Al Gore

Remember that line from An Inconvenient Truth, shortly after the ani­ma­tion of Lower Manhattan under­wa­ter, about how there are more things than just ter­ror­ism to be con­cerned about? Turns out that’s even more pre­scient (via) than he was likely aware at the time.

Cooler, Wiser

Clearly, any spe­cific assis­tance [to ail­ing finan­cial insti­tu­tions] will have to include penal­ties for those man­agers who have left their insti­tu­tions over­ex­posed. Central bank cred­i­bil­ity in enforc­ing these penal­ties will go a long way in lim­it­ing moral haz­ard. Raghuram Rajan in 2005, explain­ing how to pick up the pieces after the 2008 finan­cial col­lapse (via …

Completely Unaware

“I hope the best and the bright­est who will be join­ing the new pres­i­dent will at least enter­tain the pos­si­bil­ity that a lot of what they think they know is wrong,” [Serial Errorist William] Kristol added. Theresa Cook and Kate Barrett, An Economic Transition, A Political Dance, ABC News My ques­tion: why is any­one pre­tend­ing Bill …

Vision

Obama is ask­ing for ideas, and while I have no faith that they will go any­where, I sent one in any­ways. Namely, I’d like to see a sov­er­eign wealth fund ulti­mately respon­si­ble to the Treasury, under advise­ment of Commerce and Labor. The man­date for the orga­ni­za­tion would include: Ensuring restored mar­ket liq­uid­ity by sheer force …