Several recent events have been described as “just symbolism,” which apparently is a method of dismissing uncomfortable statements of fact, such as ‘Sarah Palin is the nominee for Vice President’ or ‘Rick Warren will give the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration.’ Apparently, these moments are supposed to have a lifespan closer to that of Britney […]

Forty years ago, in 1968, an American major after the battle of Ben Tre in Viet Nam was quoted by Peter Arnett as having declared, “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” Now, we have the contemporary version, from U.S. President George Walker Bush: “I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market […]

Via CR, the Fed announcement this morning: The Federal Reserve Board on Tuesday announced the creation of the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), a facility that will help market participants meet the credit needs of households and small businesses by supporting the issuance of asset-backed securities (ABS) collateralized by student loans, auto loans, credit […]

Ken Houghton There does indeed seem to have been a visible change in Treasury policy since the election. Until that point, it cared a little about optics. Now, it’s giving monster bailouts to the likes of AIG and American Express; it’s dragging its feet on homeowner relief; and in general Hank Paulson’s Wall Street buddies […]

Ken Houghton I would prefer not to talk about AIG, especially since we already have two posts on it today: Robert brilliantly puts it into context, while DOLB goes for blood. But the Gorgeous, Brilliant, and Talented BessNormally-not-this-astute-or-succinct Equity Private posted the perfect summary. And Floyd Norris is on fire as to why this move, […]

A picture is worth 1,000 words. Any claims that George W. Bush is, or even was, a “small-government” conservative will be deleted with cause. Cause:

Steve Benen at The Washington Monthly points to a WSJ article that cautions us: THE ULTIMATE BUSH LEGACY FOR BIG BUSINESS…. Bush’s presidency may be winding down, but he’s not quite done with his conservative domestic agenda. Bush administration officials, in their last weeks in office, are pushing to rewrite a wide array of federal […]

Responding to EconomistMom, he ends his breakdown of flows with: Aiming for a balanced unified deficit over the business cycle would, I think, be a good thing economically–but I really do not see how we could possibly get there. Apparently, spending eight years Serbing the budget has worked. As the current Administration surely knew it […]