Political Economy

Thirty years ago, it was "Anarchy in the U.K." as Britain tried to get away from its role as the sick man of Europe. That meant civil unrest, high inflation and a weak economy. Margaret Thatcher was seen by many as the solution. Today,…

A video from Saturday Night Live.

Rohatyn, a Democrat, talks about the role of government in crisis, infrastructure spending and lessons from New York City's near economic collapse n the 1970s from his perspective. Royatyn is widely credited with saving New York City from…

The quote of the day comes from Marc Faber via Fleet Street News: Meanwhile, the cop who had the Wall Street beat when the biggest heist in history was going on... and who engineered the loans to AIG and GM... is now the chief of police.…

After Europe emerged from the worst war in human history, its cities lay in ruins. Its economy was in tatters. It was in this environment that an Iron Curtain fell over Europe dividing it into east and west, separating Europeans from each…

About a week ago I reported on an Austrian story that the EU was gearing up for a bailout of any eurozone members which found themselves in difficulty (see my post, "EU planning 200 billion euro package for Eastern Europe". This report is…

Marshall Auerback here. Unlike Ed, I like to call a spade a spade regarding the Obama Administration's economic gurus. The more they screw up, the greater the number and depth of the crises, the greater the responsibility/ power Obama…

Marshall Auerback here. As Ed lucidly suggested to me by e-mail: "We see the Fed giving a loan for assets at the price as reported on the institutions' books. Otherwise, you have to take a write-down just to get the loan. That's a…

In my post TALF: A bailout if one reads the fine print, I did not make any comments about the quality of the assets to be used as collateral or the mechanics of the operation. While much of this information has already been supplied by the…

James Galbraith, a well-known professor at the University of Texas-Austin has joined Paul Krugman in declaring Barack Obama's nearly $800 billion stimulus plan too small. Below is a video from the Wall Street Journal explaining why the…