Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Unfunded Liability Bookended

In the last installment of this Social Security series we kind of dug into some of the details of unfunded liability, what it was and what it wasn’t and most importantly where the incidence occured: in the past or in the future. Backwards Transfer is Back. In the course of that I think it became […]

Daniel Mudd

Hat tip to Anonymous for the Wapo article. In January 2007, as years of loose mortgage lending were about to send the nation’s housing market into devastating decline, Fannie Mae chief executive Daniel H. Mudd wrote a confidential memo to his board. Discussing the company’s successes, Mudd said one of Fannie Mae’s achievements in 2006 […]

Because this worked so well last time…

Via Drs. DeLong and Black, the WaPo reports that this version of the S&L crisis will repeat the mistakes of the last one: Instead of giving each company a big capital infusion upfront, the government could make quarterly injections as the companies’ losses warrant, the sources said. This would be an attempt to minimize the […]

Will open format survive this election? Up to any one of us, and all of us

CoRev says: Dan, may I suggest an open thread that allow us to list the various policy issues and then discuss them. I would start with:1) Economic2) Energy3) Jobs [and I consider 1,2 & 3 to be closely interlinked]4) Fiscal— Balanced Budget— Taxes5) National Security It is hard to divorce any one policy or subpart […]

Auto Sales

Could July have been the bottom in auto sales? Auto sales jumped from 12.6 million in July to 13.7 million in August. Auto sales are nearly 20% below trend as compared to 30% below trend at the 1981 bottom and 16% below trend at the 1991 bottom. So, just maybe July was the bottom.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

The NYT reports: WASHINGTON — Senior officials from the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve on Friday called in top executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants, and told them that the government was preparing to place the two companies under federal control, officials and company executives briefed on the discussions […]

Is "Five Yeshiva Butchers" Good for the Jews?

Steve Waldman graduated Columbia the year after Barack Obama. His brother Mike was Bill Clinton’s chief speechwriter. So when Steve Waldman declared his suspicion that John McCain would get the highest percentage of the Jewish vote of any recent Republican, with a link that indicated it could put Florida solidly in the Republican column, I […]

Employment Report

The employment report shows more of the same and no sign of an economic improvement. Compared to other economic cycles this is looking like an extended shallow near recession. But that may be the most bearish scenario. Every time employment has fallen below its year ago level the US has experienced a recession and both […]

Alice in Co-payland

by reader noni mousa, doing regular citizen reseach for us all Alice in Co-payland Now and then some tiny little headline, like this from the OrlandoBusiness Journal, catches my eye and gives me that old Alice inWonderland feeling. Have a quick look: Biz journal says: Survey: Most companies will increase health care costsOrlando Business Journal […]

Call in today WKRS

http://www.extremewisdom.com/?p=1358 Any interest in putting it on the Bear? I’ll be doing a fill-in on someone else’s slot today from 3-5P CST atwww.wkrs.com. I’d love to have your readers call in. Bruno BehrendHost – Extreme Wisdom Radio ShowWeekdays 10 AM-Noon on 1220 WKRSwww.extremewisdom.comListen Live – http://1220wkrs.com/pages/93518.php