What to Read on the Banking Crisis

Readers will have noticed that with our main mission accomplished, we've largely retired from the econ4obama blogging to focus on our professional and family lives. We're still following Obama economic policy obsessively, however. With the stimulus package passed, by far the most important issue is how the administration deals with the banking crisis. On that topic, I read principally Paul Krugman, Yves Smith, and Simon Johnson. Mark Thoma's site is my favorite all-around economics site.

Worth Watching on the Crisis

Simon Johnson makes a very compelling case in his analysis of the crisis during his appearance on the Bill Moyers Journal. The world has turned upside down when the former chief economist of the IMF sounds like Noam Chomsky. I suggest watching the video, not just reading the transcript.

I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but last week's Frontline episode on how the crisis happened also looks very good.

Obama's Speech Today on the Stimulus

The video is well worth watching. Great to see that he's finally going full throttle on this. There's no time to waste.

Moving

Just a quick announcement: taking advantage of falling prices, I've opened a new shop, over at http://jonahgelbach.blogspot.com/. Not sure how often I'll post; I guess the subtitle is a good guide.

Thanks to all those who've read this blog, and my posts on it. Thanks especially also to Don Pedro for his indulgence in inviting me to contribute.

See ya when I see ya.

JG

A Must See: President Obama's Final Words at the Campaign Staff Ball

This was from Wednesday night at the DC Armory, during the final official inaugural event:



A couple clarifications: 1) Neither I nor any of the other econ4obama bloggers was on the campaign staff. 2) Despite the open bar, I wasn't drunk when I shot this video! It's jittery because I was holding my little camera high above my head amidst a very excited crowd.

This land...

The Need for Stimulus

From this morning, here's a good discussion on the stimulus in a radio interview which includes James Galbraith. In many ways I think of this as Jamie's moment: he's always been a relentless scholar and advocate for Keynes, and we're all very much Keynesians now.

Paul Krugman and Mark Thoma are also good source for discussion of the stimulus.