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 ...

What I think lies behind the surprising deficit squeamishness of the Obama administration, and why it's wrong-headed.

Daleks and EU foreign policy.

It would be a very, very bad thing if the administration is intimidated into passivity -- or, worse, into neo-Hooverism -- by the threat from invisible, probably imaginary enforcers.

By itself, the AIG story would be damaging enough. But it's part of a pattern -- and that pattern has ended up undermining the economy's prospects, big time.

Monetary tightening shouldn't be on the agenda for a long, long time.