Frustrated Tirade
Obama campaign on McNasty:
"On a day when the markets are plunging and the credit crisis is putting millions of jobs at risk, the one truly angry candidate in this race kept up his strategy of 'turning the page' on the economy by unleashing another frustrated tirade against Barack Obama. And if John McCain is wondering why he's lost his credibility, he should look no further than the out-of-context quote he took from a 2007 speech in which Barack Obama warned of the subprime crisis we're now facing. Since then, John McCain has called for less regulation no fewer than 20 times, proving that he hasn't learned any lessons from the last banking scandal he was involved in and would give us more of the same failed economic policies as President," said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.
They Lost A Lot Of Money
Spending the day watching CNBC, it's really quite stunning that they're unable to grapple with the real problem underlying all of this instead of the consequences of that problem. There's been a tremendous evaporation of housing wealth as a consequence of the bursting of the housing bubble. Lots of banks made bad loans and that money isn't coming back. Dealing with home foreclosures is time consuming and expensive and a lot of houses are underwater. Other people lost money insuring mortgages. Still more people lost money buying up those mortgages. Still more people lost money lending to people to buy up more mortgages. Even more people lost money insuring those loans. Etc.
All of this babble about liquidity and short selling and blah blah blah just obfuscates all of this. A big reason that there is a liquidity problem is that... people lost a lot of money. All gone!
Dow Politics
If we remember way back to about 2-3 weeks ago, Hank Paulson was promising that there would be NO MORE BAILOUTS. Then, suddenly, we needed a giant BAILOUT RIGHT NOW. The media typically responded by using the
Dow as a proxy for the economy/magnitude of the crisis in order to help hype the necessity of a massive bailout. And since the bailout passed, the Dow has tanked.
Deep Thought
Too early for 3rd bailout?
Health Care
I'm sure most of my readers understand that McCain's "plan" for health care is pretty much The Worst Fucking Idea Since Invading Iraq, but just in case you aren't convinced
here's Krugman.
It's Yurp's Fault
Gelling narrative on CNBC seems to be that Europe, unlike the US, has failed to "solve the problem" in a comprehensive fashion.
Clogged Tubes
My email is jammed today. FYI.
Congestion
Since the point isn't made clearly often very often, the point of
congestion pricing is that congestion is an
unpriced negative externality. It isn't simply that roads shouldn't be free, it's that traffic volumes, especially at peak hours, are greater than what they would be at a social optimum. The point is that when you get on a highway or enter a crowded city at peak traffic times, you're slowing down traffic just a little bit for everyone else on the road at that time. Because people don't take that extra social cost into account when they get on the road, there are "too many" drivers on the road. Congestion pricing is a way of converting wasted "waiting in traffic time" into money which could be spent on SUPERTRAINS or whatever, along with reducing the excess traffic by aligning private/social costs of driving more closely.
Deep Thought
I guess it's time for another bailout.
Morning Thread
My newspapers are full of crises. Some restoration of confidence.Â
Our Neighbors
So absurd.
SAN FRANCISCO - Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin called Afghanistan “our neighboring country†on Sunday in a speech that could revive questions over her tendency to stumble into linguistic knots.rtx95kp.jpg
Three days after a mostly gaffe-free debate performance, the Alaska governor fumbled during a speech in which she praised U.S. soldiers for “fighting terrorism and protecting us and our democratic valuesâ€.
“They are also building schools for the Afghan children so that there is hope and opportunity in our neighboring country of Afghanistan,†she told several hundred supporters at a fundraising event in San Francisco.
In her defense, she probably was including our 51st state, Iraq, as part of our country. In reality's defense, that would still make her wrong.
but...but...but...
Tom Brokaw agreed
this was ancient history that happened when
John McCain was in his 50s.
MR. YEPSEN: This is where the primary has been useful to Barack Obama. We’ve heard about William Ayers. We heard about it from the Clinton people, and we heard about it as part of the rough and tumble there. So it’s kind of an old story to a lot of people. And two can play this game. And this is where I agree with Peggy. This could go on a real bad turn here because we may be starting to hear about Charles Keating. I mean, if we want to talk about...
MS. NOONAN: Oh, of course we are. Of course.
MR. YEPSEN: ...Barack Obama’s negatives, John McCain has some, too. We can start hearing about those. He’s...
MR. BROKAW: John—we have to keep explaining to everyone—that Charles Keating was the Arizona developer with whom John McCain had an, a, a strong relationship, and then he got in a lot of trouble. He was prosecuted by the Feds, and John McCain said, “I made a terrible mistake here.†Yeah.
MR. YEPSEN: And it’s all ancient history, Tom.
MR. BROKAW: Yeah.