too big to fail

Alan Greenspan testifies before the Angelides Commission on Wednesday. Without wishing him any personal ill will, let's hope he gets a grilling. We come not to bury Greenspan, but to ... well, actually we do come to bury him. For the greater good of all, he and the radical philosophy he represents must be exposed for all to see.

Paul Krugman observed the other day that Greenspan is "still not a mensch," and that's putting it mildly. Greenspan's engaged in a full-scale media blitz to convince the public that he still deserves to be called the "Maestro," s he once was by an adoring press and DC establishment. But underlying Greenspan's words and deeds, almost invisibly, is a extremist philosophy that has captured financial policy. more »

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Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner delivered a populist stemwinder of a speech the other day, bringing his rhetorical A-game with comments like these: "Listen less to those whose judgments brought us this crisis. more »

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Recently we wrote that Sen. Chris Dodd's draft financial reform bill would create a "cumbersome bureaucracy." That wasn't an endorsement of a conservative talking point: The operative word was "cumbersome." The Right likes to use the word "bureaucracy" as an epithet, but the primary definition of bureaucracy is "a body of nonelective government officials." So what's the biggest bureaucracy in the world? The Pentagon.

Conservatives agree that we need a smart, efficient, well-run military "bureaucracy" to provide for the nation's defense, even though they wouldn't use that word. Shouldn't we demand the same kind of lean, mean efficiency from our "first line of defense" against financial disaster? more »

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Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post waxed lyrical today about the compromise deal on financial regulations proposed Sens. Dodd and Corker, calling it a "creative bipartisan proposal." It's certainly "bipartisan," and it may even be "creative." What it isn't is effective. It's not just a compromise - unfortunately, it's also compromised. more »

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