I hate to say this, but looking at the plan as leaked, I have to say no deal. Not unless Treasury explains, very clearly, why this is supposed to work, other than through having taxpayers pay premium prices for lousy assets. As I posted earlier today...

OK, a correspondent directs me to John McCain's article, Better Health Care at Lower Cost for Every American, in the Sept./Oct. issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries. You might want to be seated before reading this...

OK, one more try. First of all, I don't have a political dog in this fight. I'm happy to believe that crazy speculation distorts markets. And I do think it's likely that oil prices will come down, for a while, once consumers have a chance to respond ...

Dire warnings from the distant past.

Largely incomprehensible.

Obama, being who he is, apparently feels compelled to give at least rhetorical obeisance to the CW. We can only hope that his economists, who know better, can convince him not to act on it.

You might have thought that the worst economic crisis since the 30s, a crisis that should not have happened according to non-Keynesian models, would prompt at least a little intellectual curiosity. But no.

Basically, we started out with a year that matched the Great Depression, but have since pulled back a bit from the edge of the abyss.