dan collier

“We should not be rolled by a Wall Street exec who is masquerading as the Secretary of the Treasury.”

Congressman Peter DeFazio, on the floor of the House of Representatives.

The Swedish bank crisis of the early 90s has been getting a lot of attention lately. Here is a good New York Times article from the other day and an older Time blog post about the Swedish bailout.

The Wall Street Journal has a blurb that I think is the most interesting, and foreboding, story I’ve read in days.

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D., Mass.) suggested Wednesday he was concerned that the Fed and Treasury were intervening in markets without restraint.

While noting that he considers Mr. Bernanke a “responsible and thoughtful person,” Mr. Frank related a conversation held Tuesday in which he says Mr. Bernanke said “I have $800 billion” when Mr. Frank asked him if he had $85 billion available to help AIG. (The figure refers to the size of the Fed’s balance sheet, its holdings of U.S. Treasury securities, plus its growing holdings of loans the Fed has made to financial firms and securities it has taken from Wall Street in exchange for more-desirable Treasury securities.)

A Fed spokesman had no comment on Mr. Frank’s account of the conversation.

“No one in a democracy, unelected, should have $800 billion to spend as he sees fit,” said Mr. Frank. “That’s not the way to run a democracy.”

The Daily Show has been perhaps funnier than ever during the recent political conventions. And happily for everyone that does not get The Comedy Channel or missed the original broadcasts, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are both streaming extremely high-quality video of full episodes online. This week’s shows from the Republican National Convention have been great.

Some of the best news analysis I’ve seen in years was Jon Stewart’s “reporting” on statements made by Karl Rove, Bill O’Reilly, Dick Morris and others before and after John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin for vice president. Here is the clip:

The New Republic interviewed Charles Barkley. One question was whether his political philosophy has changed over time. His response:

First of all, I never changed my philosophy. I have never been a Republican. I am an independent–just for the record. This myth started in the mid ’90s with an interview with my mother and my grandmother, and my grandmother said something about Republicans being for rich people. I had to break it to her that we were rich! And people took that and ran with it. And let me get one other thing straight: Neither one of these parties is anything to write home about–just for the record.

Alabama is not big enough for Sir Charles’s talents. With the Veep spot spoken for in each party, Secretary of State seems like a good fit.