jason fager -

← home

I just finished my evaluation tasks for becoming an Obama Data Fellow. I’m not much of an Excel wrangler, so I don’t know if I’m exactly what they need, but I hope I would be able to contribute with what Excel I could pick up over 3 weeks, quick-and-dirty scripts, small webapps, and just being technically handy. If they decide they need someone with more hands-on experience, I would still travel out somewhere as a regular volunteer, but I won’t lie: I’m really excited about the prospect of using my knowledge and abilities for good, and I would be disappointed if I didn’t get that chance.

8 October 2008

Dude that is so fucking awesome! Good work!

Posted by Charles de Granville on 8 October 2008 @ 8pm

On a separate note, what do you think about this?

Posted by Charles de Granville on 8 October 2008 @ 9pm

Just to be clear, our earlier discussion was around the government purchasing mortgages at their current market rate, right? And McCain’s proposal is to buy them at their original full-face value? Who is this guy?

That “This American Life” episode I linked to the other day goes into some detail on the Elmendorf plan. One thing they noted was that the bailout bill as passed has enough wiggle room that the next Treasury secretary could implement Elmendorf if they chose to. I don’t know if Obama has signaled one way or the other how he would handle it, do you?

Posted by Jason on 8 October 2008 @ 11pm

If the government bought the mortgages at their original value as McCain suggests, wouldn’t we be taking a huge loss?

Okay I will check out the episode for more details on the Elmendorf plan.

As far as Obama goes, I have not heard his position on that part of the Paulson plan. I’m personally leaning towards a temporary nationalization of the banking system as the Elmendorf plan seems to suggest. I don’t see how banks will start lending again if they don’t believe that they will ever be repaid.

Posted by Charles de Granville on 8 October 2008 @ 11pm

Yeah, paying full face-value like McCain wants to do would effectively be a simple no-strings handout to banks that made stupid loans. I think there are issues around the government buying mortgages at current market value that need to be addressed, but I didn’t see anything obviously wrong with the idea. McCain’s plan is just idiotic at first glance, though.

I’m also leaning towards the Elmendorf plan, if only because I’ve been told to by people I trust. It makes intuitive sense to me, too, though – infuse the banks with capital, maintain firm regulations, and sell back the stake when the bank can afford it again. It’s simple and direct, while other proposals seem to try to be clever and solve the problem tangentially to avoid looking like socialism.

Posted by Jason on 8 October 2008 @ 11pm

← Previous Post Next Post →