Are Obama and McCain playing politics right now? Of course they are; is the Pope Catholic? What’s far more interesting to me is how they’re playing, and what this reveals about their natures.
Continue reading →Bush’s speech last night was a good attempt to explain in relatively simple terms how we got here and what Bush thinks should be done. I’ve started to visualize the whole meltdown this way:
Continue reading →I know that a certain number of these bad mortgages were made in response to initiatives started in the 90s to allow low-income families who otherwise couldn’t afford homes to own them. But what percentage of the current crisis involves … Continue reading →
Send this to everyone you know. It’s short and sweet. This is also worth a view. Or two. [Hat tip: The Anchoress.]
Continue reading →Here’s Cristopher Caldwell in Financial Times on the origins of the current financial crisis: In a sense, the public has willed its way into government intervention by entertaining socialist expectations of a capitalist economy. Housing values were not supposed to … Continue reading →
Here’s today’s market bulletin from that newly-minted financial “expert” of the day, neo-neocon. This comment from reader “John F. Opie” got me thinking about how the practice known as fair value accounting enters the current picture (see this for Opie’s … Continue reading →
How did all these brilliant economic minds, and our dedicated public servants in Congress and the White House, fail to foresee and prevent the current fiscal crisis? My take on the matter is not the opinion of an expert; au … Continue reading →
The Feds decided that sometimes there can be too much tough love, and so a creative loan was cobbled together for failing AIG. Even most fiscal conservatives seem to think AIG was too big to let sink; it could have … Continue reading →
Love that Pelosi. Rangel’s woes? Nothing much to see there; moving right along. ‘ Democrat involvement in the long and complex build-up to the current subprime mortgage crisis? Nah; it’s all the Republicans’ fault, according to Pelosi. Forget history, forget … Continue reading →
The current financial crisis proves the maxim that there’s no free lunch—or rather, there may seem to be a free lunch, but the bill is merely deferred, and ultimately it comes due with interest. How is it that all these … Continue reading →
I’ve said several times that economics is one of my weakest areas. But there are a few things I do know about the current crisis, and here are three of them: there’s a lot of greed out there, loans were … Continue reading →
It seems as though it must have been an awfully good life: a long one filled with accomplishments, a happy marriage, and countless friends. Milton Friedman, who died today, was the economist nearly everyone’s heard of, the architect of libertarian … Continue reading →