All Life Is Problem Solving

In a number of earlier posts I’ve discussed the alternative to the Geithner Plan of temporary nationalization followed by restructuring and re-privatization of the Banks. I’ve also pointed to the lack of transparency of the Administration in refusing to explain its decision to follow the Geithner Plan in the context of a fair evaluation against […]

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There are three basic policy alternatives for solving the problems of our “insolvent” large banks. We can liquidate them, reorganize them using conservatorships, or provide them with Government subsidization in the hopes that the market value of their troubled assets will rise, and that liquidity and enough asset value to achieve solvency will be restored. […]

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Still another Gregg beauty is: “This borrowed money is certainly not free. Our children and grandchildren will be hit with the bill. Sadly, in 10 years, we will spend more on interest payments on this debt than we spend on education, energy and transportation combined — almost four times as much.” First, the children and […]

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Gregg’s next objection to the “budget to beggar us” is: ”Instead of tightening Uncle Sam’s belt the way so many American families are cutting back these days, the president’s proposal spends so aggressively that it essentially adds $1 trillion to the debt, on average, every year. ”Except for some accounting gimmicks, the budget makes no […]

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On April 1st Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) the Republican stalwart who changed his mind about serving as Secretary of Commerce in the Obama Administration, gave us a beautiful example of the surpassing “rationality” of standard Republican reasoning about the pending budget bill in the Congress in the form of a Washington Post op-ed piece, called […]

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Even though my series on National Governmental Knowledge Management is finished. I’ll be filing additional individual blogs on the subject from time-to-time. The purpose of this entry is to make available a recent presentation of mine based primarily on Parts One and Two in the series. The presentation, originally given to The George Washington University […]

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Previously, I’ve written about the great cost of the filibuster to the American body politic, and specifically criticized it as one of the primary barriers to successful adaptation to the various challenges faced by American Society. Norman Ornstein in an article entitled “Our Broken Senate” covers the evolution of immobilist Senate practices including the filibuster […]

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Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) blogged at the Huffington Post on his Credit Card Reform Bill intended to: “stop abusive and deceptive credit card practices once and for all.” If it passes, the Bill would, among other things, do the following: — End universal default (the practice of using information unrelated to payment performance in connection […]

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I don’t think this one is an April Fool’s joke. This morning Kirk Nielsen reports on a fainting spell that resulted in his missing out on finalizing a date with “a fantastic woman,” and also in medical charges exceeding $10,000 for relatively minor treatment. He ends his sad lament on current medical reality in the […]

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A stunning analysis of the economic crisis by James K. Galbraith just appeared in the Washington Monthly. What’s stunning about it is its wide-ranging analysis of the present economic crisis; its historical perspective; its properly skeptical remarks about CBO and other projections based on standard economic models and available historical data; its very clear-eyed view […]

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