Robert Waldmann I just read the pdf of Geithner’s new regulatory proposal. Generally pretty mild I’d say. Geithner is firmly of the view that firms should not be able to pick their regulators. He proposes a new regulator for “systemically important firms (rough definition like Lehman and AIG) which would decide which firms (including potentially […]

rdan Run 75441 comments on the WTO and US stimulus spending (lifted from comments): Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizens Global Trade Watch did a recent (March 12, 2009) report to the subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, “US Foreign Economic Policy in the Global Crisis.” Briefly this is what she is saying about banking […]

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 […]

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.

Via Instaputz, an explanation of why stealing tax dollars in order to decouple securities from the assets they are allegedly securitizing is A Really Stupid Idea, presented directly, yet also in a way an econometrician wiill understand.

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.

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

rdan Seeking Alpha has Felix Salmon, James Kwak, Brad Delong, and Mark Thoma in conversation on the Recovery Plan. Follow the link.