Not Buying Troubled Assets After All

Remember that emergency bailout, wherein the world would come to a complete halt if the government didn't buy up all the bad loans? Hank Paulson says "Never mind." [caption id="attachment_27369" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, AP/YahooNews Photo"][/caption] Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says that the $700 billion government rescue program will not be used to purchase troubled assets as originally planned. Paulson ...

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Bailout Debacle

The widespread rumors of a government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have already had dramatic consequences, perhaps creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Iain Dey and Dominic Rushe, writing for The Times of London, note that, "The two companies lost almost half their market value last week as rumours of a government bail-out swept the stock markets, hammering share ...

Obama’s ‘Sweetheart’ Home Loan

The Manufactured Outrage of the Day comes to us from Joe Stephens and his page A3 piece for today's Washington Post, "Obama Got Discount on Home Loan." Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a ...

North Korea Nukes Breakthrough: A Roadmap for Iran?

The news over the past 48 hours or so about movement in solving the nuclear arms standoff with North Korean has been stunning. Not only is President Bush taking the DPRK off the "state sponsors of terrorism" list but the Kim government has taken major steps to dismantle their program and provide with stringent verification regimes. The administration fully ...

Ralph Nader: Obama Not Black Enough

Ralph Nader says that Barack Obama "talks white" and ignores "black issues." "There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American," Nader said. "Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory ...

Obama Loves America — No, Really!

Barack Obama's latest ad spot has him explaining that, no, really, he's an American. And, despite what you might have heard, he likes it here. And he's not a Muslim, either. Here's the video: The transcript: I’m Barack Obama. America is a country of strong families and strong values. My life’s been blessed by both. I was raised by a ...

McCain the Interventionist

I've long thought that American politics and the fact that we have an activist/interventionist government when it comes to economic policy leads to a race to see who can pander the most to voters, or at least a sub-class of voters. John McCain's new "plan" to bail out the greedy and stupid when it comes to mortgages is another ...

Obese Feel More Discrimination

Even though Americans are fatter than ever, we're actually less tolerant of fat people. So say fat people. Led by Tatiana Andreyeva, a postdoctoral research associate at Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, a team of researchers questioned 1,100 subjects, aged 35 to 74, twice over a 10-year span (once between 1995 and 1996, and again between ...

Iraq, Five Years On

In recognition of the fifth anniversary of the U. S.-led and mostly U. S.-conducted invasion of Iraq and removal of the regime of Saddam Hussein, there have been a number of articles in the New York Times and elsewhere that have an odd sort of synergy to them. For example, there's this interview from the Times of London with ...

George McGovern Now Conservative?

It's been occasionally remarked in recent years that George McGovern, who lost the 1972 election to Richard Nixon in a landslide because he was so ultra-liberal, became more conservative after leaving public life and starting his own business. A column in today's WSJ, "Freedom Means Responsibility," will certainly add another log to that fire. His thesis is ...