Ezra Klein

Kevin Drum, who’s been skeptical about reforms to limit bank size, is intrigued by William Buiter’s proposal to accomplish much the same thing by enacting regulations that increase capital requirements as banks grow in size. “This accomplishes two things,” says Kevin. “(1) it puts natural downward pressure on bank size since higher capital requirements reduce […]

Dana notes that something is missing in the class photo of G-20 spouses: Dude-spouses. “Conspicuously absent are Néstor Kirchner, the former president of Argentina and husband of that nation’s current leader, Cristina Kirchner, as well as Joachim Sauer, the chemist who is married to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.” See for yourself (Photo from TPM): As […]

Presidential historian Robert Dallek has a nice piece detailing Lyndon Johnson’s strategy for securing congressional votes and trying to draw out some lessons for Barack Obama. The problem is, he can’t. And though Dallek doesn’t quite say this, there are good reasons that more late night phone calls to legislators and cocktail parties for congressmen […]

The final “communique” from the G-20 meeting has emerged. Most of it is the happy togetherness talk you’d expect to emerge from such a conference, but this bit is fairly real: The agreements we have reached today, to treble resources available to the IMF to $750 billion, to support a new SDR allocation of $250 […]

I’m getting the sense that the Eric Cantor bubble is bursting. The Politico, I guess, presaged it with an article earlier in the week. But their piece lacked actual evidence of mistakes on Cantor’s part. Rather, it suggested that he’d snubbed Obama’s press conference to attend a fundraiser at a Britney Spears concert (seriously) and […]

I have read, it’s safe to say, more of Max Baucus’s opening statements than the average American. And as a relative Baucus-ologist, I feel comfortable reporting this finding: Max Baucus is a man who loves his quotebook. My favorite might be the hearing on “Improving Health Care Quality” which began with the chairman echoing Aldous […]

Patrick Ottenhoff, the talented obsessive behind The Electoral Map blog, has put together a slideshow telling the story of 2008 in terms of political geography. It’s analytically fun, but more than that, it’s a warm blast of nostalgia. Elections, I find, are only fun in retrospect, and that’s particularly true for this election, which was […]

Elsewhere in the health policy universe, Kathleen Sebelius is just beginning her hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. The hearing is streaming live on their web site, and is presumably playing on one of the nation’s many fine C-SPAN channels. I’ve copied her opening statement below the fold, but it looks to be nearly identical […]

Catchy title, huh? I’m at Union Station this morning for the release of the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation’s megareport on improving health, as opposed to simply improving the health care system. I’d like to tell you that I’ll parlay the presentations into some incredibly incisive blog posts, but the fact is that I forgot my […]

Andy McCarthy writes, “We know that lowering marginal tax rates can increase federal revenue, but it’s clear that the President won’t cut taxes.” MatT Yglesias replies, and touches on something I’ve long wondered as well: Every time I read this kind of thing I wonder: Why on earth does McCarthy think that Obama is stubbornly […]