Environment
The White House's Theory Of Bank Size
On Friday morning, Diana Farrell--a senior White House official--made a significant statement on NPR’s Morning Edition, with regard to whether our largest banks are too big and should be broken up. “Ms. DIANA FARRELL (Deputy Assistant for Economy Policy): We understand Simon Johnson’s views on this, and I guess the response is the following…. READ MORE >>
Gruber: Reform Will Lower Premiums, At Least for Some
For the last twenty-four hours or so, analysts and experts have been poking holes in the new study, commissioned by and for the insurance industry, purporting to show that health care reform would raise insurance premiums. READ MORE >>
Did Hillary Just Rule Out Another White House Run?
That seems to be the takeaway from her interview this morning with NBC's Ann Curry, which contained this back and forth, as transcribed by the WaPo's Garance Franke-Ruta (under the hed Hillary Clinton Bids Presidential Hopes Adieu): "Will you ever run for president again? Yes or no," Curry asked. "No," replied Clinton. READ MORE >>
Obama on Consumer Financial Regs: Stay Strong
I was a little disconcerted a few weeks ago when I read that Barney Frank's House Financial Services Committee was weakening the proposed consumer financial regulator. As the Journal reported: READ MORE >>
Barack Obama and the Veil: The President vs. The Supreme Council of Al-Azhar, A Pinnacle of Muslim Orthodoxy
I am back again to Barack Obama's speech in Cairo. And here's what I wrote about it in early summer. Among other topics, the president focused for a long moment on the hijab (and, in case you want to buy one, here is a link to Hijab Girl, a salacious hook, if you don't mind me saying so.) And here is what Obama said on the topic word for word: READ MORE >>
The Medical Device Lobby Ramps up the Pressure
Potential Problems
If Obama's Nobel peace prize does nothing else, it at least has briefly united Michael Steele and the Taliban. And, I have to confess, my initial reaction was the same as theirs, and pretty much everyone's outside the White House: What has Obama done to deserve this? But if you think about it for a second, desert is almost irrelevant here. READ MORE >>
Slideshow: Jihadis Killed By The Drones
Against Transparency
I. READ MORE >>
The Hype Behind Carbon-Munching Trees
A few weeks ago, David Keith, a physicist at the University of Calgary, got a write-up in The New York Times for pointing out that world governments are lavishing a fair bit of R&D money on fancy new solar panels or carbon sequestration for coal plants, but very little money—a paltry $3 million globally—on researching ways to suck out carbon that's already in the air. READ MORE >>
