- Why Your Bank Is Broke | TIME – «…in 2004, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) removed rules that capped leverage at 15 to 1 for investment-banking firms like Goldman Sachs. That allowed the firms to vastly expand their lending activities without raising a single new dollar of capital. One big backer of the rule change was reportedly former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who was then Goldman’s CEO»;
- Democrats Among Stimulus Skeptics – washingtonpost.com – In testimony before the House Budget Committee, Alice M. Rivlin, who was President Bill Clinton’s budget director, suggested splitting the plan, implementing its immediate stimulus components now and taking more time to plan the longer-term transformative spending to make sure it is done right;
- Reflections on Americans’ views of the euro ex ante | vox – Martin Feldstein suggests that tough economic conditions in Europe may cause substantial economic policy disagreements among the Eurozone countries and that one or more countries might actually withdraw from the Eurozone.