Skip to content

Category Archives: Economics

Dooming us to repetition

Friday, March 27, 2009

Several days ago I wondered whether we really needed the various financial instruments that have led us into the mess in which we currently find ourselves. I am, at best, merely a relatively well informed citizen, but it has always appeared to me that these instruments serve no useful purpose. They simply allow their creators […]

Also filed in | | Comments (0)

Zero

Friday, March 27, 2009

Good web-ad from the DNC

Also filed in Video | | Comments (0)

Half Measures

Sunday, March 22, 2009

The headlines this morning were all about Obama’s intention to rein in executive pay as part of his overall plan to impose some order on the outlaw financial markets. There isn’t much detail because at the moment there isn’t much plan, but it seems pretty clear that they’re not thinking of doing much on the […]

Also filed in | | Comments (1)

Tax the Bastards (all the Bastards)

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Looks like there’s a bit of a disagreement among the financial writers at the Times. Yesterday Andrew Sorkin told us that we desperately need the folks who created this mess to get us out of it, so we should swallow hard and let them have their bonuses. But David Leonhardt is having none of it. […]

Also filed in | | Comments (1)

The sanctity of contracts and bonuses by other names

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

One of the drawbacks of being an evening blogger is that by the time you get a chance to put in your two cents on the morning news, most of what can be said has already been said. Nonetheless, let me add my mite to the chorus of outrage directed at Andrew Ross Sorkin of […]

Also filed in | | Comments (0)

AIG’s arm being twisted: It must give out big bonuses

Sunday, March 15, 2009

AIG insists that it has no choice but to give out huge bonuses to the folks who drove it right off a cliff. Besides contractual obligations, it has to retain the “best and the brightest” (I didn’t make that up) to assist it in clearing out the wreckage caused by the best and the brightest. […]

Also filed in | | Comments (0)

John Larson on cramdowns

Monday, March 9, 2009

A while back I mentioned that, according to Firedoglake, John Larson had lined up behind a “New Democrat” push to water down Obama’s bankruptcy cramdown proposal. I got an email from one his staff people, and we had a brief email exchange. According to the staffer: I wanted to inform you that Congressman Larson is […]

Also filed in Politics | | Comments (0)

Yet more on credit default swaps

Sunday, March 8, 2009

It is becoming crystal clear that, as Gretchen Morgenstern reports in today’s Times, the AIG bailout is in fact a backdoor bailout of the folks who purchased credit default swaps from AIG. The government has refused to disclose the names of these counterparties, but word is leaking out, and suffice it to say, the list […]

Also filed in | | Comments (0)

Jon Stewart hits the mark

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Just got back from Drinking Liberally and definitely not up to writing anything. Instead, I invite you to watch this clip from the Daily Show. It’s must viewing.

Also filed in Media | | Comments (0)

Cramdowns

Monday, March 2, 2009

Firedoglake is sounding the alarm about the “New Democrats”, many of whom are still taking their marching orders from the banks who have brought us to the brink, if not into the vortex, of disaster. In this case, the chief villain is Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, a former Wall Street investment banker who is carrying water […]

Also filed in Democrats | | Comments (1)