| September 25, 2008 |
|
|
Congress meets on Friday September 26th to evaluate the Treasury's proposed bailout plan. More expert economists weigh in, at the 11th hour, with incisive critiques and proposals. Auction Design Critical for Rescue Plan Lawrence M. Ausubel and Peter Cramton The details of the auction design could make or break the Treasury's plan to invest $700 billion in mortgage-related securities to resolve the financial crisis, using market mechanisms such as reverse auctions to determine prices, according to Lawrence M. Ausubel and Peter Cramton.A Plan for Addressing the Financial Crisis Lucian A. Bebchuk This paper puts forward a proposal for redesigning the Treasury's plan for addressing the financial crisis. The redesigned plan, argues Lucian A. Bebchuk, would do a far better job of protecting taxpayer interests and restoring financial stability.Edward E. Leamer Edward Leamer has questions about the Treasury's bailout plan, but the question is: does Secretary Paulson have answers? If not, then Leamer proposes a more direct way to spend $700 billion dollars that attacks the root of the problem--housing price declines: call it "trickle up" economics.David O. Beim David Beim asks whether the Treasury Plan is a good or bad bailout in historic terms and suggests that the difference is price and whether the problem addressed is solvency or liquidity.LettersLetter: Another Take on "Why Paulson is Wrong" Allen H. Barton Paulson proposes a top-down solution to the financial crisis by government purchase of bad loans from the lenders to "clean" their balance sheets. But, Barton suggests, a bottom-up solution would be a subsidy to borrowers to ensure full payments, restoring the value of the "toxic assets," thereby cleaning up.About this journalThe Economists' Voice, edited by Aaron Edlin and Joseph Stiglitz, recipient of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics, together with Jonathan Carmel, J. Bradford DeLong, William Gale, James Hines and Jeffrey Zwiebel, is the decade's most successful publishing innovation for professional economists. It was shortlisted for Best New Journal in the 2007 ALPSP/Charlesworth Awards. Its short, focused policy articles fill a gap between the op-ed pages of the newspaper and full-length journal articles. Contributors include seven Nobel Prize winners, five past chairs of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, public intellectuals like Paul Krugman and Richard Posner, and a veritable "Who's Who" of modern economic theory and policy. The Economists' Voice is a source of expertise directed at once at the professional economist, policy makers, students, and anyone curious about the economy today. Articles from The Economists' Voice have been prominently featured on the Op-Ed pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon.com, The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch.com, and distributed by Project Syndicate to newspapers around the world. |
Edited by Aaron Edlin
Joseph Stiglitz
Co-Editors: Jonathan Carmel
Bradford DeLong
William Gale
James Hines
Jeffrey Zwiebel
Interested in the 2008 election?
Visit The Forum, for short articles on the 2008 election by leading political scientists.
|
|
|