John Cassidy's Blog, page 121

Do Good Kindergarten Teachers Raise their Pupils' Wages?

There was a very interesting article on the front of Wednesday's Times about the impact of kindergarten teachers on adult earnings. Columnist David Leonhardt reports the findings of a new study which suggests that children who are fortunate enough to have an unusually good kindergarten teacher can expect to make roughly an extra twenty dollars a week by the age of twenty-seven. Now, twenty dollars a week might not sound like much, but when you tally it up over an entire working life and...

Wall Street Pay: Where's the Reform?

Today's report on Wall Street remuneration practices from Kenneth Feinberg, the Treasury Department's "special master" for executive pay, comes about a year too late. After being appointed in February, 2009, Feinberg took eighteen months to discover what we all already know: Wall Street is awash in egregious self-enrichment.

The headline in today's report, which was trailed in the Times this morning, is that in late 2008 and early 2009, at the same time they were receiving hundreds of...

The Stimulus Debate: I'm with Larry (and Keynes)

Over the years, like many people, I've had my share of disagreements with Larry Summers, especially on the issue of financial regulation. But when it comes to fiscal policy and the impact of deficit-financed stimulus programs, I'm with him all the way, or most of it, anyways.

Writing in today's Financial Times, Summers makes the key distinction between an economy operating at full capacity and one, such as today's American economy, that has lots of unemployed workers and capital. At full...

Farewell to the Boss

Some eight years ago, when I was writing a Profile of George Steinbrenner, he showed me around the practice facility near Legends Field, the Yankee's spring training ground in Tampa, Florida, which was later named after him. The clubhouse, which was mainly used by young players the Yankees had hired out of school or college, was festooned with aphorisms about the importance of winning, which Steinbrenner held as the supreme sporting virtue, and, perhaps, the supreme virtue, period. But on...

Back to the Thirties? Now It's Britain's Turn.

For the past year and a half, I have been in the unusual (for me) position of being relatively optimistic about the U.S. and global economy. While Nouriel Roubini and other pessimists banged on about a W- or L-shaped recession, I was reasonably confident that the extraordinary policy response to the financial crisis of 2008—bank bailouts, near-zero interest rates, and sizable stimulus programs—would be sufficient to turn things around. So it proved. The U.S. economy is about to end a fourth s...

Two Cheers for Financial Reform

The financial-reform bill that the Senate voted through last night is an improvement on House bill from last fall, and its passage means final legislation is virtually inevitable early this summer. Given the dysfunctional political situation in Washington, and the Obama Administration's innate aversion to anything smacking of radicalism, the coming overhaul will be surprisingly broad-ranging, and it should be welcomed. However, it still fails to address some of the root causes of the crisis, ...

Is Larry Summers the New Henry Kissinger?

Apparently, he is. At least, that's the message from Ed Luce, the Financial Times's Washington bureau chief, who has a long piece about Obama's economics team in today's edition of the Pink 'Un. "While this administration is very much driven by the inner circle of political advisers, Summers has clearly emerged as Obama's Henry Kissinger," David Rothkopf, a former Clinton administration official, tells Luce. Adds Bill Galston, of Brookings, another former Clintonite: "My question is not...

Is Larry Summers the new Henry Kissinger?

Apparently, he is. At least, that's the message from Ed Luce, the Financial Times's Washington bureau chief, who has a long piece about Obama's economics team in today's edition of the Pink 'Un. "While this administration is very much driven by the inner circle of political advisers, Summers has clearly emerged as Obama's Henry Kissinger," David Rothkopf, a former Clinton administration official, tells Luce. Adds Bill Galston, of Brookings, another former Clintonite: "My question is not...

Time to Let the Tories into Downing Street

The last twenty-four hours have been great fun. Since Gordon Brown detonated his I.E.D. yesterday afternoon, the Westminster village has been a hive of intrigue and backbiting. But as the Brits sit down to their tea, the odds have reverted to a Conservative-Liberal Democrat deal that would usher David Cameron into office as the leader of a Tory-Liberal coalition. According to unconfirmed reports, the movers are already entering the back door of Downing Street.

As a lifelong Labour supporter...

Gordon Blows Up U.K. Election

Take that, Tory Boy.

Gordon Brown has just turned the British election upside down, announcing that a) he is preparing to step down as Labour's leader, and b) he is opening formal talks with Nick Clegg on forming a progressive coalition, involving Labour, the Liberals, and the moderate parties in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Together these parties have more than enough seats to form a majority government, leaving the Conservatives out in the cold. Brown would presumably stay on as...