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

Regulation matters

by reader Movie Guy I reviewed the OMB Watch list of proposed and final rules. If approved and published in the Federal Register, it is possible if not likely that some will be reversed. Unfortunately, OMB Watch doesn’t appear to provide government links necessary to follow up and monitor further actions. So, here are some […]

"A Man With a Briefcase Can Steal More Money than any Man with a Gun"

Ken Houghton I would prefer not to talk about AIG, especially since we already have two posts on it today: Robert brilliantly puts it into context, while DOLB goes for blood. But the Gorgeous, Brilliant, and Talented BessNormally-not-this-astute-or-succinct Equity Private posted the perfect summary. And Floyd Norris is on fire as to why this move, […]

In Which I Say Something Nice about Lawrence Summers

Ken Houghton Via Brad DeLong, we find Sheryl Sandberg trying to rehabilitate Lawrence Summers’s professional reputation with respect to women. She opens with: Larry has been a true advocate for women throughout his career. In 1992, as Chief Economist of the World Bank, Larry argued in front of the world’s Finance Ministers that the highest […]

Fed Stonewalling details

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism has a topic we should be keeping an eye on over time, as does CR. Bloomberg now suing in court under the Freedom of Information Act for aggregate information concerning types of collateral being used for collateral with the $1.5 trillion authorized by Congress. The books from Treasury are being […]

Is David Leonhardt pretending Henry Paulson did his job?

Or does he know better? This year’s election coincided with an important moment in the financial crisis. The credit markets have stabilized in the last few weeks and even improved a bit. But the rest of the economy is deteriorating fairly rapidly. It’s now in danger of falling into a vicious spiral, in which spending […]

Election Story Interlude

In contrast to Mankiw’s attitude (see cactus’s post below*), my favorite election story of the year comes from Ms. Mochi_tsuki: So they started explaining to me what an absentee ballot is and how to fill one out. I pointed out that I’d spent 11 years of my adult life overseas and was very familiar with […]

Is Douglas Holtz-Eakin still an economist?

Via Dr. Black, we get CNN reporting: Younger, healthier workers likely wouldn’t abandon their company-sponsored plans, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s senior economic policy adviser. “Why would they leave?” said Holtz-Eakin. “What they are getting from their employer is way better than what they could get with the credit.” And why is it better? Because of […]

You Can Lead a Horse’s Arse to Water, but…

You can’t make him think—or own to loan. Krugman notes: [L]ast week Joe Nocera of The Times pointed out a key weakness in the U.S. Treasury’s bank rescue plan: it contains no safeguards against the possibility that banks will simply sit on the money. “Unlike the British government, which is mandating lending requirements in return […]

Follow-up to the previous spam

The Nigerians appear to be back, sending me the same e-mail as before, clearly in desperation: My Friends, I hope you’ll take the time today to read the email below from Governor Palin. I guess everyone else had my reaction. (As an aside, am I the only one who sees “My Friends” at the opening […]