10 days That Changed Capitalism

Aside from the fact this week's events seem not much different in net effect from the S&L Bailout in the late '80's, I would concur that it undercuts just about every sweeping statement about the Market.

10 days That Changed Capitalism

The world has changed. The market fundamentalism that has dominated our economics over last three decades has been unmasked as a sham, deemed useless by the guardian of the integrity of finance itself, the Federal Reserve.

Without a vote of the Congress or a public debate, the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve have made government the guarantor of the shadow banking system – the unregulated, unhinged hedge funds and investment houses whose compulsive excesses now threaten the global economy. They say necessity is the mother of invention, but we seen only a part of the new machine, not surprisingly, the part that buttresses Wall Street. They have scrambled to put this together in an emergency, behind closed doors, without a hint of the necessary regulatory changes that must rationally accompany such guarantees.
link, more

For My Daughters

Milton Friedman Finds Work at the WPA

A nugget for sure:

After graduating, Friedman was unable to find academic employment, so in 1935, he followed his friend W. Allen Wallis to Washington, D.C., where Roosevelt's New Deal was "a lifesaver" for many young economists. At this stage, Friedman said that he and his wife "regarded the job-creation programs such as the WPA, CCC, and PWA appropriate responses to the critical situation".

"...the New Deal was a lifesaver for us personally,” he and his wife recalled in their memoir.

Krugman Nicely Sums Up

From today's NYT

But Mr. Obama, instead of emphasizing the harm done by the other party’s rule, likes to blame both sides for our sorry political state. And in his speeches he promises not a rejection of Republicanism but an era of postpartisan unity.

That — along with his adoption of conservative talking points on the crucial issue of health care — is why Mr. Obama’s rise has caused such division among progressive activists, the very people one might have expected to be unified and energized by the prospect of finally ending the long era of Republican political dominance.

Why I Excuse Hillary for Her Vote on Iraq, part 2

Joe Wilson just posted an article on the Huffington Post scrutinzing Obama's stance:

Obama's Hollow "Judgment" and Empty Record

Obama plans to pick Republicans for cabinet

Oh dear, as I suspected:

Obama plans to pick Republicans for cabinet

Again, I have mixed feelings about this, having lived through Bill Clinton's attempt to reach across the aisle in the early '90's combined with the most blatant partisanship of the Republicans over the past 7, no 15 years.

Reaffirms the reason I sided with Hillary.

For a viewpoint from a similarly skeptical Obama backer, see: Sadly No.