The Stash
Worth Reading
What will happen to Berkshire Hathaway after Warren Buffett dies? The best day to buy a car: Black Friday. Home prices in southern California tick upwards. READ MORE >>
Where to Put Your Foot Down With the Chinese
As I mentioned yesterday, I'm somewhat skeptical of the benefits of "getting tough" with the Chinese on issues like currency manipulation and our trade deficit. (I think you need to do it, but you've got to be sophisticated about it.) But Obama's town hall meeting in Shanghai, which was heavily stage-managed by the Chinese, is one place I think the administration really should have gotten tough. READ MORE >>
Are We Overpaying On Our Afghan Bribes?
Should We Chill Out About Government Debt?
David Leonhardt has a great catch from a recent Larry Summers speech up at the Times Economix blog today. In the speech, Summers made the following observation: READ MORE >>
Worth Reading
Meredith Whitney is bearish on banks. Bernanke isn't ready to call asset prices inflated. What's behind the tight correlation in commodity prices? READ MORE >>
Quibbling with Krugman on the Chinese
I agree with pretty much everything Paul Krugman writes in his column today about the Chinese and their currency shenanigans--especially the point that the Chinese have rigged it so that our bilateral trade deficit will spike once the recovery gets going. (And the point that the forces driving our trade deficit were only temporarily suppressed by the recession.) READ MORE >>
Why Short-Selling Bans Are Dumb
Regulators around the world, including our own SEC, succumbed to populist fervor following the Lehman collapse and banned short-selling "to protect the integrity and quality of the securities market and strengthen investor confidence." READ MORE >>
Total Incoherence on Deficit Politics
Scott Rasmussen and Doug Schoen had a completely mystifying op-ed about Obama's political standing in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. On the one hand, they argue that his biggest political problem is unemployment (correctly in my mind): READ MORE >>
Talking Budget Cuts Before Seeing Our Lenders (i.e., China)
The last two days have brought two very interesting stories that highlight a key link between domestic policy and geopolitics. First, on Friday afternoon, the AP reported that the administration is considering a spending freeze for domestic agencies in next year's budget: READ MORE >>
