Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs
Color me surprised. General Motors, which nearly collapsed from the weight of its debts two years ago before reorganizing in a government-sponsored bankruptcy, said Thursday that it earned $4.7 billion in 2010, the most in more than a decade. It was the first profitable year since 2004 for G.M., which became publicly traded in November, [...]
Continuing a trend that stretches back nearly two years, the monthly federal budget deficit hit another record in April: The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the federal deficit for April soared to $82.7 billion, the largest imbalance for that month on record. That was significantly higher than last year’s April deficit of $20 billion and [...]
The latest episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be joined by our own Chris Lawrence to talk about the UK elections, the Elena Kagan nomination, the trillion dollar Euro bailout and much more. We’ll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. [...]
After months of dithering on a Greek bailout that no one thinks will work, European leaders — seemingly out of nowhere — agreed to a €750 billion reserve fund to bolster the Euro. In my New Atlanticist piece, “Trillion Dollar Bet on the Euro,” I round up the expert commentary and wonder whether this stunning [...]
In the leading edge of what is expected to be a minor wave, Utah Senator Bob Bennett was defeated in the Republican nominating process last evening. Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah has lost his bid to serve a fourth term after failing to advance past the GOP state convention. Attorney Mike Lee and [...]
Reason‘s Nick Gillespie, resplendent in his ubiquitous black jacket, explains, “How The Hell Did GM Pay Back Its Loans “in Full And Ahead of Schedule”? Well, It Didn’t.” The script: General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre has bragged in TV commercials and newspaper columns that GM has paid back its bailout “in full and ahead of [...]
UPDATE: WE’RE EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. WE HOPE TO START THE SHOW AT 6. A special Thursday episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be joined by special guest Megan McArdle, the business and economics editor of The Atlantic and the world’s tallest [...]
As readers are likely aware by now, Goldman Sachs was yesterday charged with fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. I’ve resisted comment thus far, as I’ve been tied up with a minor crisis at work and don’t have any especial expertise in the vagaries of securities law, anyway. But here’s what we know thus [...]
The special election to fill the Massachusetts Senate seat vacated by the passing of Teddy Kennedy is ongoing, with most expecting a win by Republican Scott Brown. Andrew Sullivan sees this as the death knell of American politics. I can see no alternative scenario but a huge – staggeringly huge – victory for the FNC/RNC [...]
Wells Fargo has decided to cash in some stock and repay its TARP money. It’s the last major bank to do so. Liz Moyer for Forbes: For months, Wells Fargo insisted it would repay its $25 billion worth of federal bailout funding in a way that wouldn’t dent existing shareholders. Its priorities seem to have [...]
Paul Krugman argues that “the recession is probably over in a technical sense” the government must nonetheless treat the 10.2 unemployment rate as a crisis because there are “six times as many Americans seeking work as there are job openings, and the average duration of unemployment — the time the average job-seeker has spent looking [...]
Barack Obama has been president for just under 10 months but he’s added two trillion to the national debt and will double it by the end of the decade. CBS’ Mark Knoller: This latest milestone in the ever-rising journey of the National Debt comes less than eight months after it hit $11 trillion for the [...]
Remember that plan by Obama’s pay czar to radically limit executive pay at bailed out banks? And how some of us were predicting that they’d just go to companies whose pay was not limited? Well, it didn’t take long. Even before the Obama administration formally tightened executive compensation at bailed-out companies, the prospect of pay [...]
The top earners at the top firms bailed out by the U.S. government during the financial crisis will have their pay and bonuses drastically cut. Deborah Soloman and Dan Fitzpatrick for WSJ: The U.S. pay czar will cut in half the average compensation for 175 employees at firms receiving large sums of government aid, with [...]
“Australia has pledged 7.8 million US dollars this year to help save more than 100 indigenous languages which are in grave danger of dying out,” AFP reports. Arts Minister Peter Garrett said the money would be spent on translation services, tests for children and a feasibility study for a national centre for Aboriginal languages. “These [...]
Surprisingly few bloggers of the bloggers I read are writing about GM’s emergence from bankruptcy in a mere 40 days through a rather unorthodox process. The background: AP: General Motors completed an unusually quick exit from bankruptcy protection on Friday with ambitions of making money and building cars people are eager to buy. Once the [...]
Matt Welch points to the story of how a British maker managed to get $2.7 billion in TARP money. The hurried legislation adopted by a Congress voting under the threat of sudden global economic collapse led to hidden tax breaks for firms in dozens of industries. They included builders of Nascar auto-racing tracks, restaurant chains [...]
As President Obama settles into his fifth month in office, his personal popularity remains high but his job approval is slipping drastically, according to a new NYT/CBS News poll. A substantial majority of Americans say President Obama has not developed a strategy to deal with the budget deficit, according to the latest New York Times/CBS [...]
Jon Henke Twitters: “The California referendum proves that what voters want to spend is not well-connected with what voters are willing to pay.” Quite right. Californian Kevin Drum takes as a given that his state is “broken” but sees no solution in sight. While he’s in favor of Governor Schwarzenegger’s idea of a constitutional convention [...]
Fannie Mae has gone back the U.S. Treasury with its hand out asking for another $19 billion. Fannie Mae has been operating under government conservatorship since September. It says its net loss in the first quarter were $23.2 billion, or $4.09 a share. The larger-than-expected loss has driven the company’s net worth below zero and [...]
One of Dave Schuler’s favorite statements in recent months is that “Anything too big to fail is too big to exist.” If we’re not going to allow them to shoulder the negative consequences of failure because we deem it too dangerous to society, then their very existence is too dangerous for society. Ezra Klein makes [...]
King Banian persuasively argues that this statement by President Obama on Chrysler’s bankruptcy was “utterly contemptible.” While many stakeholders made sacrifices and worked constructively, I have to tell you some did not. In particular, a group of investment firms and hedge funds decided to hold out for the prospect of an unjustified taxpayer-funded bailout. They [...]
If the information in this Op-Ed at the Wall Street Journal is true, then there was an amazing amount of deception going on on the part of former Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairmen Ben Bernanke. In the name of containing “systemic risk,” our regulators spread it. In order to keep Mr. Lewis quiet, they [...]
In “Fiat CEO: Cut Wages or No Chrysler Deal,” I detail how the Obama administration’s attempt to shepherd a shotgun marriage between Chrysler and Fiat appears to be in serious trouble. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne is demanding major concessions from labor unions before agreeing to any deal — and is offering next to nothing in [...]
Several bloggers are pointing to MSNBC’s David Shuster’s quip that “[I]f you are planning simultaneous tea bagging all around the country, you’re going to need a Dick Armey.” This is amusing on a number of levels. First, it’s a very good line. Second, the Left is applauding Left-leaning MSNBC for going after Right-leaning FOX for [...]
Glenn Reynolds has been dutifully chronicling the efforts of those organizing “tea parties” around the land to protest government bailouts and other stuff. Apparently, there are going to be a gaggle of them on April 15. Now, Jane Hamsher is promoting a counterweight: “On Saturday, April 11, there are going to be demonstrations all across [...]
Via Tyler Cowen we get this news story. The Obama administration will play a key role in reshaping General Motors’ board of directors over the next six months, potentially giving it even greater control in the management of the storied American manufacturer. The president’s auto task force plans to consult with the company as it [...]
Friday, under the slightly exaggerated headline “Obama to Run GM, Chrysler,” I passed on word that President Obama was going to demand “pretty drastic changes” in order to back further bailouts for the two struggling US auto companies. Well, reductio creep happened before the weekend expired, as the top story at memeorandum shows. I’ll let [...]
Jack Balkin, the Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School, examines the Constitutionality of the Houseand Senate versions of the bills taxing bonuses of AIG and other companies that received government bailouts and pronounces them Constitutional. He quickly dismisses arguments under the Due Process, Takings, Ex Post Facto, and [...]
There’s a consensus emerging among the bloggers I read that taxing AIG bonuses, in addition to being Constitutionally questionable, is just a really bad idea. Let’s leave aside the conservative die-hards and libertarian types, who might be expected to think that, and concentrate on those on the leeward side of center. Nate Silver offers some [...]
Conor Clarke agrees with me that taxing AIG bonuses amounts to an unconstitutional bill of attainder (although I think non-criminal legislation doesn’t technically qualify). Clarke takes the additional step of interviewing Laurence Tribe, one of the country’s foremost legal minds, on the subject and gets the preliminary answer that, “It would not be terribly difficult [...]
A few weeks ago on OTB Radio, Dave Schuler predicted that Timothy Geithner would be out as Treasury Secretary by the end of the year. At the rate he’s going, he might not last to summer. It’s bad enough his every public appearance causes the Dow to plummet. Now, he’s been openly contradicted by his [...]
Responding to understandable public outrage, President Obama is vowing to figure out a way to get back the money AIG paid to the people who ran the company into the ground. President Barack Obama declared Monday that insurance giant American International Group is in financial straits because of “recklessness and greed” and said he intends [...]
Banks that took bailout money are now finding out that the money came with strings attached. Color me shocked. The list of demands keeps getting longer. Financial institutions that are getting government bailout funds have been told to put off evictions and modify mortgages for distressed homeowners. They must let shareholders vote on executive pay [...]
TigerHawk wants to know why, if it’s a good idea to cap the salaries of CEOs of companies getting federal bailouts at $500,000 why we shouldn’t do that with universities that get federal funding? Megan McArdle isn’t persuaded by the obvious answer: one is asking to be rescued by the taxpayer and the other is [...]
Jonathan Last offers a long retort to the notion that Rush Limbaugh is a significant influencer of American politics, much less the de facto leader of the Republican Party. He rejects, for example, the notion that having a large audience necessarily matters: Consider television. From 1998 to 2005, Everybody Loves Raymond was among the top [...]
In my New Atlanticist piece “Euro Drops Ever So Slightly After Bailout Rejection,” I give a YahooNews headline writer a hard time for turning an insignificant change in the dollar-euro exchange rate into a commentary on Europe’s response to the financial crisis. Hilarity (or, at least, some historical perspective) ensues. Photo by Flickr user Alex [...]
I attended a breakfast this morning with Newt Gingrich as part of the rollout for the American Solutions Winning the Future effort. As usual, he was an extremely forceful speaker and passionate strategist. He opened by saying that he is an optimist and that “President Obama is doing us a huge favor” by showing how [...]
The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live tonight from 7-8 Eastern. Dave Schuler will co-host and Steve Verdon will try to join us to talk about the the stimulus, auto bailouts, and related issues. We’ll also toss in some domestic politics, like the Roland Burris mess, and foreign [...]
Some on the left are under the impression that the Bush administration failed to provide stimulus to get us out of the current economic mess, so we therefore need even more stimulus now. Matt Yglesias: “When you see conservative complaining that the stimulus bill is too expensive and won’t be fast-acting enough, keep in mind [...]
Nate Silver argues that we are seeing “The Republican Death Spiral,” as House Republicans vote against issues ranging from the stimulus package to delaying digital TV to a bill encouraging more gender equity lawsuits. As I have opined before, the Democratic message will essentially be one of two things in 2010: Obama’s accomplished X, Y [...]
Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats passed an $819 billion “stimulus” package without a single Republican vote. All but 11 Democrats voted for the plan, and 177 Republicans voted against it. The 244-to-188 vote came a day after Mr. Obama traveled to Capitol Hill to seek Republican backing, if not for the package then on other [...]
It’s been three decades since Ronald Reagan was elected and both America and the Republican Party have changed.
When I heard President Bush announce the loan for GM and Chrysler this morning I was strongly reminded of a line from the old John Wayne movie, The Comancheros, delivered by the inimitable Edgar Buchanan: Major here has told me what your troubles are. I’ve been thinking it over and in light of my forty [...]
After hedging bets with talk about “controlled bankruptcy,” the Bush administration has decided to give the Big 3 loan guarantees that could not pass the Senate. The White House has decided to come to the rescue of General Motors and Chrysler by providing them with $17.4 billion in low-interest loans to keep them afloat, ABC [...]
I have been consistent in opposing the “bailouts” that have been cropping up since about August of this year. I opposed the bailout of Bear Stearns, AIG, the auto industry, and the $700 billion bailout bill. One of my arguments against such a bail out is that we will set ourselves up for the next [...]
Are Southern senators arguing against a federal bailout of Detroit on free market grounds hypocrites? Mike Lillis thinks so: Yet this argument — that the government has no business interfering in free markets — ignores an increasingly frequent tradition among Southern states, which have fronted billions in local taxpayer dollars in the past two decades [...]
The public opposes bailing out the Big 3 automakers by a wide margin because they believe the companies are responsible for their own failure and doubt that their going bankrupt will hurt the economy, a new WaPo-ABC poll finds. Overall, 55 percent of those polled oppose the latest plan that Chrysler, Ford and General Motors [...]