reevaluations

I've been sitting at home waiting for the plumber to finish a job that is taking longer than expected, and managed to spend a number of hours surfing the web, stumbling onto some very good articles in the process.

Here is an article on reforming Wall Street financial institutions from Sunday's New York Times. This is one of the clearest things I've read on these issues (I think he takes a lot from Gary Gorton). I think it can be done (but I may change my mind). If it cannot, I am siding with Simon Johnson at Baseline Scenario that we ought to break up the big banks.

Here is a great historical article on state's rights claims. It only increases my scepticism about such claims today. I intend to have some things to say about The Tea Party Revival later.

Here is another nice historical article regarding the politics surrounding enacting the Federal Reserve in 1913. And commparing it to the recent enaction of the Medicare Supervisory Board. I continue to hope that the new Health Care bill will be a step forward although I am in no position to judge all the various complexities and there are certainly bound to be many unintended consequences. One of my friends commented that in this country we have to build it before we can fix it. That was pretty witty. I hope she is right.

And here is an interesting little piece from Bryan Caplan questioning Tyler Cowen's (at Marginal Revolution) supposed "Rawlsian assumption" which I share that "no one deserves his place in the distribution of native endowments." This has a very important place in my own ethical and political beliefs and may be one of the reasons I am a liberal rather than a liberterian for the most part (although the two do share some positions). It will be interesting to see if Tyler responds. He is still my number one favorite blogger. He has his own way of looking at the world that is not easily pigeon-holed.

I guess that another bias I have is a sort of optimism. I look at all the disputes and terrible things that have happened in the past and yet here we are today. Of course, as Nassim Taleb says, the Thanksgiving turkey may believe that he has a wonderful life right up until Thanksgiving day. So let's not be pollyannas about it.