Hrmmmm….

Travelling for work, my roller carryon died. Looking for places which have cheap luggage turned up this: I wonder how old this entry for “Target” is…

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 […]

Just… Wow

By selecting Tim Geithner as his Treasury secretary, Barack Obama has opted for a figure who plausibly represents change while also offering a high degree of continuity with both the Paulson Treasury and its Clinton administration pre-decessors. Krishna Guha, Geithner ready for top job as Treasury chief, Financial Times, 2009-11-23 How can you read that […]

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 […]

Different Answers

A relative of mine once confided that he voted for Ronald Reagan barely more than a decade after he asked that copies of The Daily Worker be mailed to him in Vietnam. I asked him why he did so, and his answer was that he “was tired of feeling ashamed of being an American.” 28 […]

Didn't Take Long

48 hours later, and I’m already composing an apologia for Obama. Well, let’s get into it on Rahm Emanuel: I live in Chicago I contributed money to Obama’s campaign Emanuel is the representative for my district To be honest, the main reason I had for bothering to vote in the election before the bailout was […]

The Last Debate

Some random thoughts from the debate: I’ve twittered about this before, but I honestly am glad that Obama got a new projector for the Adler Planetarium. The planetarium is a monument in it’s own right, alongside the Museum of Science and Industry, the Shedd Aquarium, and the Field Museum; the longer it operates the better. […]

Pick A Side

Compare: In the years of its rise, the movement little by little brought the community’s attitude toward the teacher around from respect and envy to resentment, from trust to fear and suspicion. […] By 1933 at least five of my ten [Nazi] friends (and I think six or seven) looked upon “intellectuals” as unreliable, and […]

Notes on the Debate

[Disclosure: I live in Chicago, and have financially supported Obama already.] The first note is about the organization that McCain cited at the beginning of his speech, Citizens Against Government Waste. The one he was using as his citation for the 900-million-dollar figure he was hanging around Obama’s neck. They’ve are a lobbying organization, which […]

Elections

[Disclosure: I dropped a day’s pay on Obama’s campaign about a week before the pastor thing happened, and hope I never feel compelled to write about this election again.] Matt Taibbi is (as usual, and in spite of his ridiculous humping of Hunter Thompson’s legacy) repeatedly correct in his assessment of American politics as a […]