I Wish This Guy Would Run for President

Ron Paul on the floor on the bailout. I wish more people would listen to him, both before and after things happen.

Oy

I've semi-defended Sarah Palin at times, here and in fleshspace. Always skeptical of her, but trying to give her a fair shake and see if she could convince me she's, if not ready, at least not a horrible choice. No more. After this, I take back any nice thing I've said.

Alternatives

We do have some to the Paulson Powerplay Plan. Luigi (not Mario's brother) puts one out there. Would it be ideal? No, of course not. But it's roughly 100 times better than the current plan.

You may be cool....

but you'll never be 4 popped-collars cool. (Others here)

You are getting sleepy

Six hypnosis/brainwashing techniques. They're actually much more basic and common (and real) than the putting someone to sleep cliche, and you should watch out for them. Especially from people you agree with.

More

Remember how I said I was not so concerned about inflation anymore? Well, if the Paulson Plan goes through, forget I said that.

Oppose the Coup

I'm not questioning that Paulson (et al) truly believes that he is doing right. Nor do I question his intelligence. However, don't let this power grab just happen. This is classic expansion of government power during a panic, power that will never truly go away. The recent deals make me uneasy, but this faux RTC, buying (roughly) $700bn of assets, with no oversight, is a disaster. It will not fix the problems, or it will involve significant transfers of wealth from taxpayers to financial firms and morph the problems, like a virus that evolves. Probably some mixture of these things. Naomi Klein is wrong about a lot of things, but she is right that we have to keep our heads in crisis/pressure situations, so as to not be hoodwinked. Somehow, this is all reminds of early 2003.

Addendum: Please read this.

Bailout snark

Well done by Tyler. A bit passive aggressive, perhaps, but I liked it.
Note, I'm actually not too worried about moral hazard and the like in the AIG case. It seems to me that they've pretty effectively dealt with those issues here. I am worried about the Fed's growing power.

Bad News Cubbies

Let him pitch! Let him pitch!

Flattering Himself

I agree with Krugman that the charts he puts up in this post are interesting and informative. And they do somewhat (but not totally) allay my concerns that inflation is picking up. My guess now is that inflation rises, but not by as much as I previously thought, and comes back down. However, Krugman tells us that he was right all along that deflation should be our concern. I believe I've read all of his columns and posts over the last year, probably even over the last two. He definitely has been an inflation skeptic, but he has never said that deflation should be our concern. Not in public anyway, maybe he made an offhand comment to someone after class or something. If anyone can point out where he has written this, or has audio of it, please point it out and I'll retract this, but until then, Krugman is a lying liar who lies. Also, to be an accurate dick, these charts do not indicate deflation at all, simply less inflation.

They Always Shoot the Dog

America, your War on Drugs (audio starts immediately). (Headline stolen from Balko)

Three-fer

First, to be clear on my last post, I'm not for Palin, just trying to clarify thinking about Frannie. And swipe at Brad DeWrong. I think she'd be a terrible VP, from an experience standpoint at this time, also for some other reasons. I'm keeping an open mind on her, but not very open.
Second, Luskin slays the idea of Democrats being better for the economy than Republicans. Or at least throws water on it.
Finally, Boudreax has in interesting take on the private lives of politicians. I'm inclined to agree; if Obama won't let me sit on my couch or eat all I want, I should be able to ask personal questions about him (couldn't find the direct quote, best I could do was this).

Blinded by Partisanship

Sorry DeWrong, but Palin is actually right about this. Either she means her statement as a description of the past, or of what is happening right now. Most likely she was referring to how Fannie and Freddie have cost taxpayers money so far, as they are exempt from many taxes that a similar, privately-founded, company would have to pay. An alternate interpretation is that, just now they "have gotten...too expensive to the taxpayers", as there is a significant probability that they will require an outlay of cash from the government, which, if nothing else, hurts the government's credit standing right now and thus raises the rates it borrows at, and thus costs us taxpayers.

Brief NFL Preview

I swear I have no idea what's happening in the game currently going on.
My team predictions:
Dallas 12-4 (1 seed)
Philadelphia Eagles 11-5 (6 seed)
NY Giants 9-7
Washington Redskins 9-7
Philadelphia Eagles 11-5

Green Bay Packers 11-5 (2 seed)
Minnesota Vikings 11-5 (5 seed)
Detroit Lions 6-10
Chicago Bears 5-11

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 9-7 (4 seed)
New Orleans Saints 9-7
Carolina Panthers 8-8
Atlanta Falcons 4-12

Seattle Seahawks 9-7 (3 seed)
Arizona Cardinals 7-9
San Francisco 49ers 5-11
St Louis Rams 4-12

New England Patriots 12-4 (1 seed)
NY Jets 8-8
Buffalo Bills 7-9
Miami Dolphins 5-11

Pittsburgh Steelers 10-6 (4 seed)
Cleveland Browns 8-8
Cincinnati Bengals 6-10
Baltimore Ravens 5-11

Jacksonville Jaguars 11-5 (3 seed)
Indianapolis Colts 10-6 (5 seed)
Tennessee Titans 10-6 (6 seed)
Houston Texans 9-7

San Diego Chargers 11-5 (2 seed)
Denver Broncos 7-9
Oakland Raiders 4-12
Kansas City Chiefs 4-12


Playoffs:
R1: Seattle over Philly, Minny over Tampa, Jacksonville over Tennessee, Pittsburgh over Indy
R2: Dallas over Minny, Seattle over Green Bay, New England over Pittsburgh, Jacksonville over San Diego
R3: Dallas over Seattle, New England over Jacksonville
Super Bowl: New England over Dallas in a battle of QBs who took over from Drew Bledsoe in the middle of a season.