Simon Johnson at Baseline Scenario on the dangers of the piecemeal government intervention: Boris Fyodorov, the late Russian Minister of Finance who struggled for many years against corruption and the abuse of authority, could be blunt. Confusion helps the powerful, he argued. When there are complicated government bailout schemes, multiple exchange rates, or high inflation, [...]
Archive for March 5th, 2009
Already Happening
Posted in Corruption, Meltdown, Obama on March 5, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Procedure v. Justice
Posted in Marriage Equality on March 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
On the other side of the country from the Wall Street meltdown, it was time today for arguments in the Prop 8 case (Strauss v. Horton, for those keeping score at home). Proposition 8 is the ballot initiative that blocks same-sex marriages in California. It is hateful, gross, and counterproductive – if marriage is something [...]
Fair Value
Posted in Meltdown on March 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Glad to see this creeping its way into the mainstream. WFC wasn’t any better than Citi or BAC. How could they have been – their core franchise is retail banking in California, which means they lend against California houses and California incomes (credit cards). But they have been better at covering their sins, because while [...]
Tubes
Posted in Foreigners, Meltdown, Miscellaneous, Television on March 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
For the finance folks watching our careers go down the tubes (from Freakanomics):
Time Travel
Posted in Foreigners, Miscellaneous on March 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
What a strange country. A thousand years of stiff upper lip ends with the Diana car crash, and now they decide they want to imitate Osaka schoolgirls circa 1983?
Iceland
Posted in Foreigners, Meltdown on March 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
From the good folks at the Idea Locker, this article by Michael Lewis on Iceland: Back away from the Icelandic economy and you can’t help but notice something really strange about it: the people have cultivated themselves to the point where they are unsuited for the work available to them. All these exquisitely schooled, sophisticated [...]
Principal and Principle
Posted in Housing Crisis, Housing Policy on March 5, 2009 | 4 Comments »
The NYT has another proposal to grant mortgage relief – write down the principal as well as the interest of people whose houses are underwater or near underwater. For subprime and other non-prime loans, which account for more than half of all foreclosures, the best thing to do for the homeowners and for the bondholders [...]
