Archive for September, 2008
The Bailout Debate
I’ve already stated here a couple times that I don’t fully understand what’s going on with the financial crisis, so I’ll try not to get too cocky in my commentary on it. But I will say that it seems to me that the people in charge of explaining this to the American people are doing a really crappy job of it. The media (at least, the cable news media) has been presenting the situation as a choice between two alternatives: (1) “bailout,” or (2) “no bailout.” Except that this doesn’t seem to be where the real debate is. As I understand it, the real issue is whether to add some combination of the following provisions to the current bailout plan:
- Creating an oversight board and some sort of judicial or administrative review.
- Taking an equity stake in institutions participating in the program to protect taxpayers.
- Limiting executive compensation.
- Tying the program to a second stimulus package.
- Forcing Treasury to renegotiate mortgages for homeowners once it buys them up, in order to stabilize the housing market.
There seems to be near-universal agreement on #1, even among the administration. The rest seem to be where the real debate lies. I’m not entirely clear on which of the above provisions are included in Dodd’s proposal (PDF), but for sure the first three are, I think #5 is, and I think #4 is not.
As far as I can evaluate these things, #1 strikes me as obviously necessary, #2 and #5 strike me as deal-breakers that Congress should force the administration to accept, and #3 and #4 strike me as good ideas to push for but not necessarily deal-breakers.
But again, I’m not going to pretend I know what I’m talking about. What is frustrating, however, is that if all I did was watch the news, I wouldn’t be able to explain even the parameters of the debate, let alone get a feel for where I stand. Obviously this is complicated stuff, and it’s difficult for anybody to explain it clearly, and it would be even more difficult to get Americans to pay close enough attention to understand things. But I’d feel better if I at least got the impression that these people were making an effort.
Anyway, here are a few sources that have been more useful to me than the TV: Paul Krugman, Calculated Risk, Greg Mankiw, Ezra Klein, and this post from Matthew Yglesias.
McCain vs. Obama on Tax & Economics
Thanks to Professor Kaplan of the Illinois Law School for sending this fairly easy to read and neutral summary of the various tax and economic policies (mostly tax) of McCain and Obama. It does a good job of displaying their differences side by side and discussing the potential impact of their positions. Will the differences between the candidates in tax and economic policies have an actual impact on the economy? I’m unsure of the degree to which campaign proposals translate into real world change. In other words, how much actual difference exists between the candidates?
On a somewhat unrelated note, I hear that some libertarians (Tom) wish for a McCain victbry simply on the basis of the gridlock that it would create. They favor gridlock because it will theoretically slow Congressional spending. I’m not sure that I agree with the prediction of gridlock. It seems that government, like corporations, will craftily find the loopholes and will spend regardless of the formal impediments.
Steven Spielberg Movies
It feels a little bit like the world’s going to hell in a handbasket today, but I’m just gonna keep doing these movie rankings. On this day of uncertainty and turmoil, I thought I’d go with a director known for being warm and fuzzy: Steven Spielberg. He gets a bit of a bad rap in some circles, but I think that’s a little unfair. I think it’s true that some of the films he’s made that are considered his best work are over-rated (Schindler’s List, Private Ryan), and it’s also true that he’s made some fairly bad movies over the course of his career. But it’s difficult to ignore a big chunk of his work that is truly great stuff. From best to worst:
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Jaws
- Catch Me If You Can
- Jurassic Park
- Munich
- A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind
- Minority Report
- E.T.: Extraterrestrial
- Schindler’s List
- Saving Private Ryan
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
- The War of the Worlds
- The Lost World: Jurassic Park
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
- The Terminal
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Some significant omissions that I haven’t seen: Amistad, Hook, Empire of the Sun, The Color Purple, 1941, The Sugarland Express.
The real dividing line in this list in my view is between #12 and #13. The movies from 13 down all ultimately fail, while those from 12 up are at least good, if not great. I have a feeling this list is less in keeping with conventional opinion than my previous two. That’s probably because I’m not really a great lover of Spielberg’s work. With the exception of the top 5 on this list, I’m not moved by much of his work. Still: those top 5 are really good stuff.
Google Chrome-agnon Man
I downloaded Google Chrome with great excitement about 2 weeks ago. I generally love Google. I use Gmail, Gchat, Google Documents, Google Gears, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Search, etc. I use them everyday. Google’s philosophy is simple elegance and an emphasis on efficiency and reliability. I expected the same out of Google Chrome.
At first glance, Chrome does fit into the larger Google philosophy. Firefox, which I have loved for many years, suddenly morphed into the clunky Internet Explorer in my mind. I transferred all of my bookmarks over with relative ease. My life changed; I broke up with Firefox, but like the crafty fox she did not beg, knowing I would come back.
Chrome is a 19th Century wooden house infested with bugs. Tabs close for no apparent reason. I could not get Youtube to function properly. I could not get MySpace’s music player (I investigate a lot of bands) to work. Perhaps I was biased by the other bugs, but the rest of my computer seemed to run much slower, despite claims that Chrome is more efficient. Also, other programs seemed to crash more frequently than normal. Unlike Firefox, it has no quick search box in the upper right corner that allows you to search Youtube, IMDB, Answers.com, etc, without first going to those sites. It did not appear to me that Chrome could do anything that Firefox cannot already do. Also, at least so far, Chrome doesn’t have the independent community creating helpful add-ons as Firefox has. A minor note is that the scroll bar on the right side of the screen is hyper sensitive. With all of this said, my guess based on their other products is that they will get it right in version 2.0 or 3.0.
It appears to me that Google spent more time on this promotional cartoon than on the product itself. To protest, I have created my own cartoon based on Page 36 of theirs:
To adopt Paul Mooney playing a movie critic on Dave Chappelle’s show: Well, I made a cartoon, maybe they’ll publish my cartoon. Sorry, that’s a very obscure reference that only Kevin will understand and I cannot find the video anywhere online.
Kiyoshi Martinez lecture today at WIU
Our buddy Kiyoshi is speaking today at Western about the future of journalism. Best of luck Yoshi!
Check out the preview story.
Stanley Kubrick Movies
I am highly resistant to writing about politics at the moment (and probably will be until the debates start up), and I lack the knowledge to write competently about the financial craziness that’s been going on, so I thought I’d do another edition of what I did a couple days ago when I listed my ranking of Coen brothers movies. I’ll try to make a little mini-series out of this with different directors, and hopefully it will provide a sense of levity as things get more intense the closer we get to Election Day. Today, I’m tackling the films of my all-time favorite director, Stanley Kubrick. From best to worst:
- Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
- Paths of Glory
- The Shining
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Full Metal Jacket
- A Clockwork Orange
- Eyes Wide Shut
- Lolita
- Spartacus
Excluded from the list because I haven’t seen them: The Killing, Barry Lyndon, and several of his very early films. This is a tough list to make for a couple reasons. First, Kubrick’s movies are very different from one another, making them difficult to compare. Second, his movies can be very polarizing, 2001 being probably the best example of that, where one person might think it’s the greatest movie ever and another will walk away hating it.
One thing I always marvel at when I think about Kubrick is that a single director somehow made my all-time favorite comedy (Dr. Strangelove), horror movie (The Shining), science fiction movie (2001), and war movie (Paths of Glory). Paths of Glory, by the way, is not as widely seen as many of his other movies, but people really ought to watch it. It’s powerful and courageous in a way very few movies are. A lot of Kubrick’s work strikes me as a series of attempts to cut through various absurdities, and where Dr. Strangelove manages that feat with hilarious satire, Paths of Glory manages it with deadly seriousness. That he’s able to communicate in such different ways is a testament to his range, and that he’s able to communicate so powerfully at all is a testament to his enormous talent.
Also, if there are readers out there who are big fans of Kubrick, I’d recommend the documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures.
Wandering the Economic Malaise
Are we in an economic crisis? There are many opinions on this subject, and unfortunately, many of them correspond to the commentator’s political opinions. Liberals are more likely to say that the economy is awful and in a state of ruins, implying that Bush is responsible and that a change of parties in the White House is needed. Conservatives are more likely to say that select stories about the economy are making it appear to be in a state of crisis, but that the overall market fundamentals are sound, conversely implying that a Republican White House can manage the economy.
But by placing some of the burden on the shareholders and bondholders of the big financial institutions, financial regulators have at least forced some discipline onto the system, making bankers and investors think twice before they once again head off to the races. By allowing firms that took excessive risks to fail, regulators also reduce the political pressure to overregulate the system in the aftermath of the crisis.
Columbia Economics Professor and Nobel Prize Winner, Joseph Stiglitz, has long been among the liberal economists (Paul Krugman, as well) who blame all the world’s ills on President Bush. I normally believe that Stiglitz has lost his sanity as he ages, but I appreciated some parts of his CNN article, “How to Prevent the Next Wall Street Crisis“:
Consenting adults should be given great freedom to do whatever they want, but that does not mean they should gamble with other people’s money. Some may worry that this may stifle innovation. But that may be a good thing considering the kind of innovation we had — attempting to subvert accounting and regulations.
There isn’t any recession. The latest figures show that we clearly were not in one as of midsummer, whether you use the rule-of-thumb definition – two consecutive quarters of GDP shrinkage – or the looser concept of a sustained and significant economic decline. The economy shrank marginally (-0.2%) in the fourth quarter of 2007, but otherwise it’s been growing steadily for years. In the most recent quarter it grew at a vigorous 3.3%, fueled not by government stimulus checks but by a strong rise in net exports. The OECD has just raised its forecast of U.S. growth for the full year from 1.2% to 1.8% – not blistering, but still the fastest growth of all the G-7 countries.
The Center for Inquiry promotional video
Check out this video promoting the Center for Inquiry. (h/t: Break the Terror)