Category Archives: Politics

Administration Self Delusion Rises to New Levels

I normally steer clear of politics, but this item demanded comment. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Bush Administration, in a Wednesday speech to veterans, will draw parallels between Vietnam and Iraq to justify staying in Vietnam: In a departure from his standard Iraq rhetoric, Mr. Bush will directly compare the Iraq conflict to […]

Has Smoke and Mirrors Worked?

In an inspired bit of stagecraft, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd reported today on a meeting with Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury secretary Henry Paulson that the Fed stood ready to use “all of the tools at his disposal” to address the current money market liquidity meltdown and general credit market distress. This […]

Man Bites Dog (Federal Reserve Edition)

The New York Times’ Floyd Norris, in “In This Mess, Finger Pointing Is in Style,” discussed who might be responsible for the subprime woes and included this tidbit: Who’s to blame for the subprime mortgage mess? It’s the lenders, says William Poole, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. As he sees […]

Drug Prices Falling

MarketWatch reports tonight that this year is showing the smallest year-to-year increase in retail drug prices since 1995. I happened to catch a buddy who is an FDA lawyer/biomedical engineer and before that, worked for the National Institutes of Health and one of Big Pharmas. She attributes the slowdown in price increases to three things […]

Sarbox Not Responsible for Decline in New York Market Competitiveness

Although I haven’t followed the debate over New York-London market competitiveness that closely, it was clear when the study on the US’s standing was commissioned, the sponsors already knew what answers they wanted to report, and emasculating Sarbanes-Oxley (Sarbox or SOX) was an idee fixe. It didn’t seem to occur to people like Hank Paulson […]

The Environment: China’s Achilles Heel?

My Japanese friends have often said that China has a 5,000 year history of not living up to its potential. When I’ve passed that view along to Westerners, they’ve scoffed, viewing the Chinese juggernaut to be unstoppable. The Japanese may yet be proven correct. This post at Gristmill points to an article by Christina Larson […]

Congress vs. Bernanke on Borrower Protection

A good old-fashioned showdown is set for this week between the Congress and the Fed. Congressmen are hoppin’ mad at the Fed’s failure not only to act to stem overheated and sometimes predatory subprime lending, but also its patent lack of enthusiasm in doing anything to keep this and other predatory practices from recurring. And […]

New York Times Takes Conservative Line on "Populism"

I continue to be amazed at how the use of language has gotten skewed in America. “Conservative” and “liberal” were once descriptive (or at least the degree to which they were pejorative depended on who was using the term). Today, “conservative” means “responsible” and “liberal” is “out to get the rich and destroy the economy.” […]

"Grand Obstructionist Party"

Normally, we stick close to our finance and markets knitting, but we thought this item was important enough to warrant making an exception. Wonder why the Democrats have gotten nothing done in Congress despite their convincing victory last fall? PGL at Angry Bear pointed to this revealing and disheartening post at The Carpetbagger: Does it […]

"Peculiar Libertarian Beliefs"

A little weekend levity, courtesy Economic Investigations: That recessions are always and everywhere caused by the government. (That’s because they mostly know only one theoretical account/scenario for such an event.) That the seigniorage caused by a 3% annual rate of inflation plays a big role in politics and that it’s big enough to motivate a […]

Market and Government Co-Dependence

The notion that markets need rules, and therefore rulemakers, which generally implies some form of government oversight, is anathema to libertarians. But as we have stressed before, the markets that the public at large thinks of as well-functioning, like the US stock markets, are in fact highly regulated and would not exist without it. So […]

Debunking the Notion That Unions Hurt Productivity

A neat little analysis by Ross Eisenbrey at the Economic Policy Institute may be difficult for union foes to explain away. It shows the proportion of workers covered by collective bargaining agreements in major European countries and the US and then shows productivity growth country by country in the same group 1979-2005. Despite being the […]