G-20, Assessed

The Economist offers its first cut on the weekend G-20 summit:
Whatever the tactical reasons, the success of this weekend’s gathering has permanently changed the machinery of international economic co-operation. The centre of global economic summitry has shifted from the G7 (the rich countries’ club) to a broader group. A follow-up meeting has been scheduled for [...]

G-20 Summit Results

Bush or no, there’s consensus among the leaders of the world’s most important powers on the causes of the meltdown:
3. During a period of strong global growth, growing capital flows, and prolonged stability earlier this decade, market participants sought higher yields without an adequate appreciation of the risks and failed to exercise proper due diligence. [...]

Bubble Real Estate

Matt Ygelsias is (partly) in a forgiving mood about the housing bubble:
Someone who takes out a loan they can’t afford and then defaults doesn’t deserve to be “blamed” for anything. They suffer consequences for their actions. Much as the person who issues a loan the borrower can’t pay back doesn’t really deserve “blame.” Both parties [...]

At Least It’s An Ethos

Dan Riehl:
Some of the alarmists out there might want to take a moment to consider all the ramifications here. It may sound harsh, but the Great Depression produced many things — one of them was called the Greatest Generation.
Which on the heels of the Brooks column calls to mind the best quote from The Big [...]

Brooks: “Nihilists”

An extraordinary columns today from the NYT’s David Brooks, pronouncing that the GOp has moved well beyond intellectual bankruptcy:
This generation of political leaders is confronting a similar situation [to the 1933 economic crisis], and, so far, they have failed utterly and catastrophically to project any sense of authority, to give the world any reason to [...]

Bail Out

Ross Douthat, in the wake of Monday’s House vote:
The most likely scenario, as of 3 PM this afternoon: The stock market continues to drop. Some version of the bailout passes in the next week. The American economy staggers into a recession, but passes through the storm without 1930s-style suffering; the Republican Party is not so [...]

Community Reinvestment

Stephen Bainbridge rubbishes the idea that the Community Reinvestment Act caused the Wall Street meltdown:
Put simply, the freezing up of the credit markets doesn’t have anything to do with either affirmative action or illegal immigration, and people who believe it does are on a par with the conspiracy theorists who think fluoridation is a Chicom [...]

The One Post to Read on Wall Street

Megan McArdle:
Banks have tens of billions of debt maturities to refinance in the coming months.  The overwhelming majority of it will be good even under distressed circumstances — unless they can’t roll any of it over.  At that point, they experience the same problems you would if your credit card company pulled your credit line [...]