Unless your name is Mitt Romney, this is terrifying. The head of the World Bank yesterday warned that financial markets face a rerun of the Great Panic of 2008. On the bleakest day for the global economy this year, Robert Zoellick said crisis-torn Europe was heading for the ‘danger zone’. Mr Zoellick, who stands down at the end of the… Read more »
With the news of Germany standing fast against “Eurobonds,” and the Eurozone crisis worsening as a result of the impasse, I posted this silly tweet last night: Fear! Fire! Eurobonds! Awake! #PANIC Political Math said he found this very funny, to which I replied with a faux-quote from Angela Merkel: “Let the little people blow.” This caused a brainstorm, as… Read more »
Last night, inspired by the generally unsatisfying, incomplete, and often vacuous nature of the tweets I keep seeing from both Left and Right about the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and the ongoing economic calamity — and also by this National Review article, among other big-picture economic pieces I’ve read recently — I went on another one of my extended Twitter… Read more »
Are we experiencing a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis? The New York Times explores the question. It’s a good overview; I encourage you to read the whole thing. I am inclined to side with the pessimists, but I hope I’m wrong. More broadly, I fear we’ll look back at 2010 as a “dead cat bounce” rather than a genuine… Read more »
Hey, I needed a different title than #PANIC. Already used that one. And I’m saving #DOOM for a plunge of 800 points / 8% or more. (Tomorrow! Tomorrow! I love ya, tomorrow!) Anyway… I have a pet theory about this. Sometimes, I think Wall Street gets what it wants from politicians, expecting to feel reassured by it — but instead,… Read more »
As if recent events haven’t created enough cause for #PANIC already, I’ve recently seen a couple of charts of economic data that really put things into (scary) perspective. One is the “real” monthly employment picture since 2009, subtracting out the 150,000 jobs that must be added per month just to keep up with population growth: Yikes. The other requires a… Read more »
“One of the most important things about this piece of legislation is that never again will any president, of either party, be able to raise the debt ceiling without being held accountable for it by the American people.” –Mitch McConnell, just now. Translation: henceforth, members of Congress, of both parties, will feel even more freedom to pass irresponsible budgets, pretending… Read more »
President Obama, Speaker Boehner and Senate leaders in both parties have agreed to a deal that would effectively raise the debt ceiling through 2012 while enacting a mostly Republican-friendly package of spending cuts (and no new revenues). It would also set up a likely showdown in December over a second wave of deficit-reduction measures as recommended by a bipartisan congressional… Read more »
Seriously? Seriously? We’ve wasted three whole days, with national default* on our legal obligations mere days away, for this?!? House Republicans will link passage of a balanced-budget amendment to Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) last-ditch debt-ceiling plan, which GOP lawmakers said would move the measure to passage in a high-stakes vote later on Friday. … Republican lawmakers say the Boehner framework… Read more »