The title of this post was inspired by an update of Atlas Shrugged for the current crisis. The money quote is:
He walked toward her and sat informally on the edge of her desk. “Why make a product when you can make dollars? Right this second, I’m earning millions in interest off money I don’t even have.”
(via Andrew Sullivan)
- Let’s talk bailouts! It looks like the Big Three will get a cool $15 billion. Steve Clemons has a great post pointing out that nothing in the bailout will prevent the big three from offshoring those jobs that we’re saving. There’s a link hidden in there that points out that we could buy the entire Big Three for about $3 billion, rather than give a loan of five times that.
- Andrew Leonard points out, “Earth to G.M.: No one is buying your cars right now! Your business is kaput. How much more stigma can bankruptcy add than your own mismanagement has already spawned?”
- Andrew Leonard again, pointing us to a Malcolm Gladwell article about how the Big Three stuck itself with all the pension liabilities, among other obligations. Leonard points out that if Detroit had fought for nationalized health care, they would probably be in a different situation.
- Jonathan Gruber talks about why health care reform would be good for the economy. (via Mark Thoma)
We’ll stick with the short post today. Lots of economic things coming, and probably some talk of education too.
