everyone and his brother has something to say on the topic, but even though it may not seem like it, everyone really is trying to help, not--I repeat, NOT--trying to find fault with your work!

Aleta Curry 22:49, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

I like it! It's stimulating - far better than being ignored. But thanks for your reassuring words. Much appreciated. Nick Gardner 22:58, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

While I'm here, let me echo Aleta's wise words! J. Noel Chiappa 18:47, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

PS: Seems like you may have gone from too little feedback to too much, in one fell swoop! :-) J. Noel Chiappa 18:48, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

I had hoped - as ever - to attract contributions from professionals in economics and finance, and to raise the quality of the article by exchanges with them. Apart from some help from Martin - a very busy man - that hasn't happened. I can't deny that that has been a disappointment. But your contributions have been a great consolation, Noel, and I am still enjoying the challenge. Nick Gardner 21:24, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

Draft/Definition

Since 'Draft' is ambiguous (and likely to need to be disambiguated), Draft/Definition‎ might be better at Bank draft/Definition. J. Noel Chiappa 18:47, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

lost glossary?

Nick, are you looking for this page? Subprime_mortgage_crisis/Glossary. When Martin moved the article he created a new metadata template and did not add the glossary tab. So, despite the subpage existing, it does not show up as a link at the top. Chris Day 15:21, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Thank you Chris. I withdrew my complaint when I realised that much of what had disappeared was in any case redundant. I have put an edited version in its place. Nick Gardner 15:31, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Your testimony

Please let us have it! If you're willing, of course... --Larry Sanger 21:07, 3 November 2008 (UTC)

I have tried - I hope it is what you wanted. Nick Gardner 08:32, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Always being careful in areas where I lack expertise...

Two things came together for me on seeing your work on Banking. Last night, I was rereading John Keegan's The Mask of Command, in which he talks about military and economic competition/styles. One of his points was that there became a reversal of models, probably sometime in the early nineteenth century, and at least in military terms.

Up to that point, mercantilism and colonialism, to use game-theoretic terminology, used a zero-sum model, where the initial capitalism was non-zero-sum: more individual participation in security-funded firms gave the better-capitalized firm more opportunity to create wealth. In contrast, the national-level mobilization of Napoleonic armies turned warfare more from controlled maneuvering, which is actually evident in much of medieval and primitive warfare, to total war (i.e., zero-sum).

The wheel seems to be turning again, with the financial markets (merger/acquisition, derivatives rather than direct valuation), etc., moving to zero-sum, while warfare, both through the destructiveness of highly industrialized forces and to what is available to insurgents, becomes non-zero-sum.

Anyway, you triggered these associations, which I think are useful. Where to put the military-economic game of strategy relationships, if others agree in this cyclic behavior, utterly baffles me. Howard C. Berkowitz 15:20, 4 November 2008 (UTC)

Geometric series

I wrote Geometric series upon your request. --Paul Wormer 10:54, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Instant satisfaction! Excellent! Many thanks. Nick Gardner 11:48, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Economic warfare

I've started an article on economic warfare as a subset of grand strategy, but lack knowledge and examples in some areas. My strength is more intelligence and military; I know that there have been attempts to interfere with national resources in the worldwide financial markets, attack its currency, etc., but other than a few cases of counterfeiting, I don't know how the latter was done.

If you have any time to look at it, comments or text are very welcome. Howard C. Berkowitz 17:07, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

I think it has the makings of a fascinating article on a fascinating subject - which, however is not one that I know much about. You have rightly touched on blockades as a major economic warfare strategy, and I suppose that you are aready planning to say more about it. And what about the Allied bombing raids on the Ploesty oilfields? And, as you probably know, the German WW2 submarine blockade was a brilliant effort which might have won them the war but for the Bletchley Park codebreakers. But you may not have heard about the abortive German attempt to damage the British economy by flooding it with forged banknotes? Nothing else occurs to me right now, but I'll keep thinking ..Nick Gardner 21:28, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

I am gemerally aware of banknote counterfeiting, done by skilled slave labor in concentration camps. A bit of it was used by captured spies, but, IIRC, some of the troops moving into Germany found chests of banknotes in a lake.

There's a delicate line between economic warfare and strategic bombing (WWII terminology, now more generalized into strategic kinetic and nonkinetic strike). While there is a huge amount of controversy about the attack on German oil, I don't think of it as economic warfare. Certainly, oil had an immense role in the economy, but as far as I know, only military means were used to break the German oil industry. Ball bearings are different, in that there was a specific nonmilitary component where money was used to buy up the Swedish supply. I need to make that distinction more clear; while "economic warfare" is the strategic term of art, perhaps I should refer to "financial attack" to distinguish buying Swedish bearings from bombing Schweinfurt, although both were intended to create the same effect?

Where I need the most help is in attacks through a financial market. I'm most familiar with those used against non-national groups, but I'm thinking more about actions taken against countries through market manipulation, reducing the value of government bonds, etc. It's only a vague recollection, but I thought the U.S., at one point, played some games in the sugar futures market specifically to affect Cuba's economy. The relationship between the Arab oil boycott and effects on countries it wanted pressure is very direct; the sort of things I don't understand, however, is where they may have used means other than reducing production and controlling exports -- things done in the financial markets. There have also been allegations that terrorist groups speculated in markets, expecting a crash after an attack; I tend not to put a lot of credence into such matters as they are a huge operational security risk.

Britain did have a formal Ministry of Economic Warfare in WWII, although the US did not formalize it as much. While the US was unquestionably waging economic warfare on Japan in mid-1941, it was primarily to deal with Indochina; the US had no particular idea what effects it was having on the Japanese decision to launch much more aggressive war, which, in their minds, was for resources.

I'm trying to focus on the things that were done deliberately. Few people in the West, as far as I know, looked at an arms race as a means to break the Soviet Union, although it became a large part of it. Howard C. Berkowitz 21:45, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

I understand, but I don't think I can help. You need to consult a finance nerd rather than an economist. Nick Gardner 06:46, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

Laughing...see what I mean? I can make fine distinctions about interior and exterior ballistics for rocket science, which is really rocket engineering, know the nuances of all sorts of medical and computer things and how to put together an intelligence estimate, but economics? finance? mostly baffle me. Yes, I can do things like CAPEX and OPEX in a business plan, but, in other areas, I know my limitations. (thinks of some editorial disputes) Howard C. Berkowitz 14:49, 7 November 2008 (UTC)

Deterrence, compellence and game theory

Noticing you contributed to game theory, you might want to build on some specialized, often military, cases I am describing, such as compellence and deterrence. Compellence was an often flawed model used by U.S. decisionmakers in the Vietnam War, who both assumed the opponent was a rational actor, but mirror-imaged the opponent with the assumption they had a common idea of rationality and optimal outcomes. I'll be continuing to expand on these, but I can't help remembering that the full title of Morgenstern and von Neumann's work was Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Howard C. Berkowitz 00:44, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

Shakespearean reflections

I saw your plan to put flesh on the skeleton of "financial system". Where does Shylock's pound of it fit? Should it be given to him in advance? Howard C. Berkowitz 18:22, 23 April 2009 (UTC)the risks

Certainly not! Along with other speculators in the bond market he will have to bear the risk that the issuer may default - and if he does there is also a possibility that his credit default swap insurance may not pay up. Then he will have to suffer the same fate as Lehman Brothers and the other money-grubbing investment bankers. Public opinion is definitely not on their side, and another bail-out is definitely out of the question. Nick Gardner 21:18, 23 April 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps of use...

I created most-favoured-nation and MERCOSUR. While I'm no international economist, perhaps we can try to get in the WTO, G8, G20 and other politically critical groups. Howard C. Berkowitz 16:41, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

MFN would certainly have an important place in an article on the WTO - and there ought to be such an article (I'll put om my list). In the meantime why not add a link to the WTO website [2] ? Incidentally your article does not make it entirely that MFN status applies to all fellow-members of the WTO. Nick Gardner 18:48, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Labour (economy)

Thanks for your message. Footnotes: I just did that because there was a <references/> tag at the bottom of the page which I thought was a placeholder for future footnotes. You can delete it or restore the old tag if you think it's unnecessary. John Stephenson 03:36, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

Started a WTO article

Think of this as a starting point for your expertise; I saw it in your to-do list. Howard C. Berkowitz 14:54, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks Howard - a useful start Nick Gardner 15:25, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

In economics, I do well if achieve as much as the apple that hit Newton on the head. Alas, nothing ever came of the second apple other than a cry of pain. Howard C. Berkowitz 15:28, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Globalization article

I've started, more as a stimulus for discussion and linking, globalization. Should this be more in the economics workgroup than one of the existing ones?

At the very least, I'd appreciate your looking at redlinks and changing them to any terms you have already defined. Howard C. Berkowitz 17:39, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Howard An interesting start, on a subject to which I have given some thought. At first glance I haven't spotted any redlinks that I could help with, although I should like to add a link to International economics. I should be willing to develop that aspect, but I should warn that - like most (not all) economists - I am enthusiastically in favour of globalisation, so there might be a danger of losing balance. (I could, I suppose, give full vent to the opposing views of Dani Rodik and Joseph Stiglitz to restore the balance?). Anyway I have to admit that globalisation has greatly magnified the damage done by the present recession. Perhaps that is worth a mention? I also find interesting the non-economic issues that you raise, but I am not sure that I could usefully add anything on them. (Is there an ethical aspect?). Let's keep in touch on this - Nick Gardner 19:00, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

I think you'll find I'm somewhere on the pro- side of neutral; when globalization leads to war and famine, it's bad; when it leads to prosperity, it's good. The reasons for war often are not economic.

I was hoping you could check some of my terms such as "market economy" and "free trade", whether you have articles or not.Howard C. Berkowitz 19:13, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Consider them checked. They are completely valid in the context even if they are destined to remaln red for some time to come Nick Gardner 19:35, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

(random) variable

Hi, why did you delete the "random" in the definition of confidence interval/Definition? If the variable is not random then there is no probability of its value being in a range. (The random may be implied for statisticians, but ia not in general.) Peter Schmitt 09:02, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

I am prepared to defer on this point because I am not sure of my understanding. However, I was thinking about observed departures from the normal distribution (kurtosis etc) which I had supposed to reflect departures from randomness. Are you saying that no confidence interval can be envisaged in those cases? (or that none is measurable?). Or what? Nick Gardner 10:33, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

I have added the following to the talk page of the Applied statistics article:

I should like to add a note to the glossary title on the Related Articles subpage to the effect that for mathematically precise explanations of the concepts, the reader should refer to the Statistics theory article. This does not seem helpful in the present state of that article, but perhaps I should do so in anticipation of its further development? Nick Gardner 10:59, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

If I understand you correctly, then this fits in: You observe "departures from the normal distribution" by measuring kurtosis (etc.), i.e., you observe the value of a random variable. You compute the confidence interval from assumptions on the distribution of that random variable.
I don't know if using /Related_Articles as a glossary is part of the original idea. But why not? (I am not sure if it needs a remark in the introduction.) Statistics theory (or better Statistics?), and Mathematical statistics could be used as parent article, Probability theory as related?
Peter Schmitt 23:18, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for your help. I think you are saying that I should restore the deleted "of a random variable" - so I will do so. I am sure you know best (although I am not sure that I understand how to deal with kurtosis). I fear that other definitions in the glossary may be mathematically imprecise, and, if so, I hope that that can be remedied without rendering them incomprehensible to our layman readers (who I take to be in the majority).

The glossary is on the related article subpage on Larry's insistance (he objected to my former practice of creating an additional glossary subpage). It has been my practice in other articles to add a note in the introduction in order to save the reader's time by indicating that only the italicised words are defined in the glossary.

I would have used the title "statistics" for this article but it had been used by the earlier article and is still a redirect page for that article (now called "statistics theory"). I believe it to be necessary to impress upon readers that the subject of statistics has vital implications going beyond the mathematical processes that it uses - which they ignore at their peril (as they say). The conduct of experts who overlooked that fact is, I understand, one of the reasons for the current financial crisis. Nick Gardner 08:07, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

Correct linkage to your articles

Could you look at The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order#The Nature of Dominance and check if I am using terms such as international economics, or perhaps I should be using finance, consistently with your definitions? Feel free to change terms. Howard C. Berkowitz 13:00, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Interesting article. I couldn't find anything that I would wish to change. Passing thought: the ultimate level of integration would be complete globalisation - a remote possibility except for finance. Nick Gardner 15:16, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

Huntington thinks complete globalization is a fantasy, but you might want to look at some of the other futures studies books/theories/articles on which I'm working, some not yet started: The Pentagon's New Map, The End of History/Francis Fukuyama, Jihad vs. McWorld. Howard C. Berkowitz 16:10, 12 July 2009 (UTC)

speedy deletes

Hi, Nick,

Apparently you and Daniel are not in agreement with about 5 speedy delete requests. Please come to a meeting of the minds with him over this and let me know what to do. Thanks! Hayford Peirce 17:12, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

I simply moved "Bad bank"/Definition to Bad bank/Definition and speedied the former (i.e. the one with quotes in the title, which does not fit with naming conventions). As for the other ones, they were transclusions, and I think I have kicked them off the speedy list now by means of <noinclude></noinclude>. --Daniel Mietchen 19:27, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Thank you, Hayford.
Daniel. If you are saying that the quotes in the title break some rule, I suggest that it is an unfortunate rule. How else can it be indicated that this is a technical term, the words of which are not intended to be taken literally?

Now that I have read your email it seems that you are saying that the quotes can be retained if they are really necessary? I so, let's keep them. The definition is not worth having without them. Nick Gardner 20:49, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Since the tech aspects of this are beyond me, I will leave the speedy delete for the moment until every is settled conclusively. Hayford Peirce 21:17, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

As you see from the existence of "Bad bank"/Definition, titles with special characters like quotes are technically possible, but they tend to cause problems for the automated handling of pages.

My email referred to the possibility of putting {{r|Bad bank|"Bad bank"}} on Related Articles pages, which would display the same way:

"Bad bank" [r]: A subsidiary, or separate corporation, created to hold and manage non-performing assets transferred to it by a rescued bank. ^[e]

This achieves your goal of marking the term as unusual, while leaving the page name without quotes.

What do you think?--Daniel Mietchen 21:53, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Agreed Nick Gardner 06:00, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Congratulations, Your Worship

(knuckles brow) I always regarded economics as some sort of oracular priesthood.

Apropos of priestly sacrifice, in your flight test days, did you ever deal with the chicken cannon? Howard C. Berkowitz 15:48, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks, Your Majesty!

No. I was the victim of a variety of experiments by the aviation medicine wonks, including ejector seat trials, but they never used that weapon.Nick Gardner 16:24, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

Ronald Dworkin

I haven't changed anything because I wasn't sure what you are trying to do on the talk page, which presents in cluster creation mode. It seems like the first thing we need is a disambiguation page. Howard C. Berkowitz 14:17, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

I wanted to put a link to Dworkin the jurist in an article, but was unable to do so because the destination was occupied by Dworkin the medic. I thought to do some disambigation, but my efforts were frustrated by my ignorance of the necessary procedures so I tried to draw attention to the problem using the talk page - only to run into further problems - so I gave up. I should be glad of your help. (Incidently, I think Dworkin deserves more than a stub.) Nick Gardner 14:41, 30 October 2009 (UTC)

Where do accounting and audit controls fit?

Please take a look at Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and help me decide what workgroups are appropriate. Economics? Business? Law? Computing? If we created a Security Subgroup, would accounting and audit be part of it? Howard C. Berkowitz 22:17, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Congratulations on your article, Howard! As to the workgroup it belongs in, I've been treating finance as though it were a branch of economics. (That's probably as a result of the crash of 2008 - like most economists I more or less ignored it up to then. It was supposed to be always there and working, like the sewage system). Anyway, there is an article on the financial system whose concluding paragraphs deal (incompletely) with proposals to reform it. And the concluding paragraph of its addendum subpage contains a list, to which I have added a link to your article. So it would sit well in the Economics workgroup. I don't think readers would expect to find financial regulation in a security workgroup, but there is something to be said for an accounting and auditing workgroup. Nick Gardner 08:41, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

I've set up a top-level article, U.S. financial laws, which provides useful Related Articles. Would something similar be appropriate for the UK or EU, or perhaps for international agreements ?

As a new challenge, what workgroup is appropriate for a trade union? I'm approaching them more from a standpoint of political activity. Economics and Politics? Business somehow seems wrong. Howard C. Berkowitz 22:02, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

Your use of the Related Articles of the US financial laws article seems to me to be a good idea that might well be emulated in a a European context - but I don't think I'm the man to do it!

I don't think economics has much to do with the rationale of trade unions, and I don't think that their undoubted economic influence is sufficient justification for putting them in the economics workgroup. Politics is an obvious choice - but how about sociology? Nick Gardner 22:27, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

Hello from a new Citizen

Hi Nick,

Going by the recent changes to the economics articles, it appears you are by far the most active in the economics workgroup. I'm very interested and excited to make a positive contribution to the workgroup as well. If you have any suggestions for me or if you are interested in active collaboration on any of the economics articles, please let me know. --Joseph Carpenter 05:03, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Welcome aboard Joseph!

Actually I have for some time been the only active economics author, and I recently became an editor - with nothing to edit! your intention to start by filling in some of the missing definitions and external links is an excellent idea. It will make you aware of the existing articles before you start on your own. Don't hesitate to criticise what you find! I will get back to you later with more suggestions. Nick Gardner 09:06, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

General disclaimer

Hi Nick, I found this in CZ:General disclaimer and removed it, since I think you wanted to put it elsewhere:

This article contains material from Decade of Discontent, (Basil Blackwell, 1987) of which I am the author and copyright-holder, and I hereby relinquish my rights to the passage quoted. Nick Gardner 14:19, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

--Daniel Mietchen 16:27, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Thanks DanielNick Gardner 16:32, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Bank of England

Hi Nick,

Any chance you could have a look at Bank of England and correct any egregious mistakes I've probably made? Thanks. –Tom Morris 14:46, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Hello Tom - and well met! I haven't spotted anything that I would call a mistake, but I think you need to explain what is meant by "operational independence". Without further explanation, the statement that "interest rate setting and other operations are now managed independently of political oversight or control" is misleading, because it leaves the reader unaware of the important facts that the Bank's statutory remit is specified by a letter from the Chancellor of the Exchequer [3], and that the Chancellor sets its inflation target, and that the Governor is required to send a letter of explanation to the Chancellor if the Bank fails to keep inflation within the limits set by the Chancellor.

The Bank also has some very important responsibilities that are not at present covered by the article, including its role as "lender-of-last-resort", its shared responsibilities with the Treasury and the Financial Standards Authority for the oversight and regulation of the banking industry, and the part it plays in the current international debate about "macroprudential" management of the international financial system. If you want to add further drafting to cover those points, please let me know, and I shall be glad to help in my role as editor (I should also be willing to add some drafting of my own, but that would debar me from taking part in the approval process). Either way, I will make some further suggestions on the talk page of the article in the course of the next few weeks.

You have made a valuable start, and I hope you will continue. Good luck with it! Nick Gardner 17:23, 28 December 2009 (UTC)

Applied statistics

Nick, I noted that you designated the categories (on the Metadata template) for Applied statistics as being engineering and economics ... with which I agree. However, don't you think that the categories should also include mathematics? Milton Beychok 06:31, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

You are right in the sense that, like engineering and economics, it makes use of a certain amount of mathematics - although not, of course, the level of mathematics that is required for statistics theory. I have added mathematics to the template. Nick Gardner 08:46, 30 December 2009 (UTC)

Bond (financial)

Nick, could you look at this forum post, and the preceding posts? If you agree the (now deleted) talk page could be archived as discussed there. --Peter Schmitt 10:31, 18 January 2010 (UTC)

I have no objections, so long as Hayford is content Nick Gardner 10:47, 18 January 2010 (UTC)