links for 2010-03-31

• Financial Reform – Punks and Plutocrats – Paul Krugman
  There’s every reason to believe that this will be the rule from now on: when push comes to shove, no matter who is in power, the financial sector will be bailed out. In effect, debts of shadow banks, like deposits at conventional banks, now have a government guarantee.

  The only question now is whether the financial industry will pay a price for this privilege, whether Wall Street will be obliged to behave responsibly in return for government backing.

  (tags: krugman politics power finance banking reform regulation crisis bailout moral_hazard)

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links for 2010-03-29

• Vengeance Will Be McCain's! – Jonathan Chait
  if we believe McCain and Graham, they're saying that there are areas in public policy where Republicans would help make legislative changes that they believe would make the country a better place, but they are refusing to do so out of pique that Democrats employed a commonly-used legislative procedure. In other words, their own claim is that they are deliberately choosing to create suffering — not merely preventing legislation the Democrats want, but preventing legislation they agree would help people and would otherwise support — in order to punish the Democrats. This sounds like something the Democrats would accuse them of doing, not something they'd boast about.
  (tags: mccain republican politics partisanship extremism obstructionism public_interest society)
• Hobby or Necessity? – Thomas Friedman
  This tiff actually reflects a tectonic shift that has taken place beneath the surface of Israel-U.S. relations. I’d summarize it like this: In the last decade, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process — for Israel — has gone from being a necessity to a hobby. And in the last decade, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process — for America — has gone from being a hobby to a necessity. Therein lies the problem.
  (tags: israel palestine usa foreign_policy thomas_friedman peace war politics middle_east iran diplomacy negotiation)
• The Rage Is Not About Health Care – Frank Rich
  That a tsunami of anger is gathering today is illogical, given that what the right calls “Obamacare” is less provocative than either the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or Medicare, an epic entitlement that actually did precipitate a government takeover of a sizable chunk of American health care. But the explanation is plain: the health care bill is not the main source of this anger and never has been. It’s merely a handy excuse. The real source of the over-the-top rage of 2010 is the same kind of national existential reordering that roiled America in 1964.
  (tags: frank_rich anger health_care reform usa politics republican extremism media racism obama propaganda tea_party)

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links for 2010-03-28

• Comptroller of Currency Often Sides With Banks, Critics Say – NYTimes.com
  What many customers may not realize is that the man who oversees the operation used to represent the very banks they are complaining about.

  John C. Dugan, a former bank lobbyist, has been comptroller since 2005 — when the mortgage boom was in full force — and he’s responsible for regulating banks with national charters, including giants like Citibank and Chase. Like his recent predecessors, Mr. Dugan often takes positions that align with banks, even as they have come under withering attack for their role in the financial crisis.

  (tags: regulation corruption government banking finance oversight)

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links for 2010-03-27

• BBC News – Fear and foreboding in the Middle East
  The Middle East is full of talk of war. Not today, tomorrow or perhaps even next year but the horizon is dark, and people who have to live with the Middle East's grim collection of smouldering problems are finding it hard to look ahead with anything other than foreboding.
  (tags: bbc middle_east palestine israel map jerusalem war peace settlements foreign_policy netanyahu negotiation)

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links for 2010-03-25

• An open letter to conservatives | TPM
  Dear Conservative Americans,

  The years have not been kind to you. I grew up in a profoundly Republican home, so I can remember when you wore a very different face than the one we see now. You've lost me and you've lost most of America. Because I believe having responsible choices is important to democracy, I'd like to give you some advice and an invitation.

  (tags: republican politics partisanship extremism hate fear irrationality tea_party usa)
• Let’s Fight Over a Big Plan – Thomas Friedman
  Ever since Israel occupied the West Bank and its Palestinian population in 1967, Israelis have faced a dilemma: Do they want a Jewish state, a democratic state and state in all of the land of Israel (Israel plus the West Bank)? In this world, they can have only two out of three. Israel can be Jewish and democratic, but not if it keeps the West Bank, because the Palestinians there plus all the Israeli Arabs will eventually outnumber the Jews. It can be Jewish and keep the West Bank, but then it can’t be democratic; Arabs will be the majority. It can be democratic and keep the West Bank, but then it can’t be Jewish.
  (tags: thomas_friedman israel palestine conflict war west_bank foreign_policy diplomacy negotiation middle_east peace usa)

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links for 2010-03-24

• Fear Strikes Out – Paul Krugman
  This is, of course, a political victory for President Obama, and a triumph for Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker. But it is also a victory for America’s soul. In the end, a vicious, unprincipled fear offensive failed to block reform. This time, fear struck out.
  (tags: krugman fear extremism politics partisanship vote health_care reform law victory accountability republican)
• Greenspan’s error – Felix Salmon
  The problem is that it would have been ideologically very difficult for Greenspan, who always wanted the absolute minimum of government interference in the markets and the world generally, to expand the role of the Fed from that of simply setting short-term interest rates. Even when the Fed’s control of short-term interest rates was clearly inadequate to achieve what it’s the job of a central bank to do.

  To make matters worse, the reason that short-term interest rates were increasingly powerless was that Greenspan kept them near zero for so long: he basically created frictionless market conditions in which anything could happen — and anything did.

  (tags: felix_salmon greenspan interest ideology free_market emh apology regulation government federal_reserve crisis markets banking)

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links for 2010-03-23

• Win on health and Barack Obama wins around the world – Andrew Sullivan
  This is what we’ve learnt this year: Obama does not mind defeats if they are procedural or about others saving face. He’s happy to admit error; to give his opponents a chance to lunge at his jugular; to let opponents enjoy a day in the sun; to shave off any small stuff as long as the big stuff remains. He seems oddly impervious to personal insult: he doesn’t mind being affronted by the Chinese or humiliated by Netanyahu as long as it’s a matter of symbolism. On substance, he wants what he wants; and, on the big stuff, he has given up on nothing yet.
  (tags: andrew_sullivan obama health_care reform politics patience personality leadership president)

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links for 2010-03-22

• A Spreadsheet Way of Knowledge – Steven Levy
  It is not far-fetched to imagine that the introduction of the electronic spreadsheet will have an effect like that brought about by the development during the Renaissance of double-entry bookkeeping. Like the new spreadsheet, the double-entry ledger, with its separation of debits and credits, gave merchants a more accurate picture of their businesses and let them see – there, on the page – how they might grow by pruning here, investing there. The electronic spreadsheet is to double entry what an oil painting is to a sketch. And just as double-entry changed not only individual businesses but business, so has the electronic spreadsheet.
  (tags: computer technology history software spreadsheet business accounting model)

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links for 2010-03-21

• Closing Arguments on Health Care – Paul Krugman
  Beyond that, this is a story that could happen only in America. In every other advanced nation, insurance coverage is available to everyone regardless of medical history. Our system is unique in its cruelty.
  (tags: krugman health_care insurance corruption greed government legislation obama reform usa)
• Why We Need to Dream – Jonah Lehrer
  Why does the brain replay experience? Wilson and others argue that the dreaming rats are consolidating their new memories, embedding these fragile traces into the neural network. While we’re fast asleep, the mind is sifting through the helter-skelter of the day, trying to figure out what we need to remember and what we can afford to forget.
  (tags: jonah_lehrer dream sleep psychology memory brain science experiment neuroscience)

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links for 2010-03-20

• Israel thumbs its nose at Obama – Daniel Larison
  Dependence of one state upon another creates perverse incentives for both. The unconditional backing of one side in a conflict does not encourage compromise but devotion to maximalist positions. Likewise, if a patron receives no reciprocity for its support, only the client state benefits from the relationship, creating an increasingly untenable situation for the patron. Maximalist demands backed by a patron’s support tend to be detrimental even to the client state in the long run—because they shield the client from the consequences of its actions.
  (tags: israel obama usa politics foreign_policy power incentives conflict settlements extremism)

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