It’s an exercise in futility to argue against a government bailout of one or more of the auto companies. Politically, nothing else can happen. Let’s instead argue for the form of the salvation of Detroit. Let’s note from the outset that the political claims that the rationale for investing government money in any one or […]

While he might drive you up the wall at times, Willem Buiter never fails to entertain. His latest missive at FT.com takes on the Obama economic advisory team. Buiter finds nothing to like about them, dismissing the whole lot because they are too old, there aren’t enough serious economists, too many lawyers, they’re trade protectionists […]

As you might imagine, the AIG story raised the bile of a few bloggers. Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism did the best job analyzing and raging about the move and Felix Salmon at Portfolio.com also weighed in. Contrasting their observations with the white wash that CNBC gave to this story via the appearance of AIG’s […]

Here’s a quick roundup of some interesting bits of news. The WSJ is reporting that the Fed has approved on an expedited basis a request by American Express to become a bank. The move of course is being taken to allow American Express access to the various Fed facilities. AmEx has been bleeding badly due […]