Conor Clarke

It struck me as a gripping read, so I've posted the whole testimony after the jump. The only thing I'll note is that, if Madoff's story is true, it makes the SEC look pretty foolish. But that's hardly news. More »

The four-day school week. More »

Um, you can't. (Unless you happen to be a nonprofit or a local government, in which case you can find information here.) If someone is telling you that the government is handing out giant sacks of stimulus money, they're probably also eager to tell you about a great new diamond mine in Nigeria that you should be investing in. The Federal Trade Commission has issued a notice about stimulus scams, so consider yourself warned.I'm actually a little disappointed not to… More »

If you are capable of summoning an ounce of sympathy for K Street lobbyists, this is the moment to do so. According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of active lobbyists declined by 2% in 2008, to 15,900. Some portion of this decline should not come as a surprise. With charming understatement, the Journal notes that "Two financial-services lobbying titans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saw their lobbying offices disbanded by the federal government." (It does… More »

If you are capable of summoning an ounce of sympathy for K Street lobbyists, this is the moment to do so. According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of active lobbyists declined by 2% in 2008, to 15,900. Some portion of this decline should not come as a surprise. With charming understatement, the Journal notes that "Two financial-services lobbying titans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, saw their lobbying offices disbanded by the federal government." (It does… More »

Bernie Madoff appears in court this morning, where, according to the judge's brief, two questions will be answered. The first is how he pleads. (And unless his lawyers are trying a surprising and highly counterintuitive strategy, everyone knows the answer to that one: he will plead guilty.) But the second question seems like it's still up in the air: will Madoff remain free until his sentencing? More »

On Monday I recorded an episode of blogging heads with Brian Beutler on the subject of Charles Freeman. I took the position that, since Freeman had managed to become Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, AIPAC's ability to crush its critics must be exaggerated. Of course, a couple of hours after after the episode appeared, Freeman went and resigned. The timing could not have been worse.I now know that Karma does not work in subtle ways. A few stops after I… More »

It's interesting to compare the tone of Alan Greenspan's op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal ("The Fed Didn't Cause the Housing Bubble") with his testimony on the financial crisis from a few months ago. Here's Greenspan in October ("Greenspan Concedes Error on Regulation"):"You had the authority to prevent irresponsible lending practices that led to the subprime mortgage crisis. You were advised to do so by many others," said Representative Henry A. Waxman of… More »

Moody's has a list of 283 speculative-grade companies with weak liquidity and a high risk of default. There were 157 such companies a year ago. (23% of all spec-grade companies make the new list, compared with 9% two years ago.) The report on the Moody's site is here (registration required) and the Huffington Post has the pages here. I'll also stick the file at the end of this post.So, who makes the list? More »

I'll have more on this report later today, but I notice that one of the companies that has been added to Moody's big default risk list (subscription required) is the owner of the Politico: Allbritton Communications Company. More »

I'm confused by the The Wall Street Journal's editorial on the Obama administration's plan to cap charitable deductions:In defense, White House budget chief Peter Orszag wrote on his blog: "If you're a teacher making $50,000 a year and decide to donate $1,000 to the Red Cross or United Way, you enjoy a tax break of $150. If you are Warren Buffet or Bill Gates and you make that same donation, you get a $350 deduction -- more than twice the break as the teacher."… More »

Via Mickey Kaus, I see that yesterday Warren Buffett had some less than loving words about Obama and his budget (I've edited this slightly for readability and the rest is after the jump):[J]ob one is to win the war, the economic war, job two is to win the economic war, and job three. And you can't expect people to unite behind you if you're trying to jam a whole bunch of things down their throat. So I would absolutely say, for the interim, till we get this one… More »

Some thoughtful comments yesterday make me think that I should say more about Greg Mankiw's claim that the tax code is "already highly progressive." Greg writes:The tax rate that top income earners face is not historically anomalous. It was higher during the Clinton years but lower during the Reagan years.The second sentence is true, but the first sentence is not. (That is, if you interpret "historically" in the above sentence as "with respect to the history of the… More »

Senator Grassley, who embraces bad tax arguments with an impressive zen-like calm, makes his case against Obama's tax plans: Democrats [say] that most small-business owners, whose profits flow through to their personal income taxes, do not fall in the top tax brackets. Overall, fewer than 2 percent do, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. But Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the… More »

I used Greg Mankiw's textbooks in college and read his blog every day. But in this Washington Post forum Mankiw makes two arguments against Obama's progressive tax plans that I find pretty puzzling. They are:CBO data show that the tax code, including all federal taxes, is already highly progressive.and.President Obama's proposal to raise taxes at the top to further cut taxes at the bottom has one rationale: using the coercive power of the state to "spread the… More »

Denko asks:Virtually every government in the world is borrowing heavily in order to stimulate the economy. Who's lending?Governments have been borrowing heavily for centuries, so to some extent there's nothing new here. (See here for the CIA's ranking of nations by government debt as a percentage of GDP.) It also isn't necessarily true that every government is borrowing heavily to spend on stimulus: a lot of governments are spending only a tiny fraction of their… More »

The fact that there are still 17 unfilled spots at Treasury -- including the top deputy position -- is not great. But the fact that Robert Gibbs chalks this up to a "very rigorous process" of vetting is also a bit odd. Or at least it assumes we have the memory span of a chipmunk. When Timothy Geithner's confirmation hit the rocks, the argument you heard over and over again was that we couldn't waste time on nettlesome tax questions because the nation's economy was… More »

The fact that there are still 17 unfilled spots at Treasury -- including the top deputy position -- is not great. But the fact that Robert Gibbs chalks this up to a "very rigorous process" of vetting is also a bit odd. Or at least it assumes we have the memory span of a chipmunk. When Timothy Geithner's confirmation hit the rocks, the argument you heard over and over again was that we couldn't waste time on nettlesome tax questions because the nation's economy was… More »

I have a feeling that the Journal reporter who wrote this piece came up with a funny idea for the headline and lede and then sat down and did the reporting. I think I mean that as a compliment. Anyway:Mattresses Aren't a Safe Cash Stash.It is a piece about how the mattress industry is taking a big hit in the recession. (I'm sure they'll spring back eventually, or find someone to cushion the landing. Etc.) More »

A piece in the new Economist says we shouldn't abandon every aspect of the efficient-markets hypothesis:[I]t is important not to throw out all the insights of efficient-market enthusiasts. Although it is theoretically possible to make money by outperforming the markets, it is extremely difficult in practice.The piece is good and worth reading. But the central question -- hold onto EMH or let it go the way of the dinosaurs -- sorta seems like it depends on how you… More »