No, but we’ve taken big steps in that direction. For example, the government owns a large insurance company (AIG).  More importantly, it has nationalized 95% of the single largest component of the financial sector: home mortgages. From “Recent Developments in Mortgage Finance“, John Krainer, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Economic Letter, 26 October 2009. Federal Housing Administration …
There is a discussion in progress in the comments to Are we citizens? Or peasants?, asking if America is a tyranny? If so, Americans requires astonishingly little oppression. Ignorant and apathetic — don’t know and don’t care — the government needs no secret police, no concentration camps, no limits on free speech, and no limits on free assembly. “Anger …
“The Greatest Swindle Ever Sold”, by Andy Kroll in The Nation Read More »
Richard Posner is one of America’s leading conservative intellectuals, so his insights into this crisis deserve attention. It shows that away from the insanity of the Rush Limbaugh wing, conservatives are reflecting on their beliefs and beginning to move toward a consensus with liberals as to the way forward. Esp note the last paragraph, about …
A famous conservative explains the current financial crisis Read More »
These reports about the TARP must be read to be believed. Since you are reading this on a screen, I have highlighted in red where you would scrawl WTF! on printed material. This is best read somewhere you can scream without attracting undue attention. “Thievery Under TARP“, Robert Scheer, The Nation, 22 April 2009 Initial …
Summary: Team Obama has chosen the soft path to economic recovery. Spend money while stalling any substantial reforms. No confronting our deep structural reforms, just wait for the recovery due later this year. It might work — reliable forecasts are difficult or impossible these days — but its failure would leave us far weaker, making …
Napoleon’s advice to President Obama about the financial crisis Read More »
