Revisionist History As historians know full well, Presidential reputations sometimes take decades to settle out, experiencing ups and downs in the meantime. For example, Harry Truman left office in 1953 quite unpopular. Over time, though, his stock gradually rose as society came to appreciate — after the fact — his straight-talking populism, common sense, and...Read More
Fascinating Juxtaposition The two photos above, from today’s New York Times, present a fascinating juxtaposition. The photo on the left shows FDR signing legislation — known as The Glass-Steagall Act — separating the nation’s investment banks from its commercial banks. It was the latter that held ordinary Americans’ savings deposits, and it was the former’s...Read More
The Age of Regulatory Capture Millions of Americans lose their homes and jobs, Wall Street devours trillions in government bailouts while its leaders pay themselves billions . . . and there’s still no discussion of meaningful financial reform? Incredible. Here’s a quote from one of the best Op-Ed piece I’ve seen this Summer, contrasting the...Read More
Closer to Constituents, Further From Lobbyists What if Washington Were a Ghost Town?–Headline, Peggy Noonan Op-Ed piece; The Wall Street Journal (8/1/09) My thoughts exactly . . . almost 16 years ago. In fact, that was the thrust of my own 1993(!) Op-Ed piece: Here’s an excerpt: In an era of jet travel, teleconferencing, and...Read More
“Making Bankers Mad” The Obama plan is little more than an attempt to stick some new regulatory fingers into a very leaky financial dam rather than rebuild the dam itself . . . Firms will have to put up a little more capital, and deal with a little more oversight, but once the financial crisis...Read More
Creative Responses to the Financial Crisis I suppose it’s just another a sign of our warped, contemporary values that we have a Strategic Petroleum Reserve (“SPR“) — heaven forbid our SUV’s become idled — but nothing equivalent for food. Clearly, the ongoing financial crisis is going to be with us for awhile longer. In the...Read More
