Monday Morning Links

• Gary Gorton has a new academic paper on the "shadow" banking system.  You can download it after the jump.  This is must reading.  Hat tip to Brad Delong
• Norman Carleton on interest rates.  A quick read and very informative.
• Bruce Bartlett on how the "W" Bush tax cuts did very little to help America's economy, and only succeeded in raising America's deficit.  Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan of The Dish blog
• The Brookings Institute does a quarterly measuring of the "economic health" of America's 100 largest metropolitan (city) economies.  Called the "MetroMonitor", it's interesting, educational, and has nice little graphs.  Worth at least a glance at the graphs.  Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan of The Dish blog
• Two very educational posts (with superb graphs) from a blog named "Variant Perceptions".  Talking about loan to deposit ratios.  The first graph pertains to now, and the second graph pertains to the years 1900--1920.  Notice how loan to deposit ratio rises right before the panic of 1907 and the ratio rises right before the 18 month recession of years 1920--1921.  The question is, and this is a crucial and vital question---Could this number be used to predict the timing of the next crisis???
• Dr. Jill Biden on the importance of Community Colleges in our nation, and how community colleges improve many people's lives.  Education is the foundation of any strong nation. From Huffington Post
• A thought provoking video of Bill Clinton on Bob Schieffer's "Face The Nation".  Maybe a short advertisement at the start.
• Dan Froomkin writing about regulatory capture of the oil drilling agency (formerly known as Minerals Management Service)  during the "W" Bush years.  From Huffington Post
• A very handsome family, walking on their way to an Episcopal Church on Sunday morning.  Some guys have all the luck, eh??