Dean Baker

Those pushing for a "systematic risk regulator" imply that this crisis was hard to see. It wasn't. The housing bubble was obvious for anyone who cared to look.

The Fiat-Chrysler deal shows that the pay problem is at the top, not the bottom.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner wants to hand hundreds of billions of dollars to the banks. He says that we have no alternative, but for the cost of a few AIG bonuses, Congress could get a second opinion.

The real problem is the economy. The fights over projected deficits for 5 and 10 years out are a distraction.

Six months ago, Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Timothy Geithner were prepared to let Lehman go down in an uncontrolled bankruptcy. This obviously did not turn out weel. Now they think that they can never let any creditors of any bank ever lose money.

When commodity trader Rick Santelli ranted about paying other people's mortgages he was missing the real story. The checks are going to banks.

There are reports that President Obama will appoint a commission the week after next to "reform" Social Security. It will be headed by economists who missed the $8 trillion housing bubble and are on record as wanting to cut Social Security.

The economic crisis presents a great opportunity for new directions in economic policy, but we should not just dust off the old agendas from the past.

The same group of sanctimonious blowhards who were whining about the cost of the stimulus and various wasteful items passed an amendment by a voice vote could hand out hundreds of billions of dollars just for flipping homes.

There is talk in the media of a new plan to bailout the banks that will go beyond even the second $350 billion in the TARP. We have to stop rewarding incompetence and greed, it's time to take over insolvent banks.