Category Archives: Politics

How Risky is Venezuela’s Bank Nationalization?

Posted on August 4, 2008 by Felix

Hugo Chávez has done a lot of things to endanger the Venezuelan economy. But to read John Lyons in the WSJ today, one of the worst and riskiest is his decision to nationalize Banco de Venezuela, which the then-government sold … Continue reading →

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Angelo Mozilo’s VIPs

Posted on July 17, 2008 by Felix

Dan Golden’s full 5,500-word cover story on the VIP loans given by Countrywide to "Friends of Angelo" is now online. He leads with the most damning of the cases: that of Richard Aldrich, a California state appeals court judge. Aldrich … Continue reading →

Posted in housing, Politics | 1 Comment

Plan B: Nationalization

Posted on July 14, 2008 by Felix

Amazingly, the Paulson statement seems to have worked! Stock indices are in not-down territory, the dollar is up, Fannie’s up 10% in early trade, and even Freddie’s up 27 cents. Even if the stocks are trading wholly on option value, … Continue reading →

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Parsing Paulson: The Fannie and Freddie Bailout

Posted on July 13, 2008 by Felix

Hank Paulson is a tough guy. He’s no pushover: just look at that phone call to Jamie Dimon, telling him that anything over $2 a share was altogether far too much money to pay for Bear Stearns. So what are … Continue reading →

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Bloomberg Buying Bloomberg?

Posted on July 10, 2008 by Felix

Blind trusts are popular with politicians: the idea is that the politician in question can’t have any conflicts of interest with respect to his investments if he doesn’t know what his investments are. As a result, you’re not going to … Continue reading →

Posted in banking, Media, Politics | 1 Comment

The Economic Policy of John McCain

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Felix

There’s a lot of talk in the blogosphere about John McCain’s pledge to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term in office. The NYT has two articles, by Michael Cooper and Robert Pear, about whether such … Continue reading →

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The Worst Beneficiaries of a Billion-Dollar Will

Posted on July 7, 2008 by Felix

Christopher Caldwell is appalled by the fact that Leona Helmsley left her entire $5bn+ estate to dogs: A vast amount of the productive energy of future generations has been pre-allocated to dogs on the say-so of one of the most … Continue reading →

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John McCain’s Credit Card Problems

Posted on June 23, 2008 by Felix

Is John McCain paying 26% interest on his credit card? Dan Ray seems to think so: McCain reported he [and his wife were] paying 25.99 percent on their joint credit card, on which they owed somewhere between $10,001 and $15,000. … Continue reading →

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Joe Lieberman’s Dangerous Blame Game

Posted on June 19, 2008 by Felix

Floyd Norris sticks his knife today into Joe Lieberman, who thoroughly deserves it. Liberman’s blaming speculators for the fact that asset prices are rising, and by golly if he isn’t going to do something about it: One proposal would require … Continue reading →

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Getting VIP Treatment

Posted on June 14, 2008 by Felix

Andrew Leonard is much less sympathetic to the politicians with VIP deals from Countrywide than I am. There’s still a fundamental issue here: the spectacle of powerful Washington insiders getting fondled by corporate interests is unseemly and undemocratic. He’s quite … Continue reading →

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The Economics and Politics of Trade

Posted on June 14, 2008 by Felix

Thanks to Dani Rodrik, we know the NYT fact-checked Roger Lowenstein’s article on free trade. Which is weird, because he’s 3,000 miles off when he says that "negotiators in Doha, Qatar, have been trying for years to draft a new … Continue reading →

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Countrywide VIPs: In the Senate and Beyond

Posted on June 13, 2008 by Felix

Portfolio’s Daniel Golden has a potentially explosive story today: the Friends of Angelo, who received discounted VIP Countrywide loans, included a lot of very senior politicians, not just former Obama advisor James Johnson. Among them: Chris Dodd, Kent Conrad, Alphonso … Continue reading →

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Is Chris Hohn a Threat to US National Security?

Posted on June 11, 2008 by Felix

Andrew Ross Sorkin and John Gapper have done an excellent job of fisking the idiotic rantings of Lou Dobbs, who seems to think that because 1% of the investors in Chris Hohn’s TCI are sovereign wealth funds, it should never … Continue reading →

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Is a Windfall Tax a Populist Pander?

Posted on June 10, 2008 by Felix

Barack Obama’s economic policy, says Justin Fox, is "a hard-to-summarize mix of moderate Democratic standbys, populist silliness and the occasional truly visionary proposal". His example of an Obama "populist pander"? He favors a windfall profits tax on oil companies (which … Continue reading →

Posted in fiscal and monetary policy, Politics, taxes | Comments Off on Is a Windfall Tax a Populist Pander?

Left-Wing Democracy in Action, Ecuador Edition

Posted on June 5, 2008 by Felix

As you surely know, Ecuador is in the process of putting together a new constitution. And this week’s report on Ecuadorean politics and economics from Analytica Securities in Quito (you are on their email list, right?) outlines few of the … Continue reading →

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Gesture Politics Done Right

Posted on May 18, 2008 by Felix

Bryan Caplan famously defended the economically-illiterate McCain-Clinton plan to suspend federal gas taxes on the grounds that it was the least bad way for Congress "to show the voters that it feels their pain". At a cost of just $9 … Continue reading →

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When States Pass Laws the Banks Don’t Like

Posted on May 7, 2008 by Felix

In many countries there aren’t any long-term mortgages, either because local law makes it difficult to foreclose on a house, or else because of the very real risk that local laws will change and make it difficult to foreclose on … Continue reading →

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Clinton vs the Economists

Posted on May 6, 2008 by Felix

From the Strange Bedfellows department: Mark Thoma and Greg Mankiw on one side, versus Paul Krugman and Tyler Cowen on the other. The issue, in a nutshell: does it matter if politicians ignore economists? Thoma and Mankiw say yes, if … Continue reading →

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Can Cities Transcend National Politics?

Posted on May 5, 2008 by Felix

On Thursday, I posted a blog entry about why local government was unrepresentative, uncreative, and dominated by national parties whose national policies are largely irrelevant on a local level. The same day (I was in la-la land and oblivious of … Continue reading →

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Why Local Government is Unrepresentative and Uncreative

Posted on May 1, 2008 by Felix

Many thanks to Harvard’s David Schleicher for letting me know about his wonderful new paper, "Why Is There No Partisan Competition in City Council Elections?". This isn’t (only) dry political science, it can also be read as a call for … Continue reading →

Posted in cities, Politics | 1 Comment

Political Hacks: The Backlash

Posted on April 29, 2008 by Felix

Macroeconomic discussions at the Milken Conference tend to feature a great deal of party-political Republican talking points. The lunch panel on Monday was moderated by Steve Forbes, the breakfast panel on Tuesday was moderated by Paul Gigot. And with people … Continue reading →

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How Economic Illiteracy Could Doom Gordon Brown

Posted on April 23, 2008 by Felix

Gordon Brown is arguably the most economically literate head of state in the world. Which is maybe why he felt comfortable tinkering with the UK’s income-tax system. But as John Kay says, Tax is always more complicated than you think … Continue reading →

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Recession: What can the President do?

Posted on April 14, 2008 by Felix

Paul Krugman and Jesse Eisinger both have new columns out today, and they’re remarkably similar, dealing as they do with what, if anything, the next president is going to be able to do about the economic malaise facing the USA. … Continue reading →

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How the Housing Bill Could Help New York City

Posted on April 3, 2008 by Felix

A significant beneficiary of the housing bill being voted on by the Senate today could end up being New York City – and other areas with relatively low property taxes. A part of the bill is a flat $1,000 property-tax … Continue reading →

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The Political Independence of the Fed

Posted on March 20, 2008 by Felix

As anybody who’s ever read about a Supreme Court nomination knows, the business of appointing top judges has become highly political. But when it comes to the Federal Reserve, it seems that presidential appointees are still chosen the old-fashioned way: … Continue reading →

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