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So it appears. We may be in the process of measuring a macroeconomic variable once proposed by J.K. Galbraith: the “bezzle.”
Archive for the ‘Garbage pail’ Category
December 3rd, 2008
Category: Garbage pail
Hank Paulson has decided that the answer to the crisis caused by the collapse of the housing bubble is to re-inflate the bubble.
November 20th, 2008
It could be worse. Thank heaven for the Twentieth Amendment.
October 12th, 2008
Category: Garbage pail
… as best I can make it out: 1. Buy equity in banks. 2. Guarantee interbank loans, for a fee. 3. Demand board seats. 4. Limit executive compensation. The government reps on the boards can help limit the moral hazard problem that would otherwise arise from guaranteeing the debt of insolvent banks: their managers have [...]
October 10th, 2008
Category: Garbage pail
Paulson moves to recapitalize banks. Non-voting equity purchases by the government, complementary to new private capital. And the Europeans, having had their fill of yukking it up about the stupid Yankees and our financial crisis, are now on board. Maybe Iceland’s bankruptcy concentrated some minds. It’s an ill wind … Oil closed below $80. A [...]
October 6th, 2008
Category: Built Environment, Economics, Garbage pail, Good news, Macroeconomic Policy, Politics and Leadership
This is written as the Dow is sinking almost 7% through about 9600, after a similar day on foreign markets. The judgment of investors isn’t the rousing endorsement of the bailout some had hoped for. And Floyd Norris passes on the following CNN poll result: As you may know, the U.S. went through a depression [...]
October 1st, 2008
Category: Garbage pail
The LA Times has an interesting piece today on Paulson’s botched sales job on the bailout/rescue package. (h/t Yglesias). Clearly, the White House’s strategy here was tin-eared. Not only did it not reach out to interest groups and Congress, but it wrote a plan that just gave the Executive untrammeled and unreviewable authority to play [...]
October 1st, 2008
Category: Garbage pail
Most people seem to agree that the old Freddie/Fannie structure was the worst of all possible worlds: no government control, but an implicit government guarantee. Where they disagree is where we move from here. Not surprisingly, progressives say that we should return them to their earlier structure, when they were government entities (as they are [...]
September 29th, 2008
Category: Garbage pail, Watching Conservatives
Stopped-clock Department: a sharp-eyed reader points me to Jonathan Weisman of the Washington Post, who, after reporting House Republicans’ frantic search for smelling salts in regard to Nancy Pelosi’s speech, notes: In truth, few Republicans were on the floor to hear that speech, and those who were there showed no signs of discomfort, as they [...]
September 29th, 2008
Category: Garbage pail
I think that this qualifies: Yesterday, Bush called nearly every member of Texas’s Republican delegation, GOP aides said. He reached four of the 19. Four out of 19? Fifteen either didn’t take the call or refused to call back? Wow. I think it’s safe to say that the days of “shock and awe” are over.