Ezra Klein

http://www.DemandTheDebate2008.com.

Reid offers a good statement: This is a critical time for our country. While I appreciate that both candidates have signaled their willingness to help, Congress and the Administration have a process in place to reach a solution to this unprecedented financial crisis. I understand that the candidates are putting together a joint statement at […]

In comments, Gecko points us to one:

If neither the economy nor John McCain’s poll numbers approve, I just can’t imagine that this country will be ready for something as divisive and crudely political as a vote in early November. So here’s the question: Will Barack Obama put his country first and agree to delay the election until the stock market lifts […]

John McCain sees the ghost of Jim Lehrer. After a week or two of getting beaten in the campaign, McCain has come up with a novel way to regain his footing: End the campaign. He’s calling for a suspension until the bailout is finished, and asking that the presidential debate be postponed. As far as […]

I’m feeling the need to write about something that isn’t American politics or the financial crisis, so here goes: That first episode of Heroes sure wasn’t very good. Spoilers follow, so we’ll go below the fold.

The Congressional Budget Office analysis of the bailout plan makes for some depressing reading. The list of tradeoffs is not good. For instance: The bailout isn’t a guaranteed fix in the first place, but it’s really unlikely to work if the governments pays a realistic price for the assets. Or, in CBO talk: “It therefore […]

A lot of folks have been puzzled by the sense of economic normalcy that pervades even as the CNBC anchors hurl themselves out of skyscraper windows. How bad can things be when your mailbox is still stuffed with oan offers? Sadly, as Peter Orszag argues in testimony today, history suggests that the economic pain is […]

Campbell Brown took aim at the McCain’s campaign’s sheltering of Sarah Palin last night. But she didn’t voice the simple indignation of the press, or lambaste the McCain campaign’s craven rejection of the public’s right to knowledge. Rather, she took aim as a feminist: “Tonight I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah […]

BK has a plan: The need for urgent action was based on two assumptions that are not necessarily true. The first was that Congress had to act — now! — or the whole system would collapse. But the assertion that the entire financial system is “frozen” is a gross overstatement. The parts of the system […]