Al Gore

Remember that line from An Inconvenient Truth, shortly after the animation of Lower Manhattan underwater, about how there are more things than just terrorism to be concerned about? Turns out that’s even more prescient (via) than he was likely aware at the time.

Cooler, Wiser

Clearly, any specific assistance [to ailing financial institutions] will have to include penalties for those managers who have left their institutions overexposed. Central bank credibility in enforcing these penalties will go a long way in limiting moral hazard. Raghuram Rajan in 2005, explaining how to pick up the pieces after the 2008 financial collapse (via […]

Completely Unaware

“I hope the best and the brightest who will be joining the new president will at least entertain the possibility that a lot of what they think they know is wrong,” [Serial Errorist William] Kristol added. Theresa Cook and Kate Barrett, An Economic Transition, A Political Dance, ABC News My question: why is anyone pretending […]

Vision

Obama is asking for ideas, and while I have no faith that they will go anywhere, I sent one in anyways. Namely, I’d like to see a sovereign wealth fund ultimately responsible to the Treasury, under advisement of Commerce and Labor. The mandate for the organization would include: Ensuring restored market liquidity by sheer force […]

Madness, Madness

Today the Bush administration and the Treasury department are trying to rush the Congress into the steeply priced financial sector bailout. This plan calls for the U.S. treasury to purchase all the bad debt surrounding the sub-prime derivatives crater, with a current price-tag $700,000,000,000. I for one, would not be surprised if that figure was […]