Ezra Klein

The Econ4u folks are dedicated to education Americans about all matters financial. To dramatize the importance of their mission, they put a poll into the field asking people how many millions are in a trillion. The results: Q: How many times larger is a trillion than a million? Would you say…One Thousand Times- 18%Ten Thousand […]

Some expected, but still dispiriting, news out of the Senate last night, where Dick Durbin’s “cramdown” legislation went down to defeat. The policy was simple enough: It would allow bankruptcy judges, at their discretion, to reduce the principal and interest-payments on primary mortgages. That would make it likelier that people could keep their homes. Unsurprisingly, […]

Yesterday, Christina Romer appeared before the Joint Economic Committee to give the assembled congressfolk an update on the administration’s economic thinking. So far as these documents go, it’s a pretty clear outline of the White House’s approach, and it includes an interesting bit on the interaction of Romer’s research on the Great Depression and her […]

One of the interesting threads in the Chrysler bankruptcy was Obama’s evident fury at the hedge funds and investment banks that refused the deals the government offered. The reason for their reluctance was simple enough: Bondholders don’t want to lose money. But the strategy behind their intransigence proved poor: They didn’t think the government would […]

Came across this somewhat randomly yesterday. It’s Tom Daschle giving a speech in Colorado. He was a bit more courageous on the framing of this issue than are most of the current participants. But before we define the solution, I think it’s important that we define the problem. It’s important that we’re all on the […]

You have to pity David Souter. By all accounts, he’d grown to hate his job. The Court was a grind. “An intellectual lobotomy,” he called it. He was exhausted by the ideological jockeying. Dispirited by the institution’s rightward turn. Shattered by the decision in Bush v. Gore. He loathed DC. “The world’s worst city,” he […]

I’ll be interviewing a pandemic flu expert in a couple of hours. I have my own questions, of course (“what investment opportunities does this open up for me and mine?”), but if there’s anything you’d like me to ask, leave it in comments.

“Contrary to what many parents tell their children,” wrote Robert Frank, “talent and hard work are neither necessary nor sufficient for economic success. It helps to be talented and hard-working, of course, yet some people enjoy spectacular success despite having neither attribute.” It’s not a particularly bold claim. Nor is Frank’s conclusion the sort of […]

Give it up to Slate: Their parody Facebook feed of Obama’s first 100 days is very funny. Meanwhile, in other First 100 Days commentary, Mark Schmitt is skeptical of the whole construct, but I love his conclusion: But we should take a moment to respect the miracle that these 100 days happened at all. Consider […]

I haven’t written much about the Chrysler bankruptcy because I’ve not been sure I understand it well enough t have an opinion. But this is about the clearest explanation I’ve found: What the federal government is hoping for — in it’s happiest-of-happy-thoughts scenarios — is a quick “surgical” bankruptcy of only 30-60 days with Fiat […]