Trying to Short Joe Biden

So the good news yesterday (h/t Felix) is that, even as he was voting to eviscerate the Fourth Amendment, Barack Obama urged a change to bankruptcy law. The devil is in the details (the “median cost” of a home in NY State won’t keep anyone living in their house in Westchester or even Rockland County, let alone PGLville), but it’s a nice start, as Elizabeth Warren notes:

Obama has history. He voted against the bankruptcy bill. He voted in favor of the amendments that would have eased the effects of the amendments. But his real history is deeper. He was a community organizer who saw first-hand the effects of aggressive lending. He was a state legislator who felt the impact of federal pre-emption on his ability to protect the citizens he represented.

…McCain also has a history. McCain has voted in favor of financial institutions since he first went to Washington. He voted over and over for the bankruptcy bill, and he voted against the amendments to give medical bankrupts a means test exemption, against a uniform minimim homestead for older Americans, against limiting recovery for lenders who violate Truth-in-Lending laws. After Katrina, McCain opposed an amendment to make procedures easier for victims of natual disasters. The list is long….

The deteriorating economy make bankruptcy a more urgent national issues. Bankruptcy and consumer finance are issues where the money and power is all on one side and the middle class families are on the other. It is also an area where both candidates have an on-the-record history. Senator Obama has now thrust bankruptcy issue into the national spotlight.

Now, my immediate reaction was to attempt to go short the possibility that Obsidian Wings-favorite Vice Presidential candidate, Joe Biden (D-BofA [nee MBNA]) would be chosen.* But I can’t find the contract on intrade, and the CNN “political market” just notes a drop of “the field” and HRC** with most of the support going to John Edwards (and some to Bill Richardson).***

So there probably isn’t a way to directly profit on the Good News from ObamaNation yesterday, but eliminating Joe Biden from the list of possible VP nominees is certainly a Public Good.

*If that does happen, after yesterday’s speech, I’m voting for McCain, since it will then be truly impossible to take anything Obama says seriously.

*Must be her FISA vote.

***The positive interpretation is that something like 5.5% of those in the CNN political market really believed that Biden would or should be the VP nominee. The negative interpretation would be that around 5.5% of those registered believed that Joe Biden would be a good VP choice in the first place.