Regulating an Industry Without Really Trying
Boring is best in financial reform
On the Newsstand:finance
Wall Street, Rhodes Scholars, and the Soul of the University
Last Saturday the 2010 Rhodes scholars were announced and a full five Harvard students were among them (along with two Yale students and one Princeton student…but, really, who’s counting?) On the same day, Elliot Gerson, the American secretary of the Rhodes Trust, published an op-ed in the Washington Post, pointing out that more and more Rhodes scholars are pursuing careers ... Read More
Fog of War: America’s Drug Policy
Critics have long derided America’s “War on Drugs” as a mistaken moniker. Anti-drug policy, they argue, has no defined mission, no coordinated enemy, and no path to victory. In the Clinton administration, drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey attempted to jettison the phrase, in part because of the public’s impression that the government had lost the war. John Walters, Bush’s drug ... Read More
Escaping the Poppy Field
American anti-opium efforts in Afghanistan Afghanistan’s war-devastated economy has one booming sector - the country produces 90 percent of the world’s opium. Money from this trade funds insurgents and terrorists, and encourages corrupt government officials to undermine security and the rule of law. Nevertheless, for decades U.S. policy towards Afghanistan failed to acknowledge the impact of opium. But in a ... Read More
Business Rules
The U.S. Supreme Court may be about to render the most important business decision of the decidedly pro-business Roberts era, but one might not know it from the details of the case. The plaintiff is a small conservative advocacy group, not a major corporation; the focal point is a corporate-funded anti-Hillary Clinton documentary that was banned by the FEC, as ... Read More
In Need of Assistance
Reforming foreign aid at home In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, President George W. Bush made a sweeping commitment to global economic development. In early 2002, he declared, “We fight against poverty because hope is an answer to terror. We fight against poverty because opportunity is a fundamental right to human dignity.” Development was to be a vital ... Read More
Broken State Governments
Chaos reigns as states try to budget in the recession The financial crisis affected millions of Americans, drove down property values, crippled the mortgage industry, spiked unemployment rates, and revealed the unwieldiness of the American banking system. In response, the U.S. government attempted to resuscitate the economy with a nearly $800 billion stimulus. Meanwhile, state governments have been struggling ... Read More
Education in California During the Budget Crisis: A Silver Lining?
On February 20, 2009, California state legislators ended months of negotiations when they closed a vast $41.6 billion budget gap through fiscal year 2010. Even after factoring in the expected federal stimulus funds, the final agreement called for spending cuts, temporary tax increases, and new borrowing. Public education has been one of the budget crisis’s biggest victims, since state funding ... Read More
A Fatter or Skinnier Fed?
Below is a piece on financial regulation from HPR alum Rahul Prabhakar ’09. Rahul is now a Fellow at the Glover Park Group in Washington D.C. ——————————————————————————————————————- Over the past month, the U.S. Congress has held a series of hearings to debate the Obama Administration’s proposal to overhaul the American financial regulatory structure. The fates of the SEC, CFTC, and ... Read More
Questions for George Will
George Will worked himself into quite a lather today about a law review article by some visiting assistant law professor at Duke that argues that the principle of free speech might be subordinated to governmental interests in combating corruption and the distorting influences of wealth on the political process. No surprises here: Will is a leading opponent of campaign finance ... Read More
The Politics of Line Drawing
The future of gerrymandering after the 2010 census When Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) withdrew his nomination for commerce secretary in February, Republicans blamed the debacle on the White House’s alleged attempt to usurp control of the 2010 census, which rests with the Commerce Department. This short-lived controversy reminded us that while the census might be one of the least visible, ... Read More
“Quarterly Profits”
Goldman Sachs reported profits of $1.6 billion for the first quarter of 2009, and is hoping to put their newly demonstrated strength to use, by paying back their TARP money and getting that pesky federal government off their backs. Quick thoughts: In that quarter, how much have they taken in government money, either direct (TARP) or indirect (Government-financed payouts from ... Read More
Banking as a Vocation
Yesterday Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times that banking needs to be made “boring.” Like most of Krugman’s material on the financial crisis it’s worth a read; it explains how it’s a bad sign that banking is an exciting industry drawing many of the most gifted young minds of America, more than a fair share of them coming ... Read More
