The landline provider in my neighborhood in New York City is Verizon. I’m in the middle of a support incident with Verizon that I’ll describe in a bit of detail, for a couple of reasons. First, because it happens on an infrequent but regular basis. Second, because it vividly illustrates how a government-protected industry deals with its customers. Why does this matter? Because we’re now | Read More »
So this week we witnessed the jarring spectacle of three wealthy, well-dressed CEOs flying from Detroit to Washington, DC, each in his individual private jet, to ask for anywhere from 25 to 50 billion dollars of your money. Instead, Congress turned them away. Democrats (if you take them at their word) said they wanted to give Detroit a big slug of money from the Treasury’s | Read More »
The most urgent piece of economic news and policy over the next several weeks will be the fate of the General Motors Corporation. It will take precedence over the general policy response to the worsening recession. The problems in the auto industry go well beyond the Detroit Big Three. All eleven of the major automakers with operations in North America have come under severe stress, | Read More »
There are two points I want to make to you this morning, as the impact of yesterday’s nationalization of the mortgage GSEs works its way through the system. Here’s more information. First: while this is most definitely a fundamental change in the structure of the mortgage markets, it is not a change in our government’s existing policy of deep intervention in housing. The people who | Read More »
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