Writing is thinking, so the theory goes . . .

One of the more pleasurable jobs at the SMF was writing the Media Monitor, in which the 5 major broadsheets were scanned for references to significant terms like "public service reform" and "housing". Well, pleasurable up to a point: I have always experienced great disagreements with left- and right-wing extremes, but the manner of the latter is almost unbearable, and it was only through having an outlet in my sarky media monitor commentary that I could possibly stomach reading the likes of Heffer, Randall and Damian Reece.

But I did find that writing helped thinking. For the next 8 days I am trying to prepare myself for CentreForum. Just reading the FT and jotting down ways of startling the world with fresh insights is not enough. Maybe if I am forced to write a little each day I will stay in shape. I also have a cumbersome list of articles I think may be useful to me in the new post, where sophisticated understanding of the credit crunch is a sine qua non. So, I hope to keep tab of some of them here. No doubt I will forget to immediately.

But let us start with this article in the Economist's View. If you stop short of the comments you find a reasonable discussion of a really central issue: the degree to which regulation was a cause in the credit crunch. It passes through a fair amount of Galbraith to get there, which is no bad thing, and references important economists. In the FT not long ago, another writer suggested that an international perspective was needed for regulatory solutions to the credit crunch. Sounds sensible: regulatory arbitrage makes this perspective compelling. However, the very different paths being followed in Europe, Asia and America suggest it is not a straightforward case.

This could get boring.

Mega Bear Roubini is worth keeping an eye on for his painful predictions of utter doom. Here is a brief piece on the shape of the future recession. The other issue I thought worth bringing up is the replacement of the dollar as the world's reserve currency. Naturally, the Daily Star of Lebanon is the place to discuss this.