One thing that really puzzles me about the great bailout plan is the almost universal acceptance that Paulson should be the one to run it, at least until the next Administration. More generally, I’m surprised by the kid-glove treatment he’s been getting in public discussion, even from people highly critical of the plan.

Let’s stipulate that he’s a smart guy. He wouldn’t have risen to the top in Wall Street if he wasn’t. And, of course, if having smart guys running the show was sufficient to ensure good outcomes, Wall Street wouldn’t be in its current mess.

Looking back at the record, plenty of people have observed that, at least in his public statements, Paulson repeatedly underestimated the severity of the crisis. And there’s nothing in the ad hoc shifts between cash infusions, bailouts and bankruptcies to suggest that he has much more of an understanding of what’s going on than anyone else. As Paul Krugman has said, he’s making it up as he goes along, just like the rest of us.

But the bailout plan is something else. The possibility of a meltdown like this has been talked about, increasingly seriously, for the last couple of years. Yet Paulson responds with a three page document saying “I need $700 billion, no questions asked”. Wasn’t there a contingency plan? Or worse still, was this the contingency plan?

Either way, Paulson should be sacked forthwith.

I was one of a smallish group of bloggers who met Bill Clinton yesterday at the Clinton Global Initiative.¹ The interview was supposed to be exclusively about the Initiative, but about 70% of the conversation ended up focusing on the financial turmoil. For the benefit of anyone who’s interested, my impression (based on notes – no recording was allowed) below the fold. Dana Goldstein, who was at the event too, has more to say “here”:http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=09&year=2008&base_name=bill_clinton_revisits_his_econ.

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Obituaries here and here. I should say upfront that I never met Camejo, but we had many associates in common. The people I knew who had been expelled from the SWP around the same time regarded him with something like reverence; in fact it always seemed to me that he was the one person who could have led the various layers of people who were expelled into some sort of alternative grouping. Perhaps he thought that would have been a bad thing to do; if so, perhaps he was right. He preferred to put his efforts (and his not inconsiderable financial support) into a wider range of (admittedly only somewhat) broader efforts. After expulsion from the SWP he worked for Merrill Lynch; and after being expelled from there he was a major figure in the socially responsible investing movement. According to the wikipedia article, he participated in the 1960 Olympics on the Venezualan yachting team.

We were talking about him over dinner last night and, finding out he was a socialist, my 11-yr-old said “oh well, then he’d have supported Obama”. My response: “I wouldn’t bet on it”. Merrill Lynch outlived him by a week. I’m sorry that he’s gone.

Update: a touching memoir from Louis Proyject gives you a real sense of the man and his world.

Steven Poole is taking a break from blogging, so we can’t get his thoughts on the “clean bailout” as an example of Unspeak. To me the natural association is something like “clean handover” as in “I want a clean handover. Leave the money in unmarked used bills, no tricks and no police, nobody gets hurt”

In July I couldn’t blog about a major episode in the Belgian political crisis – I was on holidays in the Walloon area of Belgium, in a cottage without electricity, and without access to the web. Today there is another sequel in the Belgian political crisis which has now been going on for about 15 months. By now most Belgians are suffering from political depression: they are no longer able to swallow yet another glass of this soap. Yet if anybody out there is still interested (I am, even if also politically slightly depressed), below the fold is a short summary of the last two episodes of the Belgian crisis. Warning: this post requires some knowledge on the Belgian political labyrinth, which I’ve tried to sketch “here”:https://crookedtimber.org/2007/09/19/the-ingredients-of-the-belgian-cocktail/
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Since Daniel is refusing to comment on the current world-historical situation, I refer readers to his comments about the social construction of disability at the Virtual Stoa. Oh, and I’ve had a lot of fun watching the Dalek Work Out video with my kids, which he might like to check out.

I suppose that I ought to make this clear; I’m not going to be writing anything, on CT or any of my other blogs, about the current global financial markets meltdown. This is basically because of my professional commitments; as you know, I’m a stockbroker by trade, and what with one thing and another, I’m in a more responsible position than I was when I started blogging. Going through my reasons in a numbered list:
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As promised, in honor of One Web Day, I’m posting information about one of my favorite Web sites and I encourage you to do the same, here or on your own blog. I’m always on the lookout for sites that make a difference in people’s lives and one such site is WalkerTracker. It is no exaggeration that it has had a direct impact on my everyday life as I have become a serious walking enthusiast and thus get more regular exercise now than I had ever before.

WalkerTracker helps keep track of one’s daily steps encouraging a healthy lifestyle by offering all sorts of neat statistics and graphs of one’s step measures. Of course, one doesn’t necessarily need a gadget (i.e., a pedometer) or a tool such as this site to go out on walks, but I have found it extremely inspiring and motivating to be able to keep track of my steps and see the progress I make over time. My daily goal is 10,000 steps (that’s about 4-5 miles) and on average I’ve managed to come close to this each month since I’ve started in April, 2007. I’m excited to be averaging almost 12K this month. [click to continue…]

I’m on leave this year as a Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. Berkman is an amazing community of people working on important and exciting projects concerning the social and policy aspects of the Internet. In just three weeks of affiliation, I’ve already participated in countless wonderful conversations with people who share my passion for studying digital media and have learned lots about related issues. My main goal for the year is to write a book on Internet use and social inequality. My biggest challenge will be staying focused on that task instead of starting up numerous collaborations with my colleagues given the many areas of overlap in our interests.

Berkman sponsors some great events that are open to the public. This Tuesday evening will be one such event: a talk and reception celebrating the recent release of the book Born Digital by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser. I’m still working on a separate post about the book, but wanted to post a note now given the date of the event. This will be a great opportunity to meet lots of people affiliated with the Digital Natives project upon which the book is based.

As currently proposed this bailout seems like an almost comically bad idea. I encourage all our US readers to get on the phone to their representatives and start bitching Monday morning. I am also very interested to hear what knowledgeable people such as our own dsquared think.

I’m curious. How much music do you have on your computer? I just passed the 75 gig mark. iTunes informs me that is 49.5 days worth. That seems like a lot. But I don’t feel that I have too much. How much does the average blog reader have?

In case you don’t have enough music, I kinda enjoyed Grizzly Bear “Two Weeks” (live on Letterman) – downloadable from Stereogum here.

There are lots of activities going on across the globe this Monday in celebration of One Web Day. What is it, you ask? From the site:

OneWebDay is an Earth Day for the internet. The idea behind OneWebDay is to focus attention on a key internet value (this year, online participation in democracy), focus attention on local internet concerns (connectivity, censorship, individual skills), and create a global constituency that cares about protecting and defending the internet. So, think of OneWebDay as an environmental movement for the Internet ecosystem. It’s a platform for people to educate and activate others about issues that are important for the Internet’s future.

The project wiki has a list of physical locations where events are taking place. NYC is starting early with events going on today, Saturday as well.

OWD also has lots of suggestions for getting involved online.

UPDATE: Here’s an idea for celebrating OWD here at CT. On Monday, I’ll put up a post about one of my favorite Web sites, a Web site that has had real implications for my everyday life. I invite others to think about which Web sites mean a lot to them and to share these on Monday in honor of OWD.

It’s the time of year when I teach Plato’s Meno. As I wisely explain to my students, there are two things that they are going to find off-putting and even incomprehensible about the dialogue. [click to continue…]

At a time when anyone on the cutting edge is talking quadrillions, it seems a bit petty to worry about a $50 billion component of the latest bailout (only $500 per US household!). Modest as it is, the insurance scheme offered to money market funds by the US Treasury provides the opportunity to explain a little bit more about the theory of insurance.

By now, everyone has heard about moral hazard, that is the encouragement to take risky or reckless action that arises when your losses are insured by someone else. Now it’s time meet moral hazard’s evil twin, adverse selection. That’s what happens when the people you are offering to insure already have a pretty good idea whether they are going to collect or not.

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