rdan John Dugan speaks: TESTIMONY OFJOHN C. DUGANCOMPTROLLER OF THE CURRENCYbefore theCOMMITTEE ON BANKING, HOUSING, AND URBAN AFFAIRSUNITED STATES SENATEMarch 19, 2009 It would not have the benefits of onsite examination and supervision and the very real leverage that bank supervisors have over the banks they regulate. That means, we believe, that compliance is likely […]

rdan Update: The thread devolved into rants on the part of some instead of making a point. Such writing dimishes whatever your position happened to be. Post from The Bell hat tip run75441 “Joshia’s Example” We Elected a Reformer, Not an Avenger. Then Josiah the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah […]

(I’m broadening the discussion now.)by Divorced one like Bush Define rich. Define rich! Define rich? That’s the come back every time the issue of raising the income tax on the rich come up. What is unsaid is: Go ahead. Define rich. I dare ya! (Triple dog dare at that.) Fine. I’ll accept the challenge. But, […]

Who said: The United States participated actively and effectively in the negotiation of the [1984 UN Convention on Torture] . It marks a significant step in the development during this century of international measures against torture and other inhuman treatment or punishment. Ratification of the Convention by the United States will clearly express United States […]

by Bruce Webb (Update 2 : Deleted Update 1.) Currently there is a lot of discussion about forming a new bipartisan Entitlements Commission modeled in part on the ‘Greenspan Commission’ of 1981-82 and partly on the Base ReAlignment Commission (BRAC). The idea is that you get people to agree on ‘Crisis’, then get a ‘bipartisan’ […]

This is excellent news. One important aspect is that Saez is very reality based, that is empirical. As you have noted from time to time, the economics profession has had a very high opinion of theory in which results are rigorously derived from clearly false assumptions. Saez is, as far as I can tell from […]

I’m just going to “Go Thoma” on him, since I can’t find anything to cut: Barack Obama tells us we should not investigate American intelligence agents or their overlings who are responsible for torturing hundreds of suspects in their custody. We have to forget about the past, he says, to concentrate our attention on the […]

by Bruce Webb Last month we were delivered alarming news from AEI: Slowdown Slashes Social Security Surplus illustrated with the table above in turn derived from this source SSA-Trust Fund Data. And sure enough if you followed the link and inserted Feb 2009 that is exactly what you would see. But what if you put […]

Greenwald on Harman. Read the whole thing. Sample: when the U.S. Government eavesdropped for years on American citizens with no warrants and in violation of the law, that was “both legal and necessary” as well as “essential to U.S. national security,” and it was the “despicable” whistle-blowers (such as Thomas Tamm) who disclosed that crime […]