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| washingtonpost.com - Business and Economy Commentary from The Washington Post's Steven Pearlstein (washingtonpost.com) |
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| It's Not Hank's Mess, but He's Doing Well on Cleanup |
(Fri, 21 Nov 2008)
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| Poor Hank Paulson doesn't deserve the drubbing he's been getting.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: It's |
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| Obama's Voice of Reason Puts Automakers on the Road to Rescue |
(Wed, 19 Nov 2008)
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| Even before being sworn in, Barack Obama has confronted his first big test as president and passed it with flying colors.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Obama's |
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| Toward a New International Capitalism |
(Fri, 14 Nov 2008)
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| "This is a decisive moment for the global economy," President Bush declared yesterday in New York as leaders from the 20 largest economies headed toward Washington for an emergency meeting on the unfolding global economic crisis.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Toward |
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| Obama's Hurdles Down the Track |
(Fri, 07 Nov 2008)
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| Now comes the hard part.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Obama's |
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| Hank Paulson's $125 Billion Mistake |
(Fri, 31 Oct 2008)
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| It was only a few weeks ago that most right-thinking economists and left-leaning bloggers were jumping on Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson for his plan to jump-start the markets in asset-backed securities by having the government buy them up at auction. Much better, they argued, to use the $700 billion to "recapitalize" the banking system, just as Gordon Brown was doing in Britain. Even the Federal Reserve thought that a better idea.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Hank |
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| A Detroit Bankruptcy Beats a Bailout |
(Wed, 29 Oct 2008)
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| Not content with $25 billion in government loans to retool factories for fuel-efficient cars, the auto industry is already back at the trough, this time angling for a taxpayer investment in the firm that would result from a merger of General Motors and Chrysler.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: A |
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| It's Wall Street's Turn to Bolster Confidence |
(Tue, 14 Oct 2008)
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| Now, what was that about Hank Paulson having blown it?
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: It's |
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| Before This Hole Gets Deeper, a Break From Digging |
(Sat, 11 Oct 2008)
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| Remember the Rule of Holes: When you find yourself in one, the first thing to do is to stop digging.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Before |
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| With Bubbles Popping Worldwide, No Wonder the Economy's Gone Flat |
(Tue, 07 Oct 2008)
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| Up to now, it's been a financial crisis. This is a meltdown -- an uncontrolled and largely uncontrollable financial chain reaction that threatens serious harm to the broader economy.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: With |
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| No Silver Bullets Here |
(Thu, 02 Oct 2008)
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| To hear it from critics on the left and right, the Bush administration and legislative leaders were in such a rush to pass a "$700 billion bailout for Wall Street" that they failed to consider much simpler, cheaper, common sense approaches.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: No |
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| They Just Don't Get It |
(Tue, 30 Sep 2008)
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| Oy vey.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: They |
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| Dr. Paulson's Tough Medicine, In a Pill the Public Can Swallow |
(Mon, 29 Sep 2008)
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| After a week of political brinksmanship and 100 pages of concessions to political reality, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson seems to have finally won the power and money he asked for to mount an unprecedented rescue of the financial system.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Dr. |
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| Gut Check |
(Fri, 26 Sep 2008)
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| You're angry. I'm angry. House Republicans are angry. We're all angry at having to put up huge amounts of cash to rescue a financial system because a lot of very rich people rolled the dice with other people's money and lost.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Gut |
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| The Words Left Unspoken in the Bailout Debate |
(Wed, 24 Sep 2008)
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| In all that's been said in recent days about the latest proposals to rescue the financial system, two words have been conspicuously absent.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: The |
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| Tossing Aside History, Conventions and a Few Cliches |
(Sat, 20 Sep 2008)
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| Historic. Breathtaking. Revolutionary.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Tossing |
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| Scrambling to Clean Up After A Category 4 Financial Storm |
(Thu, 18 Sep 2008)
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| You know you're in a heap of trouble when the lender of last resort suddenly runs out of money.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Scrambling |
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| Orchestrating a Process Neither Neat Nor Fair |
(Tue, 16 Sep 2008)
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| When it comes to playing high stakes poker, Hank Paulson knows when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Orchestrating |
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| A Vicious Cycle, Gone Global |
(Fri, 12 Sep 2008)
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| Oil prices have now dipped back near $100, other commodity prices are in a free fall, interest rates are down, and the dollar is up smartly against just about every currency.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: A |
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| In Crisis, Paulson's Stunning Use of Federal Power |
(Mon, 08 Sep 2008)
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| Hurricane Hank swept through the nation's capital yesterday with gale-force regulatory winds and a tidal surge of federal cash, upending two of Washington's biggest enterprises and permanently changing the landscape of housing finance in America.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: In |
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| A Con Game In Pinstripes |
(Fri, 05 Sep 2008)
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| We're entering that exciting phase of any financial crisis when the lawsuits come fast and furious, criminal charges are lodged, and Wall Street firms agree to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for having snookered their customers once again.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: A |
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| The Road to a Bailout They Don't Deserve |
(Wed, 03 Sep 2008)
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| It's desperation time for the Big Three automakers. They are awash in gas-guzzling vehicles nobody wants to buy, bleeding red ink and running out of cash.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: The |
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| Our Inequality of Outcomes |
(Wed, 27 Aug 2008)
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| Hey, good news on the income front: The Census Bureau reported yesterday that median earnings for full-time male workers rose by $1,653 last year, to $45,113, after adjusting for inflation.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Our |
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| A Soap Opera That Needs to End |
(Fri, 22 Aug 2008)
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| Message for Hank Paulson: It's time to get out the bazooka.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: A |
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| When Progress Is A Walk in the Park |
(Wed, 20 Aug 2008)
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| Atrip to New York City is normally not my idea of how to spend a beautiful weekend in August, but for the fact that it was the last chance to visit with our daughter before she headed off for a year at a marketing consultancy in London. By midafternoon Sunday, we had had about all the culture, concrete and consumption we could take. So we put on running gear and headed to Central Park.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: When |
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| Russia's Strike Shows The Power Of the Pipeline |
(Wed, 13 Aug 2008)
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| It was surely not lost on Russia's bully in chief, Vladimir Putin, that the oil giant BP decided to shut down the pipeline that runs through parts of Georgia controlled by Russian troops. Indeed, that was one of the aims of the cross-border incursion.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Russia's |
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| To Successfully Manage an Aging Superstar, Don't Battle His Ego -- Co-Opt It |
(Fri, 08 Aug 2008)
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| It's a sad, sad day for the cheeseheads. Their hero, Brett Favre, the iconic quarterback who led the Green Bay Packers for nearly 16 years without missing a game, the lean, mean passing machine who came within an end-zone interception of winning last year's conference championship -- Brett Favre has been traded to the New York Jets.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: To |
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| Wave Goodbye to the Invisible Hand |
(Fri, 01 Aug 2008)
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| Not so many years ago, respectable people seemed to agree where the world was headed. Communism had fallen to capitalism, and a particular strain of capitalism -- the entrepreneurial, market-driven capitalism found in the United States and Britain -- had proven itself superior to the more corporate and statist variety practiced in Japan and Western Europe. Free trade and the free flow of capital had lifted billions of people out of poverty, and further globalization seemed not only desirable but also inevitable. Here at home, there was talk of a permanent Republican majority dedicated to smaller government, lower taxes, freer trade and more deregulation.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Wave |
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| Macbeth and the Market |
(Fri, 18 Jul 2008)
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| Is this a dagger we see before us, hanging over the global financial system, or a dagger of the mind, a false creation proceeding from the heat-oppressed brains of frightened investors and depositors, greedy short-sellers, short-sighted auditors, and attention-seeking analysts and journalists?
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Macbeth |
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| A Delicate Balance |
(Fri, 11 Jul 2008)
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| You know something's up when both the secretary of the Treasury and the chairman of the Federal Reserve give speeches calling for a new mechanism to allow them to manage the orderly liquidation of a major financial institution.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: A |
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| Altering the Economics of Civil Litigation |
(Fri, 04 Jul 2008)
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| No doubt they were throwing back double vodkas at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce last week following the Supreme Court's decision to cut the punitive damages in the Exxon Valdez oil spill to a week's worth of Exxon Mobil's profits.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Altering |
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| Lessons From The Mosh Pit |
(Wed, 25 Jun 2008)
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| I generally don't pay much attention to rock music, but I'm fascinated with changes in business models. Which is why a news item late last week about Live Nation caught my eye.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Lessons |
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| On Energy: Same-Old, Same-Old |
(Fri, 20 Jun 2008)
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| Listening to the back and forth this week about oil drilling and energy prices, you have to wonder whether there's anyone in Washington who understands what leadership is about.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: On |
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| 75 Years Later, a Regulator Who Would Make FDR Proud |
(Wed, 18 Jun 2008)
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| A new sport in Washington these days is bashing financial regulators, who didn't exactly cover themselves in glory during the recent credit bubble.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: 75 |
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| What Smartphone Makers Can Teach Legislators |
(Wed, 11 Jun 2008)
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| Good news for the tech industry: I'm finally going to break down and buy a smartphone.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: What |
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| Region's Universities Raise Their Tech IQ |
(Fri, 06 Jun 2008)
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| The greatest untold story of the Washington region is the under-performance of the technology sector.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Region's |
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| Bubbles, Arms Races and an End to the Spin Cycle |
(Wed, 04 Jun 2008)
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| I've never met, or even spoken with, Scott McClellan. But I'm fairly confident that, this time, he's speaking the truth.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Bubbles, |
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| Such a Deal |
(Fri, 23 May 2008)
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| It is a cause for celebration that two of the Washington area's most successful companies -- Carlyle Group and Booz Allen Hamilton -- have decided to join forces.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Such |
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| Leap of Illogic on Wall Street Leaves GE Flat-Footed |
(Wed, 21 May 2008)
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| General Electric's Jeff Immelt cannot seem to please anyone.
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Author: Steven Pearlstein |
Category: Leap |
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