CAMPAIGN 2008 | Two New Posts

Two of my posts have recently appeared in Huffington Post:

April 5, 2008: Survey: "19% Say USA on Right Track." Who ARE These People? 

The lead NY Times story yesterday is headlined: "81 Percent in Poll Say Nation Is Headed on Wrong Track" and the first paragraph tells us this is the highest number since 1992 poll (this Times/CBS News poll was first conducted in 1991) and way up from the 35 percent figure in 2002. Hmmm... (1) The last time four-fifths of the nation was so negative about the future of the United States was in the last year of the presidency of Bush 41. (2) The percentage of people generally happy with the direction of the country has been steadily declining during the presidency of Bush 43.

March 23, 2008: The Bankers Panic of 2008 -- New Regulation

In late 1999, the bulwark bank regulation of 1933, the Glass-Steagall Act–the wall between investment banks and commercial banks–was torn down. This was a great victory for creative bankers, who had found the wall irksome and restrictive. What was outside the wall should have been brought under an expanded regulatory scope of the Federal Reserve or the SEC, or both.

The Bankers Panic of 2008

American financial history is a sine curve of excess, crisis and reform. The Crash of 1906 and the Bankers Panic of 1907 led to the birth of the Federal Reserve System in 1913. The crash of 1929 and related bank failures led to the SEC and FDIC. The S&L meltdowns led to the Office of Thrift Supervision. The Enron and Worldcom bankruptcies led to the Sarbanes-Oxley law of 2002. Now credit laxity has led to the Bankers Panic of 2008. The Fed has responded with lower interest rates, takeover of Bear Stearns and bailout money to other overstretched Wall Street firms. How should the Congress and the next President be responding? Six ideas...
More: 3/18/08, Huffington Post, The Bankers Panic of 2008.