Props to Obama

by Roger Koppl

Obama has been a bitter disappointment to me, though not really a surprise.  He is skilled at signaling goodness while concentrating benefits and dispersing costs.  That’s the norm for elected officials, especially at his level.  Bush was an exception because he was only mediocre at signaling goodness and yet a genius at increasing state power.  Still you gotta give Obama your props when he deserves them.  His statement on the prize was beautiful.  That’s the Obama I voted for!  Too bad that’s not the Obama making real choices as this Toronto Star op ed by Haroon Siddiqui chronicles.

In Defense of Reasonable Ideology

 

 

by Mario Rizzo

 

There have been many statements recently to the effect that we should not let “ideology” or “philosophy” stand in the way of solving our economic problems.  Indeed, the Obama Administration (and the previous Bush Administration) are keen to persuade us to drop all of this prejudice and to go after each problem – banking, stimulus, and so forth – on its own terms. We should examine each solution on its own merits.

 

President Obama’s inaugural address includes an apparent attack on ideology:

 

“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them – that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works …”

 

 

What appears to be a sensible idea to turn our problems into purely technical ones is, on the contrary, profoundly unscientific and, more generally, anti-intellectual.

 

This is a big subject and deserves comprehensive treatment. Let it suffice here to make a few crucial observations.

U.S. Treasury’s Bailout Framework: Mockery of the Rule of Law

by Mario Rizzo

 

In an attempt to provide greater transparency and predictability the US Treasury has issued the basic “framework” that will determine whether a troubled “financial institution,” defined extremely broadly as the law allows (see my previous post), will receive governmental aid. Many commentators, including this one, have thought that the Treasury policy was in great need of clarification. Instead, what we have gotten is an extremely vague set of standards followed by a statement that targeted investments will be on a “case-by-case basis.”

What is a “Prominent” Economist?

by Mario Rizzo

In a recent article in Time magazine Michael Kinsley implies that no “prominent” economist has come out against economic stimulus as a (partial?) solution to the current mess. My interest here is not whether this true but in what constitutes “prominent.”

Time for Reflection: “The Unity of the People”

by Mario Rizzo

After most presidential elections in recent years there is talk of uniting the country, somehow overcoming differences and working for the betterment of the nation. This is a dangerous idea if it is taken seriously.