Quotes of the day

[Hank Paulson] was more Santa Claus than Vito Corleone: the agreement allowed the banks to continue paying dividends to common shareholders.--DAVID S. SCHARFSTEIN and JEREMY C. STEIN

You cannot simply say, "We must have transparency." Requiring transparency means requiring people to disclose information that is costly to acquire. But that undermines their incentive to acquire information.--Arnold Kling

Ben Bernanke apparently wants four more years as Federal Reserve Chairman. At least that's a reasonable conclusion after Mr. Bernanke all but submitted his job application to Barack Obama yesterday by endorsing the Democratic version of fiscal "stimulus."--WSJ Editorial Board

Of the presidents he worked with, [Alan] Greenspan reserves his highest praise for Bill Clinton, whom he described in his book as a sponge for economic data who maintained "a consistent, disciplined focus on long-term economic growth."--Orin Kerr

Barack Obama is one of the most liberal members of the Senate. His reaction to the financial crisis is to blame deregulation. He even leverages fear of deregulation onto other issues. For example, Sen. John McCain wants to allow consumers to buy health insurance across state lines. Mr. Obama likens this to the financial deregulation that he alleges got us into the current mess. ... Unlike FDR, Mr. Obama will not have to create the mechanisms government uses to interfere with the economy before imposing his policies. FDR had to get the Supreme Court to overturn a century's worth of precedents limiting the power of government before he could use the Constitution's commerce clause, among other things, to increase government control of the economy. Mr. Obama will have no such problem.--Paul Rubin