Recent Blog Posts
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The Times' Rorshach Geithner Story
Apr 27 20099:04am EDT -
Sinking Animal Spirits
Apr 27 20098:04am EDT -
Counter-cyclical Urban Policy
Apr 26 200910:04am EDT -
Be Your Own Counterfeiter
Apr 26 20099:04am EDT -
Being Tim Geithner
Apr 25 200912:04pm EDT -
Notes From a Press Conference Naif
Apr 25 20099:04am EDT -
What Good is the News?
Apr 25 20098:04am EDT -
Stressful Enough
Apr 24 20092:04pm EDT -
Not Regretting the Pound
Apr 24 20091:04pm EDT -
Introducing the New Ford Squeeze
Apr 24 20099:04am EDT -
Non-Economic Questions of the Day
Apr 24 20099:04am EDT -
The Stress Test Blind Alley
Apr 24 20098:04am EDT -
Happy Hour
Apr 23 20099:04pm EDT -
Recovery Without Rebalancing
Apr 23 20096:04pm EDT -
The Shape of Your Recession
Apr 23 20095:04pm EDT
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The Dangers of Looking to Washington for Help
Not since the House Republicans scuppered the first version of the TARP bill has the stock market paid so much attention to the legislative branch of government. I have no idea what's going on on Capitol Hill: the WSJ is reporting that Congress might pass a last-minute bill before Thanksgiving, allowing lawmakers to leave town until January, while the Washington Post is adamant that there's no deal today and that the fate of Detroit will lie in Hank Paulson's hands, unless Congress returns for a rare post-Thanksgiving session.
What's clear is that this is no way to put together a coherent bailout package which carefully balances the interests of all stakeholders. Instead, Washington has descended into unhelpful finger-pointing, with the White House blaming Congress, the Democrats blaming the Republicans, and everybody caring far too much about taking a two-month-long vacation in the middle of a worst economic and financial crisis in living memory.
For the past decade, the markets, when they've got into trouble, have looked to Washington for help. Right now, that seems like just another strategy which works until it doesn't.
