Funniest Phrase I've Heard All Day

I have Larry Kudlow's CNBC show on now and some panelist just referred to "fiscal nymphomania" going on with regards to the bailout feeding frenzy.

Apt.

They Can't Do That to Our Brokers. Only We Can Do That to Our Brokers!

The Science section of the Times, this morning, has an interesting article on the evolutionary underpinnings of the desire to punish misbehavers.

The context, of course, is all the monkeyshines that have been going on on Wall Street and people's desire (need?) to find someone to punish for causing problems well-beyond those directly and knowingly involved.

Smart as we may be, though not as smart as we might think we are, the evolutionary psychology folks have some valuable observations about the need to punish. In the animal kingdom, as well as in tribes without formal systems of 'government,' there's a demonstrated and predictable trend for groups to punish people whose actions hurt the group as a whole.

Luckily, of course, there's also a demonstrated desire for cooperation and room for forgiveness.

The authors also cite a fair amount of game theory / experimental economics to support the rest of the article. It's a nice overview of the topic and well worth your 15 minutes if I do say so myself.

Darned if He Does. Darned if He Doesn't

I guess I'm kind of torn on this one...while it would be nice to see old Shrub taking a little bit of an active leadership in whatever's going on on Wall Street, I've long since reached the end of my rope when it comes to trusting that he knows what the hell he's talking about.

The Big Cheese

Newt Gingrich: Coming to a Blog Near You

The former Speaker of the House and leader of the 1994 House revolution now is apparently blogging over at National Review.

He, like other voices starting to creep up after the Kumbaya-bomb dropped on us by Congressional and Administration officials in the last 24 hours, is very skeptical of what they're going to try to shove down your throat before the election recess.

I'll be very interested to see how the candidates for 1600 behave this week. While it's easy for McPalin (I just was listening to her rally in Lady Lake, FL) to make fun of Barry for being slow to come out with some sort of road map out of Armageddon, the war hero was no better.

He was quicker to open his mouth about what should be done. I'll grant that.

But zig-zagging from 'the fundamentals are fine' (and hold your replies...it's a point I don't feel like arguing because it was just a politically stupid thing to say, even if true in some nuanced sense) to 'fire Chris Cox' to 'no bailout for AIG' (and then proceeding to back it) didn't make him seem like someone in charge of his own brain.

Trying to Absorb the Bailout

So I spent the morning doing some housework and listening in on the Sunday talk shows.

My understanding of the financial situation, and why the government needed to act so quickly on vague details includes the following:

• Crisis was imminent.
• The cost of not acting far outweighed the costs of acting...even if it takes us into debt we couldn't quite imagine several days ago.
• Even if they don't know all the facts going in, we should trust that the Federales will handle it correctly.
• Bush understands this situation.

I think I've heard something like this from many of the same folks and their allies before...but I bet this time, it's a slam dunk.

Everyday, My Shame Grows

Honest to God, I need to find some reason why I voted to keep this douche bag in office back in 2004...

I'm not going to blog like crazy on the details of the Wall Street/Main Street financial situation, but hearing old Shrub in the Rose Garden this morning just made my toes curl.

He spoke about basic macroeconomic issues with the kind of awe that a 7th grader might have when he first learns how capital markets work...but this guy holds a degree from Harvard and is the President.

I couldn't make this stuff up, dear reader...read for yourself his explanation of why he opted against his non-interventionist instinct.

"It turns out there are a lot of inner links throughout the financial system. The system had grown to a point where a lot of people were dependent upon each other. And the collapse of one part of the system wouldn't just affect a part of the financial markets, it would affect the average citizen."

George W. Bush, 20-September-2008

It turns out that Wall Street does not operate independently of the rest of the economy, Dickhead? Really? Did the boys from the Fed explain that to you in your briefing?

Oh, The Humanity!

The Chicago Sun-Times uncovers the real pain Americans are feeling with the economic downturn.

The Problem With Self-Righteousness

It's damned near impossible to live a public life with the air of self-righteousness that people on the left and right do.

Sooner or later someone's going to realize that, now and then, right-wingers get horny and left-wingers want a little bling.

Hillary Clinton, who has been behaving as if the practice of sub prime lending was invented over at the CATO Institute, has a pretty direct line to the crisis.

Her new campaign head, Maggie Williams, was a director of one of these 'predatory' firms in New York until December when they went belly up.

Of course, the campaign said that she was not really involved in very much of anything for the $45K in compensation she got. I guess they were paying her just to look pretty.