Capitolism

Last Week on the Hill

By Christopher Hayes

From Greg Kaufmann:

This Week in Congress

Republicans continued to fight with no holds barred to defend a failed ideology. Thirty-six out of 41 Republican Senators voted for an amendment that would have stripped the Recovery bill of ALL spending. Congressman Barney Frank said, "If anything can persuade Congressional Republicans to stop their hyper partisan sniping at the recovery package these disastrous employment numbers should be it."(Call your Senators -- tell them to pass the Recovery bill including $500 million for the Green Jobs Act.)

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February 8, 2009

What the Stimulus Bill is For

By Christopher Hayes

Joe Klein's got a wise post about the messiness surrounding the stimulus bill, most of which is par for the course for legislation of this size. I've got many beefs with the legislation, not the least of which is the criminal under-funding of public transit. Oh, and also this braindead, Reinflate The Housing Bubble amendment that passed the senate by the voice vote. But if I were a member of Congress I'd vote for the bill, proudly. Fundamentally, we're teetering on the brink of a deflationary spiral, and without a serious and large commitment of federal dollars we're going to a) have a lot of people needlessly suffer b) be mired in a prolonged recession.

I think part of what's gotten lost in the carping from Republicans is that the bill has three objectives:

1) Immediately boost demand and create jobs

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February 5, 2009

Will Geithner and Summers Destroy the US Economy?

By Christopher Hayes

That's more or less what the usually understated Yves Smith says today about the preview of the Obama TARP plan, "Team Obama is taking the cowardly approach of distributing the costs among the most disenfranchised group in the process, namely the taxpayer, when there far more obvious and logical groups to take the hits."

It's not just Smith. I got an email from a good friend at a hedge fund last week. He's a *very* moderate guy, and he had this to say:

The one thing that I disagree on is that for all the talk of making Tarp II diff from Tarp I, I don't really see it happening. An aggregator bank still just takes bad assets from a bank in exchange for capital. If you pay market, the banks will be insolvent, so they won't participate. If you pay above market, you're basically just injecting capital in to the banks, which is what they did in Tarp I. Why are they scared of nationalizing? Citi is an insolvent bank - wipe the equity, take the company, remove the bad assets, put the remaining good company back in to the public markets, repeat for the next insolvent bank. If they try to let a Citi (or maybe evan a BofA) earn their way out of this we will end up with huge parts of the banking system in zombie mode, a la Japan. That would be very bad and will only prolong the pain.

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February 4, 2009

Judd Gregg and Lynching

By Christopher Hayes

My intern Laura Dean makes a disturbing catch:

Judd Gregg's been hailed as a "fresh independent voice," who will make it more difficult for the GOP to dig in their heels to block legislation now that they have one of their own on the inside. But for a man who seems like a moderate in some respects, one wonders why in 2005, when 89 members of the Senate signed an apology for not passing an anti-lynching law-- an apology with no policy implications at that-- he and then fellow New Hampshire Senator John Sununu, refused to sign. At the time people speculated that with no African-American constituency to speak of, there was no particular incentive (aside from the glaring moral one!), to do so. His fellow dissenters, not surprisingly mostly Southern Republicans, are listed on the DailyKos wall of shame. Sometimes 'sorry' is the hardest word to say, but in this case, it should have been his easiest.

Um, what's up with that?

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February 3, 2009

What to Expect This Week on the Hill

By Christopher Hayes

From Greg Kaufmann:

The Senate takes up the Recovery bill this week. It passed with no Republican support in the House but will need a couple Senators to cross the Grand Obstructionist Party line in order to overcome a possible filibuster.

The Senate will also confirm Eric Holder as Attorney General. In contrast, Tom Daschle faces an uncertain future as the Senate Finance Committee holds a closed-door meeting today on his now delayed confirmation hearings. On Thursday the Senate Intelligence Committee holds a hearing for CIA Director nominee, Leon Panetta -- could be a tough one but Panetta will likely be confirmed.

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February 2, 2009

What Happened in Congress This Week

By Christopher Hayes

From correspondent Greg Kaufmann a look back at last week on the Hill:

Here are the big items this week: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act that reverses the terrible anti-equal pay decision by the Supreme Court became the first bill President Obama signed into law. Just 5 Republican Senators supported it and 3 House Republicans.

The House also passed its version of the Recovery (stimulus) bill with ZERO Republican support. Former Vice President Gore warned that the "outstanding" green provisions in the House bill were muscled out in the Senate Finance Committee version, so we'll have to stay tuned on that front.

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January 31, 2009

Let's Get A-Changin' at Treasury

By Christopher Hayes

This, from Barry Ritholtz about Timothy Geithner's performance so far is pretty on the money:

I've noticed something I find a bit disturbing about our new Treasury Secretary: He has not yet fully come to terms with his new job, role -- and boss. Granted, he's been in the job for only two days. But given the extraordinary circumstances the financial sector and the economy is in, it is important for the Treasury Secretary to get up to speed as soon as possible.

Consider this statement from Geithner, who said that Treasury is considering a "range of options" for its financial rescue plan, with the goal of preserving the private banking system. "We have a financial system that is run by private shareholders, managed by private institutions, and we'd like to do our best to preserve that system."

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January 30, 2009

Gore on Stimpak Energy Provisions: "Unprecedented"

By Christopher Hayes

From correspondent Greg Kaufmann, a dispatch from Al Gore's testimony on the hill:

Al Gore was back on the hill today, telling the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations what Congress needs to do to turnaround the global warming crisis and prepare for the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December.

The hearing was way long -- like three hours way long.

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January 28, 2009

Disclosure Time

By Christopher Hayes

Since the White House made it official today, I wanted to note as a matter of full disclosure that my wife Kate Shaw is now an attorney in the Office of the White House Counsel. Obviously, my views are entirely my own, and throughout a long campaign in which I had very dear family members involved with the Obama organization, I'd like to think I maintained a critical distance. I intend to do so in covering the administration.

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January 28, 2009

Worth Fighting For

By Christopher Hayes

This has, all things considered, been a pretty great week for the republic: executive orders increasing government transparency, banning torture, and beginning the process of closing Guantanamo. Obama's also given a nuanced, thoughtful and largely pitch-perfect interview to Al Arabiya as his first public interview, reaching out to the Muslim world in a way, frankly, only he probably could. So, overall, thumbs up, Mr. President!

But: today's been frustrating. Earlier in the week we got word that a provision to allow bankruptcy judges to alter mortgage terms will not be included in the stimulus, partly at the White House's behest. Now, it's unclear whether there was ever much momentum inside the House and Senate leadership to put this in the bill, but the fact that it's not going in is nearly criminal. Almost every single economist and expert I've talked to thinks this is an absolutely necessary step in foreclosure mitigation. No less a flaming Marxist than Richard Berner. It's also very easy to implement, since bankruptcy judges already have the power to alter mortgage terms for non-primary residences. On the policy merits, it's a no brainer. And on top of that, Senate Democrats, apparently in direct negotiations with Citigroup have gotten Citigroup to agree not to oppose the provision (so kind of them!), I don't even see where the political opposition is coming from. Get this done, now.

Then there's the word that at Obama's urging, House Democrats are going to cut birth control funding from the stimulus. Yglesias notes, wisely that this seems to be concession in exchange for nothing. It's not like more Republicans are now going to vote for the bill that weren't before.

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January 27, 2009