Peter Trachtenberg's Blog

• Missing from the Party

  August 31, 2008

  • Missing from the Party The impending catastrophic landfall of Hurricane Gustav has suddenly reminded us of Hurricane Katrina. More to the point, it's reminded the Republican and Democratic parties. This is striking, considering that those parties' presidential conventions frame the first hurricane's anniversary, though neither actually falls on it. Three years before the Democrats left Denver, ...
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• Serves You Right to Suffer

  July 30, 2008

  • The government is in the process of shoring up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the bloated, tottering colossi that between them guaranteed approximately half the nation's mortgages. As recently as two weeks ago it looked like this salvage operation might cost taxpayers as much as 5 trillion dollars. Try saying that figure to yourself: Five trillion. Or writing it, a five followed by 12 zeroes. Beside ...
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• Boo Hoo

  July 14, 2008

  • Sunday, July 13, 2008On the same day that the Dow plunged 2 percent and the Nasdaq 2.6 and gas shot close to $150 a barrel, Phil Gramm, one of John McCain's economic advisors, had a message for Americans: The recession that so many of us were worried about was only a "mental recession" and Americans had become"a nation of whiners." Gramm is a former Republican Senator and a ...
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