Robert Waldmann JimLuke argues that GM will almost certainly go bankrupt because … there may be thousands (perhaps even millions) of seperate bondholders, the vast majority have no voice in the negotiations. Instead, there is a “bondholders’ committee”. Who is on the committee? The “experts” and the large bondholders: primarily banks and bond funds. These […]
rdan NYT shouts out about Wagoner and GM. Chrysler must merge with Fiat? Wagoner needed to go in my opinion, but so do some of the bankers. When is that to happen? Perhaps Simon Johnson is more correct in his estimation of a captured financial/government combination than is discussed in detail to date. Here is […]
rdan Good News Economist suggests there is good news that many banks are still lending and were not caught in the crazy markets of sub-prime and CDOs. The story looks to be more complicated than just mega-banks and credit freezes.
rdan…lifted from comments by Movie Guy Key points from CBO’s analysis of implementing the President’s budgetary proposals. DEFICITS: “As estimated by CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation, the President’s proposals would add $4.8 trillion to the baseline deficits over the 2010–2019 period. CBO projects that if those proposals were enacted, the deficit would total […]
Robert Waldmann Due to a snarky suggestion from sammy, I actually read this pdf fact sheet from the Treasury about the Geithner plan (thanks again sammy). It was much less bad than I thought. Although he doesn’t like to disagree with Krugman, Maynard at Creative Destruction makes this argument (much more briefly and clearly than […]
rdan The following is the meme on the deficits for many Republicans. I do not recall any CBO thoughts being quoted so forcefully and completely on the budget by a Republican…or even mentioned much…in years. Supporters are tossing out the meme, usually with no numbers or per centages and a comparison. Prove it Mr. McCain, […]
Robert Waldmann This post about a post by Matthew Yglesias was, in part, motivated by a post by Ezra Klein on how he should’t care how many comments a post gets. I have noticed that posts with titles including either “soak the rich” or “Social Security” get lots of comments. I don’t want to horn […]
by Bruce Webb Social Security is typically discussed in static terms, that is it ‘will’ or ‘is projected’ to get to this state or that at some fixed point in the future. This I think is an artifact of ‘crisis’ being seen as the result of a known fixed event, namely Boomer Retirement. And it […]
rdan Associated Press carries some news on our perceptions and priorities. Now who HAS the money for more drugs…especially cocaine? Oh the irony! CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Want government assistance? Just say no to drugs. Lawmakers in at least eight states want recipients of food stamps, unemployment benefits or welfare to submit to random drug testing. […]
A heartfelt congratulations to the United State of Georgia (from whose namesake “University of” I got my Finance MBA), which today passed California in the battle for Most Failed Banks (9 v 8) in the past year. In fairness, California did not have a failure until July, while Georgia waited until August. The two states […]