Presidential campaigns are not ideal times for overhauling regulatory systems. If recent stump speeches are any guide, both major party candidates would go after those greedy SOBs on Wall Street. I think they both know better, and Barack Obama has the good fortune of being on record saying so.
At least we are no longer talking about cosmetics. These are serious times, indeed, so much so that I hate to echo a feel good (and, yes, liberal) Hollywood movie. And yet I find myself thinking a lot about David Brooks' article on nuance and prudence. Given the complexity of modern financial markets and the risk of unintended consequences, don't we want thoughtful, reflective people in charge?
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Too clever by half
The situation today with the financial markets reminds me of the Seinfeld show episode about rental cars. When Jerry and Elaine arrive at the rental counter, the agent informs them that she has their reservation but, unfortunately, there are no more cars. She insists that the rental company has not failed in its duty.
Jerry corrects her: “See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.”
The proliferation of new investment vehicles like credit default swaps and auction rate securities increased the credit supply. That was undoubtedly good news for many individuals, families, businesses, and state and local governments. The problem was that many on Wall Street forgot about the most important part of taking a bet, the honoring of it. Sometimes you actually have to pay up.
It turns out that many of these promises were, like Seinfeld, about nothing.
Jerry corrects her: “See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation and that's really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.”
The proliferation of new investment vehicles like credit default swaps and auction rate securities increased the credit supply. That was undoubtedly good news for many individuals, families, businesses, and state and local governments. The problem was that many on Wall Street forgot about the most important part of taking a bet, the honoring of it. Sometimes you actually have to pay up.
It turns out that many of these promises were, like Seinfeld, about nothing.
You’ve come a long way, Baby!
Seeing them together, sharing the podium despite their differences, warmed my heart. Never mind that they weren’t actually Governor Sarah Palin and Senator Hillary Clinton, the two women who’ve come closest to occupying the highest office in the land. Comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are not too shabby themselves as feminist icons. (See Christopher Hitchens on why women are not funny.)
How far we’ve traveled in just my adult lifetime. About fifteen years ago, on a hike with some of my most thoughtful grad school friends, we spent about an hour trying to understand the venomous attacks often directed at then First Lady Hillary Clinton. Sure, she could come across a self-involved baby boomer who had stepped on people along the way to realizing her occasionally grandiose political ambitions. But in that sense she was no different from her husband or many others in public life.
In the end, we chalked up the personal, often visceral negative reactions to sexism. The world was just not ready for a powerful woman in the boardroom or the West Wing, especially one who could unfortunately be a bit tin-eared in explaining her motivations (“I could have stayed home and baked cookies but chose to fulfill my profession”).
Flash forward to Sarah Palin. Many who subscribed to and repeated ugly rumors about Hillary Clinton are now proudly defending their heroine. They have moved aside their Hillary Clinton nutcrackers for GI Sarah dolls (in a mini skirt, but ok).
Governor Palin describes questions of balancing her work and family life as “irrelevant” to her decision to seek higher office. In fact, only liberal women have really questioned whether she can juggle being vice president and mother to five, hinting at the pregnancy of her 17-year old daughter as the first evidence that something must give.
Frankly, I don’t think it’s anybody’s business what Sarah Palin and her husband have decided is right for their family. Todd Palin is a stay-at-home dad and to insinuate that he is not up to the task is insulting to fathers everywhere. I’m gratified also that conservatives have discovered a zone of privacy when it comes not only to Sarah Palin’s choices but to her daughter’s as well.
I hope this means we’ve come a long way from fifteen years ago, but I don’t think so. As The Economist reports, John McCain only smiled benevolently when asked (by a woman) “How do we beat the b*tch?” An anti-Hillary political action committee named itself after an even cruder insult. Young college Republicans with not an accomplishment to their names yelled at U.S. Senator Clinton “Iron my shirts!” Even left-of-center Slate.com ran a “Hillary Death Watch” graphic on its website. Was there a Mike Huckabee death watch somewhere that I missed?
Nevertheless, I am very glad that Sarah Palin is on the political scene. Now we have a series of matched pairs, just like the nutcracker and action figure. We have matching scandals over personnel decisions influenced by family and friends – Travelgate vs. Troopergate. For the “vast right wing conspiracy,” we have the “media and Washington elites.” For the lost-then-found Rose law firm billing records, we have the found-then-lost Bridge to Nowhere t-shirt. What a great social experiment.
Actually, now I’m wondering, as impressive as these two women are, can’t we do better?
How far we’ve traveled in just my adult lifetime. About fifteen years ago, on a hike with some of my most thoughtful grad school friends, we spent about an hour trying to understand the venomous attacks often directed at then First Lady Hillary Clinton. Sure, she could come across a self-involved baby boomer who had stepped on people along the way to realizing her occasionally grandiose political ambitions. But in that sense she was no different from her husband or many others in public life.
In the end, we chalked up the personal, often visceral negative reactions to sexism. The world was just not ready for a powerful woman in the boardroom or the West Wing, especially one who could unfortunately be a bit tin-eared in explaining her motivations (“I could have stayed home and baked cookies but chose to fulfill my profession”).
Flash forward to Sarah Palin. Many who subscribed to and repeated ugly rumors about Hillary Clinton are now proudly defending their heroine. They have moved aside their Hillary Clinton nutcrackers for GI Sarah dolls (in a mini skirt, but ok).
Governor Palin describes questions of balancing her work and family life as “irrelevant” to her decision to seek higher office. In fact, only liberal women have really questioned whether she can juggle being vice president and mother to five, hinting at the pregnancy of her 17-year old daughter as the first evidence that something must give.
Frankly, I don’t think it’s anybody’s business what Sarah Palin and her husband have decided is right for their family. Todd Palin is a stay-at-home dad and to insinuate that he is not up to the task is insulting to fathers everywhere. I’m gratified also that conservatives have discovered a zone of privacy when it comes not only to Sarah Palin’s choices but to her daughter’s as well.
I hope this means we’ve come a long way from fifteen years ago, but I don’t think so. As The Economist reports, John McCain only smiled benevolently when asked (by a woman) “How do we beat the b*tch?” An anti-Hillary political action committee named itself after an even cruder insult. Young college Republicans with not an accomplishment to their names yelled at U.S. Senator Clinton “Iron my shirts!” Even left-of-center Slate.com ran a “Hillary Death Watch” graphic on its website. Was there a Mike Huckabee death watch somewhere that I missed?
Nevertheless, I am very glad that Sarah Palin is on the political scene. Now we have a series of matched pairs, just like the nutcracker and action figure. We have matching scandals over personnel decisions influenced by family and friends – Travelgate vs. Troopergate. For the “vast right wing conspiracy,” we have the “media and Washington elites.” For the lost-then-found Rose law firm billing records, we have the found-then-lost Bridge to Nowhere t-shirt. What a great social experiment.
Actually, now I’m wondering, as impressive as these two women are, can’t we do better?
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