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

How Not to Build a Bailout Proposal

Let’s see. There are a bunch of people ready to riot on the streets—or at least do the White Person version of rioting and vote Republican, mainly because of the lies of several House Republicans. And there are a precious few people who believe action needs to be taken and—while they might prefer, say, The […]

A Brief Interlude/PSA

by Ken Houghton My article for Institutional Investor on the investment opportunities available in Emerging Markets Infrastructure, most especially in water and sanitation, is available on their website (subscribers only, it appears). UPDATE: For those looking for discussions of water and sanitation that are not gated, angrybear frequently discusses the subjects.

Toned-Down?

L’Shana Tovah, and let’s talk about something near and dear to Fox News’s heart: the evil Canadian press. CBC has apologized for an opinion piece: In the article, Mallick said Palin appeals to “the white trash vote” with her “toned-down version of the porn actress look.” To make matters worse, the apology includes a glorious […]

The Coming Harvest

by Ken Houghton Claudia asks the question of the day of the previous post: When you say “the coming harvest” are you speaking from a purely literal standpoint, or are you also speaking metaphorically? I was starting from the literal. When you get to the consequences, then you get to think Buffy the Vampire Slayer. […]

Republicano Delenda est *

by Ken Houghton Brad DeLong lays out the breakdown. When 2/3 of your party believes that taking the Dow down 600 750+ points is a Good Idea, claims such as “the party of fiscal responsibility”—or even the “party of Wall Street”—fail the free market test Big Time. If I weren’t worried about the coming harvest, […]

Panic, not even at the Disco

UPDATE: Not even the Wall Street Journal editorial page fell for McCain’s “reasoning”: So count us as mystified by Senator John McCain’s decision yesterday to suspend his campaign and call for a postponement in Friday’s first Presidential debate so that he and Barack Obama can work out a consensus bill to stabilize the financial system. […]

Now is the time to start worrying

Remember that plan of Patrick Ruffini’s, that McCain should run against whatever plan is developed: For McCain and other Republicans, voting “no” on Paulson without accepting the consequences of that vote is the political equivalent of a bottomless crack pipe: it will please the conservative “base,” distance them from both Bush and “Washington,” and let […]

Floyd Norris points out another reason the bailout will not work

Take a page from Douglas North et al., I will simply note that if the institutions charged with managing the process are corrupt, the chance of success approaches zero. Case in point, Christopher Cox (R-BoughtAndPaid) and the SEC: The interesting thing here is that we have already heard that the S.E.C. staff almost immediately demanded […]