More on September 2008

Here is a close-up of the financial meltdown of 2008: the New Yorker's "Eight Days: The battle to save the American financial system." (subscription required) Well written and dramatic. Alfred Hitchcock supposedly said that drama is life with the boring parts removed. No boring parts here. But the same old bogeyman about Bush-era laissez-faire.

A more serious discussion of regulatory failures during the Bush years (and before) is this by Arnold Kling. Kling makes various policy recommendations, but none of them are on anyone's agenda. Russ Roberts also speaks and seemingly evokes the New Yorker discussion of events: Don't look at what we say; look at what we do.

The good news is that we get really good drama. The bad news is that bad times breed bad policies. It would be nice if it were the other way.