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Justin Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson in Bloomberg View on the economics of gay marriage As support for same sex marriage grows, it matches a shift in the economist's understanding of marriage. "For our grandparents’ generation, marriage was about separate roles, separate spheres and specialization ... Modern marriage offers different benefits. Today, we search for a soul mate rather than a good homemaker or provider." As this definition takes over, it becomes more desirable to same-sex couples and their marriages, in turn, become more palatable to heterosexuals whose economic arrangements fit in. "It is no coincidence that many of the opponents of same-sex marriage are also opponents of the ongoing shift to marriages of equality."
Jonathan Macey in The Wall Street Journal on JP Morgan and regulation Macey, a Yale law professor, argues against those who use JP Morgan's $2 billion loss as proof we need stricter regulations. "The trades that JP Morgan made were extremely complex, and it certainly appears that they did not work the way that they were supposed to. But the reason that markets work better than central planning is because market participants learn from experience, and they learn fast and thoroughly because they suffer significant losses when their investments, whether they be hedges or not, turn out badly." The bad bets JP Morgan made were in fact hedges intended to stabilize their portfolio, and seen in the context of the firm's broader financial position, the losses were not catastrophic, he says. "Outlawing or restricting hedging will make the banking system more, rather than less, risky. That is why the Volcker Rule does not outlaw hedging, at least not yet."