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

Judge Rules Against White House in E-Mail Case

by reader Noni Mousa Gotta hide it better than that, NYT — “Judge Rules Against White House in E-Mail Case” New York Times Technology section? Yeah, that’s the place to slip in a seriously important political story. More In Technology * Judge Rules Against White House in E-Mail Case * Midway Games Reports Loss * […]

The WSJ Editorial Page Talks, the Market Listens

Thursday morning editorial: The voters may be full of hope about the looming Obama Presidency, but so far investors aren’t. No President-elect in the postwar era has been greeted with a more audible hiss from Wall Street. The Dow has lost 1,342 points, or about 14%, since the election, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq […]

Liars Bond Ratings

Robert Waldmann is reading the article everyone is reading by Michael Lewis on what went wrong. My jaw just dropped. Long long ago, I wondered how bond rating agencies could be so powerful without being corrupted. For months I have wondered how they could get ratings so wrong (and assumed it wasn’t corruption). I’d guessed […]

2.46 Trillion dollar bailout ? Isn’t it $700 billion??

Bailout Sleuth notes a discrepancy in the way we talk about the money for the bailout. What is up with this? The financial firms that were eligible for some of the loans through the Federal Reserve included many of the same firms that split $125 billion in the first round of the Treasury Department’s relief […]

"It’s a mess," said Thorson

Washington Post has an article on bailout oversight. In the six weeks since lawmakers approved the Treasury’s massive bailout of financial firms, the government has poured money into the country’s largest banks, recruited smaller banks into the program and repeatedly widened its scope to cover yet other types of businesses, from insurers to consumer lenders. […]

Big Three

by Save the Rustbelt Title: The Big 3 Dilemma During the 80s I was an accounting and tax professor two days a week and a consultant three days a week. In cost accounting class I often used the Big 3 as examples of bad business models and disastrous labor contracts. All this in communities with […]

I’m surprised that Paul Krugman is surprised

By Robert Waldmann Paul Krugman writes Max Baucus — Max Baucus! — is leading the charge on a health care plan that, at least at first read, is more like Hillary Clinton’s than Barack Obama’s; that is, it looks like an attempt at full universality. (The word I hear, by the way, is that Obama’s […]

Felix Salmon Explains It All to You

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 […]

New blog from Save the Rustbelt

rdan Save the Rustbelt has started his own blog finally. He is writing under the alias name of Tom at Health Care Think Tank. I encouraged him to still write for us as well…please feel free to suggest it to him. I hope cross posting might be in order. Anyway, his first post is up […]

Regulation matters

by reader Movie Guy I reviewed the OMB Watch list of proposed and final rules. If approved and published in the Federal Register, it is possible if not likely that some will be reversed. Unfortunately, OMB Watch doesn’t appear to provide government links necessary to follow up and monitor further actions. So, here are some […]