Quotes of the day

What's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.--Sarah Palin, Sep 3

You can put lipstick on a pig [long pause for laughter], but it’s still a pig.--Barack Obama, Sep 9

And, bottom line, when part of your defense is "I wasn't as bad as Frank Murkowski" isn't that a real sign of trouble?--Glenn Reynolds

In practice, the folks at Treasury figure that by doing this now, rather than waiting, at least they stop Fannie and Freddie from issuing debt that pays a risk premium when the Treasury knows that it's the taxpayers who will end up paying that risk premium. So the existing debtholders' profits are grandfathered in, but the hope is that you're not going to keep handing out money to the buyers of new GSE debt.

The moral of the story is that Barney Frank's idea of a financial system, in which a very forgiving government-sponsored lender makes low down-payment loans in the name of "affordable housing," only works for a while. Eventually, it uses up a lot of money and a lot of time and effort on the part of the civil servants trying to put Humpty-Dumpty back together.--Arnold Kling

I do think Google has a pretty creepy corporate culture, not overly law abiding and respectful of the IP rights of others, and with imperial ambitions. They scare me, but golly, they do make good products. I do think it's wrong for them to keep all those brains they stole from orphans alive in vats underneath their server farm in Oregon just to alpha test their products, however, even if the technology is really impressive.--Tom Smith

[Football is] cruelest of the four major sports. You never know when the rug will get pulled out from under you.--Bill Simmons