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Is This an Accident?

Posted in Ben Bernanke, George W. Bush, Meltdown, Tim Geithner on November 12, 2009 | 4 Comments »

In the category of a stopped clock being right twice a day, the Senate seems to have come up with a compelling piece of bank regulation. I don’t like its chances to get passed, but it would be great for the nation:

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats circulated a plan Tuesday that would impose sweeping curbs on the Federal Reserve, posing the biggest legislative challenge to the central bank in decades and illustrating how divided Capitol Hill remains about the future of financial regulation.

The move is part of a broader 1,136-page proposal by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd aimed at rewriting how financial markets are overseen. It would create a single banking regulator, a powerful council of regulators to monitor systemic risks to the economy and a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to write and enforce rules on products such as mortgages and credit cards.

This bill has a number of good ideas, and one excellent principle: the Fed should be independent, even when it doesn’t want to be. (more…)

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Way Under the Radar

Posted in Corruption, George W. Bush, Health Care, Labor Policy, Meltdown, Obama, Transportation Policy on November 5, 2009 | 3 Comments »

I find it awfully difficult to care about county elections. Luckily, Ben Adler seems willing to look at them, and he picked up something interesting:

Unlike the New York City mayoral, or the Virginia governor’s race, there is a really bad sign for Democrats out of the East Coast:… Republicans made inroads in New York’s suburbs.

Why does this matter so much? Because the New York suburbs epitomize the new Blue America. Twenty-some-odd years ago, the economically diverse, but generally affluent, suburbs in Westchester and Long Island represented the success of the Reagan Revolution…But the New York suburbs led the way back to Democratic dominance, arguably presaging the Obama coalition.

I have written often about the strange alliance of very high and very low incomes that defines the modern Democratic party – the working class and the intellectual property class. It’s my version of “flat earth,” I suppose. So I’m a bit jealous that someone else spotted this. (more…)

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The Fierce Urgency of Something

Posted in Abortion, Ben Bernanke, Corruption, Dick Cheney, Education, Energy Policy, George W. Bush, Health Care, Immigration, Marriage Equality, Meltdown on November 4, 2009 | 4 Comments »

Even by off-cycle election standards, this was an odd one. Perhaps it’s just payback for such a good election last year. I’ll trade watching Chris Christie do his Sopranos impression for never having had to listen to this:

It’s been just 68 days since that afternoon in Dayton, Ohio, when Senator McCain introduced me as his running mate. He is truly the maverick. He took a chance on me. I will always be grateful for that. It will be the honor of a lifetime to work him as vice president of the United States. And I pledge to govern with integrity, and goodwill, and clear conviction, and a servant’s heart.

When the Democratic Party finishes licking its wounds, I hope it learns at least one lesson: when you win an election, you are expected to do something. Asking the genie for three more wishes is not something. (more…)

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Good Allies, Just Too Few

Posted in Finance, George W. Bush, Meltdown, Obama, Tim Geithner on October 23, 2009 | 8 Comments »

Not many people like the idea of breaking up financial institutions, but if I have to be part of a tiny minority, I’ll take this one:

“People say I’m old-fashioned and banks can no longer be separated from nonbank activity,” Mr. Volcker said, acknowledging criticism that he is nostalgic for an earlier era. “That argument,” he added ruefully, “brought us to where we are today.”

He may not be alone in his proposal, but he is nearly so…

Still, a handful side with Mr. Volcker, among them Joseph E. Stiglitz…“We would have a cleaner, safer banking system”

Is separating Boring from Exciting finance really that difficult? (more…)

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Spare the Rod

Posted in Domestic Policy, George W. Bush, Housing Crisis, Housing Policy, Industrial Policy, Labor Policy, Obama on October 20, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Two Russians, Ivan and Peter, struggle to survive in farm country. Eventually Ivan gets a goat. His life improves; he has milk and help with the grasses. A genie comes to Peter and says “I can grant you your deepest wish.” Peter is shocked. “You’re going to kill Ivan’s goat?”

That was always the gallows humor about Russia: the country was made for communism because the population was so consumed with envy that it preferred the company of mutual poverty.

I wonder if we couldn’t use a bit of that pessimism. At least some acceptance of finite resources that was not used as a blind support of the status quo. (more…)

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Market v Business

Posted in Ben Bernanke, Corruption, George W. Bush, Labor Policy, Meltdown, Obama, Tim Geithner on October 14, 2009 | 3 Comments »

Luigi Zingales has an excellent article for National Affairs that tries to place what has been so special about the American economic system…and why it is particularly vulnerable today:

Capitalism has long enjoyed exceptionally strong public support in the United States because America’s form of capitalism has long been distinct from those found elsewhere in the world — particularly because of its uniquely open and free market system. Capitalism calls not only for freedom of enterprise, but for rules and policies that allow for freedom of entry, that facilitate access to financial resources for newcomers, and that maintain a level playing field among competitors. The United States has generally come closest to this ideal combination — which is no small feat, since economic pressures and incentives do not naturally point to such a balance of policies. While everyone benefits from a free and competitive market, no one in particular makes huge profits from keeping the system competitive and the playing field level. True capitalism lacks a strong lobby.

That’s why it is such a shame that a government that should know better is so determined to ignore Stiglitz, Volker, and Johnson. (more…)

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Foxes Guarding the Henhouse

Posted in Food, Football, George W. Bush, Health Care, Meltdown, Obama, Tim Geithner on October 5, 2009 | 8 Comments »

The basic story is tragic if common: person eats food, person gets sick from food. In this case, the person was a young Minnesota dance instructor named Stephanie Smith, and the food was ground beef processed by Cargill in Wisconsin from sources in Nebraska, Texas, South Dakota, and Uraguay and contaminated with the E.coli bacteria, and sold at the local Sam’s Club.

People have been getting sick from food for all of human history; no doubt we were getting sick from food before we could fairly be said to be a species. Even with the best intentions, it will probably continue. But the diseases of the modern food supply – E.coli, salmonella, etc – are not inevitable. They wouldn’t exist at all – and Stephanie Smith wouldn’t be in a wheelchair – if our government functioned properly. These microbes are the canaries in the coal mine of a dysfunctional bureaucracy. (more…)

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Perspective

Posted in Dick Cheney, Foreigners, George W. Bush, Military, Obama, War on Terror on September 14, 2009 | 10 Comments »

Undeterred by his own attorney general and common sense, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon intends to prosecute Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, Douglas Feith, William Haynes, Jay Bybee, and David Addington (collectively, the “Bush Six”) for their role in providing the legal framework for Guantanamo:

On Saturday, however, Público reported that Judge Garzón had accepted a lawsuit presented by a number of Spanish organizations … and three former Guantánamo prisoners (the British residents Jamil El-Banna and Omar Deghayes, and Sami El-Laithi, an Egyptian freed in 2005, who was paralyzed during an incident involving guards at Guantánamo).

Spain? Welcome to Spain, Now Coup-Free for Twenty-Seven Years? The nation that had a Fascist dictator until 1975? Good work.

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Reform Week: Foreign Policy

Posted in Dick Cheney, Foreigners, George W. Bush, Middle East, Military, Obama, South Asia, War on Terror, Weapons of Mass Destruction on September 11, 2009 | 7 Comments »

Eight years.

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Uncomfortable

Posted in Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Obama, War on Terror, Weapons of Mass Destruction on September 2, 2009 | 25 Comments »

I hate Dick Cheney. I cannot imagine a more disgusting combination of power and venality in American politics. We have more than our share of scum over the years, but whether by luck or by horse sense we have managed to keep the worst of them out of high office. Sarah Palin lost. Ronald Reagan blew up the budget, but at least he had the basic sense not to let the Beiruts of the world distract him. Nixon and Kissinger and Johnson had plenty of flaws, but amazingly managed rise above the shenenigans that got them to high office by doing some good when they got there. And Dubya…well, seems hard to blame anyone who was this unable to comprehend his job: