Political Economy

If you haven't noticed, I think the Geithner Plan, while far from perfect, has a reasonable chance of success. Marshall, too, believes the plan could work as he has suggested in his last post. The optics of it are another matter.…

I do believe the U.S. policy response to this financial crisis is very much like the Japanese response to their crisis in the 1990s. I have a post up at "naked capitalism" making this point. I would add, however, that America is in a…

Marshall Auerback here. I do not like the Geithner Plan because it is needlessly expensive. Nevertheless, it could well work. My main objection is that it constitutes the most regressive transfer of wealth in history and it's being done…

This comes via the Financial Times (Hat tip CR): China’s central bank on Monday proposed replacing the US dollar as the international reserve currency with a new global system controlled by the International Monetary Fund. In an essay…

Barack Obama's presidency will likely be decided by one single issue - his ability to deal with this financial crisis. With the release of his Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's Public Private Partnership Investment Program two months into…

FDIC Chairman Sheila C. Bair said, "It has been clear for some time that troubled loans and securities have depressed market perceptions of banks and impeded new lending. Difficult market conditions have complicated efforts to sell these…

Below are the just-released details on the U.S. Treasury Public Private Partnership Investment Program. I will have commentary shortly in a separate post. However, before I do, I am posting the details here for your reference.

You may have seen Ed's post "Gillian Tett: Washington is talking to Swedes about banking crisis solutions" a week back about how the U.S. government was getting ready to talk to Swedish officials regarding the banking crisis. This is a…

If you have noticed, Pakistan is in a real state of crisis right now. Given the fact that this country is both unstable and possesses nuclear weapons courtesy of A. Q. Khan, it stands to reason that everyone should be interested. The fact…

As understandable as the Congressional response to the AIG bonuses was, the reality is that this does create a number of disturbing precedents. We have a stupid Congress mindlessly lashing out to compensate for its own complicity in…