A new paper by Luigi Zingales asks whether finance benefits society (hat tip - Ronan Gallagher). In the wake of anti-finance sentiment, Zingales argues that academic financial economists have a duty to promote the right sort of finance. Finance, according to Zingales, can quickly degenerate into rent-seeking activity. Zingales argues that financial economists should use their "research to challenge the existing practices in finance and blow the whistle on what does not work. We should be the watchdogs of the financial industry, nots its lapdogs".
According to Robert Shiller , speaking at Davos, Bitcoin is a perfect example of a bubble - story here . Shiller sees Bitcoin as a backwards step in the evolution of money. George Selgin , a free banker, takes an opposing view - click here . Although he doesn't believe that Bitcoin is money, he sees its development as a fascinating turn in the evolution of money. In particular, he lauds the fact that Bitcoin production is constrained and cannot be infinite. There is a short video below where Bitcoin explain how it works.