Bankruptcy

The Right and the Left of It

By Angie Littwin

As debate on the bailout continued today, a funny thing happened on the New York Times' op-ed page. William Kristol, the Times' current token-ultraconservative columnist, and Paul Krugman, who might just be the most-read liberal economist in the country, agreed. They agreed that the bailout proposed by Paulson is a terrible one. Even more, they agreed for many of the same reasons, the main issue being Bob Lawless' point that the plan provides for just about no oversight of its implementation.

My views being what they are, I found Krugman's to be a must-read analysis of the current crisis. He breaks down what went wrong in a simple but not overly simplistic fashion and pinpoints exactly where intervention is needed.

Quick update: A few minutes ago,  Krugman registered more positive opinion of Senator Dodd's alternative proposal.

Full post as published by Credit Slips on September 22, 2008 (boomark / email).