“The claim that this represents the failure of markets is more than a tad silly. Fannie and Freddie weren’t truly private companies, didn’t act like truly private companies, and wouldn’t have been allowed to so dominate the market if they had been. This is yet another failure of a government program.” — Megan McArdle, giving […]
Archive for September, 2008
Sep9th2008
As given by Peggy Noonan:
Democrats in the end speak most of, and seem to hold the most sympathy for, the beset-upon single mother without medical coverage for her children, and the soldier back from the war who needs more help with post-traumatic stress disorder. They express the most sympathy for the needy, the yearning, the […]
Sep8th2008
Nationalizing Freddie Mac And Fannie Mae Is A Good Idea
Published by in Capitalism, Economics and ModernPolitics. 2 CommentsLarry Summers, one of my favorite economists, explains why:
What went wrong? The illusion that the companies were doing virtuous work made it impossible to build a political case for serious regulation. When there were social failures the companies always blamed their need to perform for the shareholders. When there were business failures it was always […]
Sep8th2008
Atleast according to this old 2003 article from the New York Times:
New Agency Proposed to Oversee Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae
The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.
Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency […]
Sep5th2008
I finally got around to hearing it (on youtube) and this was my favorite part:
Education — education is the civil rights issue of this century.
Equal access to public education has been gained, but what is the value of access to a failing school? We need…
We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, […]
Sep5th2008
Peggy Noonan explains:
Because she jumbles up so many cultural categories, because she is a feminist not in the Yale Gender Studies sense but the How Do I Reload This Thang way, because she is a woman who in style, history, moxie and femininity is exactly like a normal American feminist and not […]
Sep4th2008
“That in terms of actual governance, as opposed to the mix of issue-studying and campaigning that Obama’s been immersed in, Palin’s resume and Obama’s aren’t wildly dissimilar. She ran her first race in 1992; he ran his first race in 1997. She was a city councilor for four years, then a mayor, lost a race […]
Sep3rd2008
If you did not watch Fred Thompson’s speech last night at the RNC - you should.
You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video
You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video
You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video
Sep3rd2008
“Around the blogosphere you will see many left-wing writers criticizing Palin for lack of experience. Maybe this criticism is correct, but these commentators are falling into The Trap. Most American voters do not themselves know much detail about foreign affairs and their vision of an experienced leader does not require such knowledge. Was it demanded […]
Sep2nd2008
“Recent research on President Bush’s tax relief in 2001 and 2003 has found that the lower tax rates induced taxpayers to report more taxable income. In particular, the reduction in the top two tax rates induced taxpayers to report more taxable income—an increase in the size of the tax base—to such an extent that this […]
