Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


OWNING THE DEBATE….Ezra Klein on the Paulson rescue package:

One point Paul Krugman makes here is that the terms of the bailout were sharply constrained by the political strategy chosen by the Democrats. When Pelosi and Reid decided that this bill would not go through without Republican votes because Democrats would not be demagogued for cleaning up the mess caused by deregulation, they took more sharply liberal options like nationalization off the table.

That’s true, but I think I’d make a different political point. Henry Paulson unveiled his plan on Friday the 19th, and that was when the frame of the debate was set. And that frame was: purchase of troubled assets. At that point, virtually no one had so much as mentioned large scale nationalizations as a potential solution to the banking crisis. It just wasn’t on the public radar screen.

Now, maybe that wouldn’t have mattered. Maybe our current political coalition wouldn’t have been willing to consider it regardless. But virtually everyone agreed that action needed to be taken quickly to prop up the financial markets, and under circumstances like that there’s simply no chance of popping up at the last minute with a huge new proposal and thinking it has any chance of passing. If large-scale nationalization was really the preferred solution among liberal activists, the time to start pushing it was before Paulson and Bernanke introduced their bill. Doing it in the middle of last week, and then complaining that it didn’t get seriously considered, displays a failure of vision on the left, not from its congressional leadership.

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate