Fafblog! Back to Save the Universe!

Fafblog! is back to save the universe. We demand a new era of Fafno-Gibletsian rule over the cosmos! None will be able to stand in our way!

Comments

[Robert Waldmann]

How dare you refer to Fafnir, Giblets *and* the medium lobster as we, when you are so clearly mentally crippled by your attachment to the illusion of linear time. Fafblog has always been back and eternally dominates the universe, or, what's better (and waaaay bigger) the Fafniverse.

None were ever able to stand in your way (because you are running off the edge of a cliff).

[Robert Waldmann]

Uh so about that linear time business. I was, uhm, reading your blog in linear time (just lectured am tired) and I wrote the bit about the cliff before I read the post on Berman claiming that he saw that Bush was leading us off a cliff and Ackerman telling Paul Berman to step back from the cliff. I did not mean to suggest any similarity between you and George Bush or Paul Berman at all. I don't even concede that they are members of the same species as you. You are a homo Sapiens, they are homo Idioticuses (which is still human with all rights and immunities including the right to equal protection under the law).

[Charles]

Speaking of which, Brad, what's your take on the Treasury getting into the appropriations business with the bailout of Bear?

Bet you woulda liked to have created up to $30B of debt just by writing a letter.

[mistah charley, ph.d]

This is the 21st century, Charles - just as the "Congress shall have the power to declare war" provision of the Constitution was made obsolete by the geopolitics of the mid-20th century, likewise the old-fashioned notion that Congress was in charge of spending the taxes has now been overtaken by events.

[Diamond Jim]

Please god don't let this be an April Fool's one-off.

[Charles]

I'm sure you're right, Mistah Charley. But I'd like to see one of the guys who got to see the Clinton era bailouts up close compare and contrast the situations. At the time of the Mexico bailout, Clinton was slammed by the right for using Treasury for currency stabilization even though (a) there was precedent, though nowhere near as large, and (b) Rubin got the ok from opposition leaders Dole and Gingrich. This time, there seems not to be any precedent of bailing out a non-bank institution with federal money and there seems to have been no consultation with Congress. Even Treasury may have given consent only retrospectively.

Brad DeLong is one of the very few people in the United States capable of commenting on this insightfully. And I wish he would.