Noted for January 21, 2013
Alan Blinder: Financial Collapse - A 10-Step Recovery Plan: "1. Remember That People Forget…. 2. Do Not Rely on Self-Regulation…. 3. Honor Thy Shareholders…. 4. Elevate Risk Management…. 5. Use Less Leverage…. 6. Keep It Simple, Stupid…. 7. Standardize Derivatives and Trade Them on Exchanges…. 8. Keep Things on the Balance Sheet…. 9. Fix Perverse Compensation…. 10. Watch Out for Consumers…. Twain is said to have quipped that while history doesn’t repeat itself, it does rhyme. There will be financial crises in the future, and the next one won’t be a carbon copy of the last. Neither, however, will it be so different that these commandments won’t apply. Financial history does rhyme, but we’re already forgetting the meter."
Doug Galt: Balloon Juice: Those American thighs: "Anne to the Lizay and reader P have already covered Bobo’s 'when will Obama make Republicans stop hitting themselves', but…. I often wonder show much conservative punditarama is stuff the pundit truly believes and how much is propaganda. Obama as evil genius makes for poor propaganda. So I think Bobo honestly thinks that Obama is employing a cynical Machiavellian divide-and-conquer strategy, possibly because some straight-arrow Republican Senator told him so. Well, good, it is better to be feared than respected. If these morons think that Obama is a gay Kenyan wizard whose magic cannot be resisted, they’ll surrender that much quicker."
Ed Kilgore: Political Animal - Spurning David Brooks’ Anguished Cry For Help
Paul Krugman: Inequality and Recovery: "Joe Stiglitz has an Opinionator piece arguing that inequality is a big factor in our slow recovery…. I haven’t been able to persuade myself that this particular morality tale is right…. [T]wo of Joe’s four points aren’t really about the current recovery… high inequality is causing huge waste of human talent… and I agree… inequality fosters financial crisis, and I agree with that too. But we’re talking about the financial crisis aftermath…. Joe offers a version of the “underconsumption” hypothesis…. This hypothesis has a long history — but it also has well-known theoretical and empirical problems…. Joe also argues that high income inequality depresses tax receipts, fueling fiscal fears. Again, I have trouble with this point: our tax system isn’t as progressive as it should be, but it is at least mildly progressive…. So I don’t know where this is coming from."
Duncan Black: Eschaton: Panic Time For The Deficit Scolds: "The deficit scolds don't really care about the deficit, and if it disappears they won't declare victory. It'll in fact be a crisis. For some, it'll be a crisis because they're employed the fairly lucrative (status and money) deficit scold grifter industry. For others, it'll be a crisis because Teh Deficit is their justification for their real policy desires which are cutting taxes on rich people and kicking the olds and poors. This is their moment!!"
Alexander H. Stephens: Cornerstone Speech
David Bromwich: Torture and Zero Dark Thirty
Bill McBride: Calculated Risk: Flashback to 2007: Tanta on "Sound bankers"
