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 →
Credit and bailouts and homes and watery analogies
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 →
These are my questions about subprime mortgages
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 loans of this particular type?
And what percentage involves people who actually have a good income and could afford some sort of decent home but who bought a far more luxurious home beyond their means, counting on refinancing when the value of their home inevitably [sic] went up?
And what percentage involves speculators who bought homes other than primary family residences, hoping to flip and make a quick profit?
And what percentage of each type of mortgagee ended up defaulting?
And is there any way to discover any of this?
It seems that if blame is to be apportioned and remedies found, we need to better know what we’ve been dealing with here.
On intellectuals vs. doers: Palin and Truman
I’ve long admired Victor Davis Hanson’s work. In this piece, one of his very best, he nails those who think academic credentials are the true indication of intelligence.
Hanson’s background growing up in rural California, combined with his stellar university career and experience with professorial types, combine to give him an unusual perspective on the comparison between the two worlds and what sort of intellect is demonstrated by those in each sphere.
The impetus for the Hanson piece is the astonishing condescension—and downright contempt—displayed by so many supposedly well-educated people towards Sarah Palin because of her alleged lack of brainpower and her non-elite education. Continue reading →
A short history of Congress, Democrats, Republicans, Fannie, and Freddie
Send this to everyone you know. It’s short and sweet.
This is also worth a view. Or two.
[Hat tip: The Anchoress.]
Democrats and Republicans: losses, explanations, and excuses
It’s been shaping up for quite some time now—the Democrat explanation in the event of an Obama loss.
Of course, if Obama should win the election—a distinct possiblity—excuses will not come into play. It will be the Republicans who will have to regroup. But in the case of Republicans I think there will be no mystery: Bush’s enormous unpopularity, and the tendency of Americans to want change after many years of a single party in office, are explanation enough. Some will also feel that Republicans would do better to run a “true” Conservative, whatever that is. Whether correct or not, this is at least a theory that has to do with issues and political philosophy.
When Dukakis lost in 1988 Democrats seemed to be fairly realistic in their reactions, perhaps helped along by the fact that his loss was so definitive. Continue reading →
Biden speaks
This sort of thing is why I kinda sorta like Joe Biden.
But not enough to vote for him.
France2 libel case update
For those who have followed the France2/Karsenty/Al Durah libel trial, Richard Landes has some encouraging news.
The spectacle…
…of Chris Dodd sanctimoniously presiding over the hearings on the current economic crisis when in fact he should be one of the people being interrogated for his own role in it is enough to make me grind my teeth.
Neanderthals and baseball
I’ve long had a soft spot in my heart for Neanderthals.
The ancient ones, that is, those early humans who’ve gotten a bad rap as powerful heavy-browed vulgarians, but about whose culture we really know very little, and who seem to have buried their dead and perhaps had speech.
In college I took a physical anthropology course in which the professor was strongly in the camp of those who felt Neanderthals had interbred with the more modern Cro-Magnons to produce us. This idea comforted me. For some reason I preferred that a tiny spark of Neanderthal survive than that the entire group, dominant and widespread for hundreds of thousands of years, be totally obliterated leaving no issue whatsoever. Continue reading →
Waiting for Obama
Obama is keeping mum on the details of what he thinks of all the financial plans swirling around lately, or what he would propose if he were President in these trying times.
If you’re already an Obama fan you probably think this is evidence of his lofty post-partisan superiority as well as his depth of thought. And perhaps it is. But this would be easier to believe if he didn’t have such a long history of protecting himself—and his status as a blank slate on which people can project their dreams—from commitment. Continue reading →
That demanding public
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 fall and neither were any of the investments for which they served as collateral. Once enough citizens collateralise their investments with the roof over their heads, and once it becomes impossible to disentangle mortgages from other investment instruments, then the ordinary, healthy working of creative destruction will drive thousands of small-time investors from their homes. Small-time investors won’t tolerate it. Almost every institution in the financial sector, big or not so big, looks too important to fail.
Interesting. Was “the public” as a whole entertaining socialist expectations that they would be protected from ever losing a home for default on a mortgage, or from housing prices ever dropping? I’ve heard this said not just by Caldwell, but by many others. Continue reading →