BuckeyeBlog

After the stunning failure of the bailout bill in the U.S. House of Representatives last week, leaders resorted to their favorite and most successful means of getting legislation through the grinder: $110 billion dollars worth of pork.  Greased up and ready to go, the bill slid through on its second vote.  Below is a listing of how Ohio representatives voted on both versions of the bill.  Highlighted in red are the three representatives who changed their votes after pork was added to the bill.

Both Senators George Voinovich and Sherrod Brown voted this evening to bail out Wall Street using taxpayers’ dollars.  While not surprising, it is disappointing that neither senator is willing to protect his citizens’ money from bankers and others begging to be absolved of responsibility for their irresponsible decisions.

While the New York Times has proven itself time and again to be of little use in providing quality news and analyses, its archive is becoming increasingly valuable for its ability to undermine and refute the paper’s own arguments.  The NYT has been immensely unhelpful, and likely even detrimental, during this current financial crisis, but an article from its past (September 30, 1999, to be exact) offers some needed background that suggests different causes of the crisis than those which the NYT currently claims: (more…)

Economist Arnold Kling, who used to work at Freddie Mac, discusses the problems with the financial sector bailout:

In a time when most pundits merely parrot banal talking points in support of their political party or make wild accusations in order to get media attention, George Will stands increasingly alone. He is erudite, well-read, and isn’t afraid to disagree with his party when it stops living up to its ideals. Case in point: his column today, where he exposes the anti-market actions of both John McCain and George W. Bush. God bless you, Mr. Will:

In any case, McCain’s smear — that [SEC Chairman Chris] Cox “betrayed the public’s trust” — is a harbinger of a McCain presidency. For McCain, politics is always operatic, pitting people who agree with him against those who are “corrupt” or “betray the public’s trust,” two categories that seem to be exhaustive — there are no other people. McCain’s Manichaean worldview drove him to his signature legislative achievement, the McCain-Feingold law’s restrictions on campaigning. Today, his campaign is creatively finding interstices in laws intended to restrict campaign giving and spending….

The political left always aims to expand the permeation of economic life by politics. Today, the efficient means to that end is government control of capital. So, is not McCain’s party now conducting the most leftist administration in American history? The New Deal never acted so precipitously on such a scale. Treasury Secretary Paulson, asked about conservative complaints that his rescue program amounts to socialism, said, essentially: This is not socialism, this is necessary. That non sequitur might be politically necessary, but remember that government control of capital is government control of capitalism. Does McCain have qualms about this, or only quarrels?