Political Economy

Source 2008 Political Landscape Map - Washington Post

As we head into the final stretch leading up to the U.S. presidential election, I wanted to throw a thought out there about experience and judgment. I have long been of the view that natural bias toward one or the other has a lot to do…

Patrick Buchanan has given up on any chances of McCain winning this election judging by his last blog post. The title alone says it all. In a missive titled "Obama’s First 100 Days" Buchanan asks what an Obama Administration will look like.…

This is a quote from the populist American politician William Jennings Bryan, a Democrat famous at the beginning of the last century."There are two ideas of government. There are those who believe that if you just legislate to make the…

As with everything else, the bailout of the U.S. banking system is going to have unintended consequences. One of them seems to be giving exactly those firms that wasted billions of shareholder money a chance to double down. Flush with…

You remember the furor in 2004 over the hackability of the Diebold voting machines? Well, that same worry is back in 2008 and apparently Homer Simpson has fallen prey. Watch the video. Hilarious. (hat tip Marshall Auerback). Related…

Reflecting on the market turmoil today, Marshall Auerback had a funny if ironic thought: Our beloved Treasury Secretary promised us Financial Armageddon if we didn't pass his wretched bill a few weeks ago. I wonder how he would describe…

I am hearing of heavy early voting in the U.S. presidential election. In particular, I have heard stories of heavy voting in Georgia, Colorado, Florida and North Carolina. Apparently, Colorado's exit polls show an enormous 20%+ advantage…

While I am markedly more upbeat of late about economic matters, I still harbor some deep concerns about the direction of both the global economy and resultant political stability. The Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum has summed…

The Federal Reserve and its fellow central banks are pulling out all the stops to make sure the panic phase of this crisis is well and truly over. These kinds of moves are already having results as Libor and Euribor (the rate at whch banks…