Light Touch and Iron Fist (So That's What They're Calling It These Days)

Paul Krugman has a great column in NYT today discussing the differences between the three candidates positions on economics. I guess you could boil his viewpoint down to McCain being the conservative, Obama the liberal and Clinton the progressive.

Wish I could feel that HRC isn't just trying to prove she'll be more generous that Barack. "I'm going to spend more on this than he is!" These were useful speeches this week. stark contrasts.

Some other Krugman thoughts on how we are where we are.
http://tinyurl.com/25pgzd

McCain's levitation act has been perfected. He is recommending LESS regulation, exactly the opposite of what a sane person would call for. He is recommending MORE war, exactly the opposite of what we need.

But McCain is a great BBQ chef, and he has a rich wife, and he is, you know, a war hero, and...

"I like McCain" -- Ana Marie Cox

Perhaps the most damaging long-term outcome of the Reagan years: the American aversion to regulation.

People seem to think that capitalism is the end-all, be-all of democracy and American culture, when it isn't even close.

At it's core, the goal of a business is to make money. And the goal of government should be to create a framework for order and social justice. The two aren't necessary mutually exclusive, and business isn't "bad" for seeking a profit, but oftentimes profiteering places the business at odds with the good of society (enter "the government," in theory). Whenever efforts are made to deregulate an industry, that's code for "break the societal framework that keeps that industry in check." This is what has happened to countless industries in America, usually with bad results.

The airlines, energy providers, financial institutions, and mass communications are all industries that have been regulated to one degree or another in the past. Enter Reagan and Bush (and Clinton, who was fairly lax as a Democrat), add in a trend of "free markets" and deregulation, and look at the state of the industries listed above. You have monopolization, predatory practices, and chaos . . . which could be avoided it the government got involved sooner.

You might call it "regulation," but I call it "the rule of law" . . . and without law, you face anarchy.

PK really has been a realist about the economy for years.

Kathy, HRC's strength all along in the this campaign has been her detailed policy plans. Considering how hard she worked on health-care reform I think she deserves the benefit of the doubt that she means to implement those policies.

Ironically HRC to get health care off the ground because she refused to compromise and Obama might fail because he is too willing to compromise (unless we Dems get a huge majority in Congress).

But since her stint as senator, HRC has really learned how to work across the aisles and give an inch or two.

Restructuring the regulatory agencies would be an important step. More important though will be having someone actually enforcing regulations, which has not really happened in any significant way the last seven years. If nothing else, Obama is signaling that he will take seriously the need to oversee financial markets.

What's interesting is that given his very broad base of small donors, Obama will have more independence when it comes to empowering regulatory agencies than either Clinton or McCain would have (which is not the same thing as saying he would exercise that independence; if he's smart he will). Interestingly, we're already starting to see the effects of Obama's donor base in Pelosi's rebuff of wealthy Clinton donors. Their threats to stop funding the DCCC simply don't have the kind of sway that they would have had before this election cycle.

Southern Bell: I'll grant you all that.

"Regulations? We don't need no stinkin' regulations!"

Financial innovation = unrestricted Wall Street.

Which, by the way,brought us Enron type scandals, the mortgage crisis, the shrinking dollar, and large government backed bailouts of Wall Street.

I don't know how much more "innovation" we can take.

Thanks, Kathy.

It's the old cliche about the swinging pendulum swinging.

Regulations on the banking system saved capitalism in the US; many many ordinary workers completely lost faith in our system in the 1930s and started turning to communism.

I'm not saying that would happen now, I don't think that's the case at all, but any financial system needs to change with the times and address new situations that threaten the health of our financial institutions.

Don't worry -- once McCain finishes reading Greenspan's book, he's going to come up with a maverick plan to save us all from recession.

it's incredibly hard for anybody, be they regulator or CEO, to stand in the way of a financial innovation that's churning out big profits

Maybe, if whenever 'big profits' come into play, the regulators just worked their way up the chain to see where the 'something for nothing' link is to be found. Because whenever someone gets something for nothing (like a house with no money down) someone's sure to get screwed in the end.

AMC my how times have changed from when you were interpreting the daily ramblings of Washingtonienne on the state of Republican sexual health rather than cut and pasting the blurb of a faceless TIME reporter on the state of Obama Financial Health. I know what appeals more to upper middle class elites...

At least Jessica upgraded her status to kicking it with ladies who are with the RICH and powerful. Now, you are wearing career casuals in a cubicle.

Where is a real DC scandal when the swampland desperately needs one?

Yes, "Regulate regulate, saith those who have not a pot to piss in, nor a window to throw it out of"

BRILLIANT!!

Obamabots, Clintonites, Trolls, lend me your eyes. I bid you a fond self-absorbed adieu. HH, continue to rage against the machine. SZ, past zingers notw/standing, keep up the good fight. S Bell, Rose and other Hill-billies--I hope you get a woman president and soon. RKA, best of luck. Malcolm in the middle, see you in "the Japan." 53, well, whatever...

And Swamp-overlords, I take back all my ravings about blood and revolution--really ; )

Oregon JC:

Farewell, academic wanderer. May you associate with a better class of rabble. You will be missed.

Light Touch and Iron Fist

Personally, I preferred Snake in the Monkey's Shadow. I liked Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon too...

Considering how hard she worked on health-care reform I think she deserves the benefit of the doubt that she means to implement those policies.

Sorry, SB, but I look at the people & organizations funding & running her campaign, & I'm not so inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt.

For example: her history with the Bankruptcy Bill.