Wall Street
Hunger Games
The conservative plan to starve government has paid off with the IRS scandal
The more we learn about the IRS vetting of conservative groups, the less it looks like an abuse of power than something much more mundane—a beleaguered agency with too few resources to handle its work-load. READ MORE >>
The White House Scandal No One Noticed
Why did Wall Street get off easier than the AP and IRS?
For those of us who have long wondered why the Justice Department never investigated Wall Street, the Associated Press subpoena scandal illustrates a key point: The Justice Department sets priorities based on what it hears from the White House. When the White House wanted to identify and prosecute leakers of classified information, Justice sprang into action and used extremely aggressive tactics. "I make no apologies" President Obama said today, for being concerned about leaks. READ MORE >>
Every now and then conservatives play against type. George Will, Peggy Noonan, and Senator David Vitter want to break up the big banks. So does Sandy Weill, the former chairman of Citigroup. READ MORE >>
Your New Landlord Works on Wall Street
Hedge funds are snatching up rental homes at an alarming rate
Housing analysts have been giddy for the past year about the comeback of their industry, whose collapse led to the Great Recession. Sure, 2012 was actually the third-worst year for housing ever—but it still beat 2010 and 2011. New and existing home sales, housing starts, and prices jumped in 2012, and experts expect an even stronger recovery for 2013. READ MORE >>
Why Brandeis Matters
Louis D. Brandeis: A Life By Melvin I. Urofsky (Pantheon, 955 pp., $40) I. READ MORE >>
The Breakup
The Rise Of Naderite Conservatives
Conservatives continue to insist that stepped-up financial regulation is actually a huge favor to Wall Street. Here's the normally-sensible Christopher Caldwell in the Weekly Standard: READ MORE >>
Should We Care About the "Big" in "Too Big To Fail"?
Oftentimes when you debate a skeptic of structural reform on Wall Street, the skeptic will say something like: "Why are you so worked up about 'too big to fail'? Lehman was far from the biggest bank on Wall Street, but it caused plenty of damage." If anything, "too-interconnected-to-fail" is the real issue, they'll say--implying that this makes addressing the problem utterly futile, since severing interconnections is a lot harder than limiting bank size. READ MORE >>
Mike Huckabee Makes Up With the Economic Right
... or not. In the Ben Smith piece Mike cited earlier, Huckabee has some choice words for Pat Toomey: Huckabee met in the spring with Pat Toomey, then the president of the Wall Street-backed Club for Growth, which had attacked him during the 2008 campaign for raising taxes in Arkansas. READ MORE >>
