Monday, April 11, 2011
Impish prank of the week
OK, it has not actually happened, but if somebody were to do this it would be the impish prank of the week. Or maybe the year.
2 Comments:
By 
, at
Tue Apr 12, 01:38:00 PM:
“Just Because I’m Paranoid Doesn’t Mean I’m Wrong”
Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit has followed up on this by posting here on Peter Orzag’s moving from White House Budget to a high paying position as Vice-Chair Without Portfolio at Citigroup. This follows a lengthy recent piece in New York Magazine about Orzag’s move called Revolver.
Orzag co-operated on the NYM piece, and even went to lunch with the author. There’s some noteworthy bullshit in the NYM piece that reflects on the times we live in:
1) If you believe Orzag, he left the White House because he had a falling out with Rahm Emanuel and Larry Summers because Orzag was a frustrated deficit hawk.
Funny that. As I ranted about here some months ago, “Baby Daddy” Orzag was responsible for Obama’s current budget plan which uses crazy optimistic assumptions (e.g., greater than 4.0% GDP growth for a decade AND tax increases) but still shows a nearly trillion dollar annual permanent structural deficit.
Lest we forget, Orzag used to run the CBO. At the White House he was the point guy on gaming the CBO process to say that Obamacare would cut the deficit.
But I guess we’re all deficit hawks now.
2) If you believe Orzag, he was torn up on what to do next after the White House, thought of going into academia, but thought that joining Citigroup was the best path to learn more about the world and to make a difference.
Lest we forget, Citigroup is still a ward of the USA. Funny how Citigroup recently got a pass on its stress test, but Bank America didn’t.
Even Citigroup isn’t dumb enough to hire Orzag as a BS Vice-Chair unless he still had juice with Obama. The impression that you get from the NYM piece is the opposite. That’s deliberate.
3) One of Orzag’s mentors was the economist Joseph Stiglitz. Years ago, they co-wrote a paid-for paper to the effect that Fannie and Freddie posed no systemic risk.
****
This is bad stuff, if you’re still paying attention. The concentration we now have in finance -- and the ties to government -- is an outrage.
“They’re dumping water in the desert …”
By , at
Tue Apr 12, 01:39:00 PM:
Ignoramus “Just Because I’m Paranoid Doesn’t Mean I’m Wrong”
Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit has followed up on this by posting here on Peter Orzag’s moving from White House Budget to a high paying position as Vice-Chair Without Portfolio at Citigroup. This follows a lengthy recent piece in New York Magazine about Orzag’s move called Revolver.
Orzag co-operated on the NYM piece, and even went to lunch with the author. There’s some noteworthy bullshit in the NYM piece that reflects on the times we live in:
1) If you believe Orzag, he left the White House because he had a falling out with Rahm Emanuel and Larry Summers because Orzag was a frustrated deficit hawk.
Funny that. As I ranted about here some months ago, “Baby Daddy” Orzag was responsible for Obama’s current budget plan which uses crazy optimistic assumptions (e.g., greater than 4.0% GDP growth for a decade AND tax increases) but still shows a nearly trillion dollar annual permanent structural deficit.
Lest we forget, Orzag used to run the CBO. At the White House he was the point guy on gaming the CBO process to say that Obamacare would cut the deficit.
But I guess we’re all deficit hawks now.
2) If you believe Orzag, he was torn up on what to do next after the White House, thought of going into academia, but thought that joining Citigroup was the best path to learn more about the world and to make a difference.
Lest we forget, Citigroup is still a ward of the USA. Funny how Citigroup recently got a pass on its stress test, but Bank America didn’t.
Even Citigroup isn’t dumb enough to hire Orzag as a BS Vice-Chair unless he still had juice with Obama. The impression that you get from the NYM piece is the opposite. That’s deliberate.
3) One of Orzag’s mentors was the economist Joseph Stiglitz. Years ago, they co-wrote a paid-for paper to the effect that Fannie and Freddie posed no systemic risk.
****
This is bad stuff, if you’re still paying attention. The concentration we now have in finance -- and the ties to government -- is an outrage.
“They’re dumping water in the desert …”
