Via Instaputz, an explanation of why stealing tax dollars in order to decouple securities from the assets they are allegedly securitizing is A Really Stupid Idea, presented directly, yet also in a way an econometrician wiill understand.

The idea that they aren’t inviting Yves, CR, and Roubini onto the calls either led me to wonder for a moment if there was another factor in the invitations. But skipping Felix, even if he is a short-timer, means that they weren’t judging by the blog in the first place.

by Bruce Webb Barkley Rosser and I among others have long claimed that Social Security’s economic models are too pessimistic in light of performance both over the whole post-war period and particularly over the last dozen years. And the numbers looking back are pretty clear, Social Security income/cost ratios have come in better than Intermediate […]

Robert Waldmann Ask Mr Obama. Criticisms of the Geithner plan (including mine) focus on the no recourse loans from the FDIC which give private partners of the Treasury an incentive to over pay for toxic legacy assets. In the plan as briefly described in a press release and interpreted here, there are two different programs. […]

By Divorced one like Bush This past weekend I wrote about the OCC, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and 4 rulings that this office has made over the last two presidencies. 1. Preventing state AG’s and the state banking departments from investigating and regulating national banks. 2004.2. Allowing Banks to become real estate […]

rdan Seeking Alpha has Felix Salmon, James Kwak, Brad Delong, and Mark Thoma in conversation on the Recovery Plan. Follow the link.

Via Robert’s Twitter Feed, and to avoid ranting about 401(k)s before the end of May, here’s a Rant Well Worth Reading. (Warning: PG-13 or R rating; D. Aritophanes channels The Rude Pundit). Clean Excerpt: What’s the catch? That’s the beautiful thing … there is none! It’s all totally risk-free for you from start to finish! […]

Effect Cause

Ken Houghton wants to sidebar today into looking at the general application and implications of an Accounting Identity: Assets = Liabilities + Equity (A=L+E, or the ALE Rule). Let us assume that, since the housing bubble burst, I believe that my house has fallen in value by too much. I would understand a 20% decline, […]

Robert Waldmann is sooooo naive I have been asking “if the toxic sludge is so under-priced, why isn’t Warren Buffet buying it ?” Turns out that Mr Buffet had a better idea, get the US Treasury to pay him to buy it — he’s one of the inventors of the Geithner plan. the WaPo reported […]