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It is easy to indict the American people for conniving at fast and loose behavior on Wall Street, but there is a danger that blaming everyone means no one is to blame. According to the “blame everyone” line of reasoning, Americans became addicted to the easy credit from Wall Street, becoming so greedy in the process that they [...]
Filed under: Economics
McCain denounces “fat cats.” Obama fumes about “predatory lending” and promises to “punish those who set this fire.” It’s easier to heap polemics on bankers than to chastise sinners in the hands of an angry market—especially when you’re angling for their votes. But mortgage-backed securities only become toxic if borrowers break their word. It’s bad [...]
Filed under: Economics, Uncategorized
Apparently, my feeble attempt at humor at the end of this post fell flat. So for the benefit of Tom Piatak, let me clarify: I wasn’t criticizing Daniel Larison for not endorsing Obama, or even seriously asking him why he didn’t. I would have thought that was obvious after I absurdly claimed that “Larison’s views [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized
I just wandered over to Takimag where I hoped to penetrate the bizarre graphics to get Pope Benedict’s analysis of the global meltdown. Alas, His Holiness has not yet spoken out on the issue beyond his indictment of materialism that came out last week. Glancing up the screen, I noticed an amazon banner ad featuring a handsome stainless steel Breville [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized
Philip Blond, a young British academic, today issues this stirring plea for more localism. He appeals to David Cameron’s Conservative Party to tend to the economic roots of British society. This passage is striking,
Filed under: Economics
On Sept. 30, 1938, 70 years ago, Neville Chamberlain visited Adolf Hitler’s apartment in Munich, got his signature on a three-sentence declaration and flew home to Heston Aerodrome.
“I’ve got it,” he shouted to Lord Halifax. “Here is a paper which bears his name.” At the request of George VI, Chamberlain was driven to Buckingham Palace, [...]
Remember Monica Goodling? Take a good, long look, because make no mistake, you are seeing Washington in a future McCain Administration.
One won’t have a hard time catching up to speed because Goodling’s name is in the headlines again. She is the former senior counsel to the former U.S Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who resigned last [...]
From an unbroadcast interview on the financial crisis with CNBC:
Palin: “For close to a week, they were my next-door neighbors in New York City, and I could actually see Wall Street from from my hotel room”
Q: “Explain why that enhances your economic policy credentials.”
A: “Well, it certainly does because our – our next [...]
Governor Palin and her dad talk to Katie Couric about their apparent disagreement over whether they should announce their intention to send U.S. forces into Pakistan or just start the war without telling anybody. Watch McCain as Palin speaks–you can practically hear him thinking, “What have I done? Is it too late to put Lieberman [...]
Reader Conradg asks Daniel Larison, “Why not just suck it up, be a mensch, and vote Obama?” Larison’s views on Obama have until now been cryptic and indecipherable, so he has attempted to clarify them: “Because Obama holds disgraceful and indefensible views? How about that?”
Larison, more than any single individual has convinced me that there [...]