The Lighter Side of the Financial Crisis

Here are some interesting takes on the financial crisis. First up is Brad DeLong who draws upon U.S. economic history to set up a clever jab to Bernanke and Paulson:

Is 2008 Our 1929?
No. It is not. The most important reason it is not is that Bernanke and Paulson are both focused like laser beams on not making the same mistakes as were made in 1929.

They are also focused, but not quite as much, on not making the mistakes made by Arthur Burns in the 1970s.

And they are also focused, but not quite as much, on not making the mistakes the Bank of Japan made in the 1990s.

They want to make their own, original, mistakes...

Next up is Nouriel Roubini who is not pleased with the Fed's rescue of AIG:

Last week we argued that, with the nationalization of Fannie and Freddie, comrades Bush, Paulson and Bernanke had started transforming the USA into the USSRA (United Socialist State Republic of America). This transformation of the USA into a country where there is socialism for the rich, the well connected and Wall Street (i.e. where profits are privatized and losses are socialized) continues today with the nationalization of AIG.

[...]

So, with the nationalization today of AIG, comrades Bush, Paulson and Bernanke welcome you again to the USSRA. At least in the case of Fannie and Freddie these two institutions were semi-public to begin with as they were Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs). Now we get instead the first pure case of a fully private company, actually the largest insurance company in the world, being nationalized. So the US government is now the largest insurance company in the world. So the transformation of the USA into the USSRA goes a step further.

Not to be outdone on the clever commentary, Tyler Cowen points us to the Federal Reserve's new commercials it inherited with its effective acquisition of AIG:




And here is another:



Unbelievable...