Brad DeLong has the breakdown of things taken out of the no-longer-possible-to-defend-as-stimulating stimulus bill. Nice to see that no Republican, and precious few Democratic Senators, believe in following even Andrew Samwick’s tepid endorsement: Congress and the Obama Administration should be very discriminating in what they will spend money on. Bailout money for banks and large […]
I’ve said before that the “Buy American” provisions in the stimulus bill were not exactly a major issue. (I believe the phrase was roughly, “could drive a broken Mexican truck through the holes, even if dead drunk.”) Many economists (hi, Barkley) disagreed, even while some acknowledged that the income effect from “buying American” would be […]
Duff and Phelps, which tends to be the rating agency you go to if S&P or Moody’s won’t rate you highly enough, provides a convenient evaluation table (p. 22 of this report) for the marvelous negotiating techniques and acquisition skills of the previous Administration. Since the current Administration is now threatening to continue with the […]
I was pontificating earlier today about how many of the now-unemployed Financial Services workers were, in a previous life, engineers of one stripe or another, and if we’re going to be doing things with the stimulus bill such as re-engineer the power grid, some of them may well decide to return to their previous life. […]
DeLong body-slams Mankiw. Especially like this: Mankiw: The CEA website should also post a notice about CEA internships, as we had during my tenure as CEA chair, so students can find out how to apply. DeLong: “Let me, for one, state that I am very glad that Christie Romer has been too busy since her […]
Those of you who want to argue that something being “just symbolism” are invited to consider the fate of “Aid to Families with Dependent Children.” AFDC is clear and precise. It tells us that we are helping a specific set of people: Families with Dependent Children. Not just the father and the mother, but the […]
Lukas Foss has died. He’s one of those composers/conductors who lead the way to contemporary classical music. More honored than beloved, his reputation will, I expect, improve with time.
This gives a much better perspective on the events of noon on 20 January 2009 than the feed CNN sent up here to the Great White North.
I am reliably informed (though I cannot find it on the web) that Forbes yesterday and MSNBC today are both referring to the next kleptocratic maneuverbank bailout bill as the Bank Asset Recovery Fund. Anyone got the links? UPDATE: Forbes link added. UPDATE II: The consensus in comments appears to be that a Meredith Whitney […]
Dr. Black graciously asks: Am I the only to whom it’s occurred that monetary policy through the banking channel (as opposed to, say, actually dropping money from helicopters) is only likely to be effective if banks are pretty good at allocating capital efficiently, and recent history tells us that the existing set of clowns in […]