Category Archives: Politics

A fiscal emergency has been declared, but hey, Mr Villines, don’t let that stop you from sounding like a drunken ideologue: Republican lawmakers, who last week blocked a Democratic proposal to cut billions of dollars from schools, healthcare and welfare … Continue reading →

Edward Helmore, of the (London) Observer, provides this weekend the neatest distillation of the "Geithner is Rubin" meme that I’ve yet seen: For Obama, the selection of Rubin acolytes suggests vulnerability. Yet defenders of the Rubinistas say it is not … Continue reading →

In theory, I like the idea of an Economic Recovery Advisory Board which will provide to the President "a ground-level sense of which programs and policies are working for people, and which aren’t". But I’m not at all convinced that … Continue reading →

The Economist compares two Goldman Sachs chairmen turned Treasury secretary: Mr Rubin rose to the top through risk arbitrage. As a trader, he knew that the important thing was to understand the big picture, and get big calls right. He … Continue reading →

On Saturday, the WSJ knew exactly who would be joining Tim Geithner in Barack Obama’s economic team: Congressional Budget Office director Peter Orszag will be Mr. Obama’s budget director. Jacob Lew, a former Clinton budget director, will head the White … Continue reading →

Brad DeLong says there are six key economic policy jobs in the US government; we can now fill in most of the blanks. Running down Brad’s list: Office of Management and Budget director: Will be Peter Orszag, an excellent and … Continue reading →

I’m pleased and surprised at the news that Tim Geithner will be the next Treasury secretary. Pleased because he’s an insightful pragmatist who’s more than qualified to do the job; surprised because I had thought that he might prefer to … Continue reading →

Not since the House Republicans scuppered the first version of the TARP bill has the stock market paid so much attention to the legislative branch of government. I have no idea what’s going on on Capitol Hill: the WSJ is … Continue reading →

First, Hank Paulson said that he wasn’t willing to use government money to rescue Lehman. Then he said that he would have loved to save Lehman, but he didn’t have the powers. Now he’s on his third version: he did … Continue reading →

Bush’s speech on Wall Street today is a most peculiar thing — a mixture of free-market platitudes, cryptic code, and outright weirdness. For instance, what does this mean? One vital principle of reform is that our nations must make our … Continue reading →

Brad DeLong is pushing Larry Summers as Treasury Secretary. His argument, in a nutshell, is that "we want really smart people" running things, that Larry Summers is a really smart person, and that if you have the intelligence, self-confidence, and … Continue reading →

There’s not much liquidity on the Treasury secretary contracts over at InTrade, but for what it’s worth Summers last traded at 22, Geithner at 20, Paulson at 15 (!), and Volcker at 10. The only long-shots to trade were Buffett … Continue reading →

Who will be Obama’s first Treasury Secretary? Portfolio has a fabulous interactive feature to help you work it out; the first time I tried it I got Jamie Dimon, while the second time I got Paul Volcker. (It shakes up … Continue reading →

Arnold Kling on Hank Paulson: This American Mussolini has captivated Washington by demonstrating the exercise of raw power. Which if you ask me is ridiculous. Paulson’s ears are much higher up on his head than Mussolini’s.