Time for a bit of self-promotion (not to mention my distinguished co-authors). Our report on competition in European banking, post-bailouts, is published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research today. It's called 

Bailing out the Banks: Reconciling Stability and Competition and can be downloaded as a pdf. We conclude:

We reject the idea that the crisis requires the suspension of normal
competition policy rules; in times of crisis they are more important
than ever. However, we also believe that the competition rules
appropriate to the banking sector are not the same as those that should
apply to most other sectors.

The inter-connection between banks means that a competition assessment of bailouts must look beyond the individual institution which has been rescued and take account of the effects elsewhere in the sector.

The campaign by a group of UK authors against the Google Books Settlement is moving into top gear and has launched a blog. I've posted about it a few times, but those who are interested will probably want to go right to the horse's mouth for news and updates. Even for those who are relaxed about Google's initiative would do well to follow the debate about rights, in my view, as this terrain is not yet fixed. And certainly in the UK there doesn't seem to be as much attention paid as one might like to the policy debate on this specific issues, in contrast to France and Germany.

On my shelves is a little book called Derivatives in Plain Words, published in 1997 by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. It was handed out at the 1997 IMF/World Bank meetings in the city, which I was covering for The Independent. Those were exciting days. The UK had just handed back Hong Kong to China, and the Asian financial crisis was in full swing. Then-Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad accused George Soros of causing the crisis and the two debated in a bad-tempered spat about the role of hedge funds. Paul Krugman later wrote that speculators had indeed attacked the Hong Kong currency, using all the derivatives they had at their finger tips.

I picked up the book again yesterday. It's superbly clear – you can download a pdf version from here  – but I was most gripped by the emphasis it places on risk management. A whole section covers 'The importance of senior management's involvement'. It says: “There are two … basic issues which the senior executives should pay attention to. Is the profit generated from activities which they and the shareholders approve? Is the profit a real and normal one? These two seemingly easy questions are, in reality, great challenges to the senior executives – especially when it comes to derivative activities.”

How true.

The list of authors who opted out of the Google Books Settlement has been published, as Annex C of this court document. The document is non-searchable and alphabetised by first name. It also seems to treat estates and companies in varying ways. Still, it's all there for a keen reader.

Although I haven't read the whole list carefully, even picking a few randomly out of the nearly 7000 names shows that a striking range of authors and their heirs have decided they would rather they, not Google, should control the online presentation of their work. Simply by turning a few pages, I spotted:

Thomas Pynchon, Theodore Dalrymple, Susie Orbach, Bret Easton Ellis, Madeleine Bunting, Ben Schott, Mark Helprin, Louis de Bernieres, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Lauren Child, the Rogers and Hammerstein companies, the estate of Arthur Hailey …..

The tireless Gill Spraggs comments:

“Estates are particularly strange: some have been opted out under the name of the deceased author, (eg Robert Graves), a few as 'the estate of x', some under the names of particular companies that control them, and others, I think, under the names of the heirs: thus, I imagine Stephen James Joyce has opted out both as the heir to the Joyce estate and as an author in his own right. Interestingly, John Prescott appears on the list. The only author of that name whom I can trace is the politician (Prezza: My Story: Pulling No Punches).”

To join the mailing list for updates from her, go to the Authors' Rights website.

The Science of Liberty by Timothy Ferris was favourably reviewed in the New York Times. I haven't read it but it sounds a good companion to Joel Mokyr's marvellous history of the part ideas played in Britain's Industrial Revolution, The Enlightened Economy. (I reviewed it here recently.) Besides, I'm a sucker for books with a cover using one of Joseph Wright of Derby's paintings.