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

Why Is "Buy America" Okay for Banks, but Not Steel?

rdan Dean says: Why Is “Buy America” Okay for Banks, but Not Steel? Those damn protectionists in the Obama administration obviously don’t know anything about economics. How else can we explain the decision to require that the fund managers in their bank bailout plan must be headquartered in the United States. I can’t wait to […]

Fresh Air and Frank Partnoy

rdan Fresh Air and Terry Gross carried an interview with Frank Partnoy, a former trader and author of the 1997 book FIASCO: Blood in the Water on Wall Street, provides an interesting perspective and history.

Being sub-A, we try harder?

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.

Lady Liberty Douses Her Torch: Social Security and Immigration Policy

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 […]

Going to the Source

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. […]

Why is Obama asking for new power for the Treasury?

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 […]

If You Think I Believe it’s 1931 Again, You Should Ask the Greek Guy

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! […]