October 3, 2008

• How the "wooden children's arrow" and wool research earmarks made it into bailout bill [NYT DealBook; Mark Steyn, NRO "Corner"]
• Ultra-bear Nouriel Roubini has sobering overnight analysis of crisis severity [RGE Monitor]
• Claim that conservatives have overblamed CRA as contributor to housing bubble [American Prospect this spring] But CRA was one element in wider pattern of politically generated pressures for slack lending standards [Malanga, RCP]
• Bill Clinton is talking sense on rush to blame deregulation and Glass-Steagall repeal [WSJ edit] But SEC's 2004 relaxation of rules for big investment banks isn't looking good in retrospect [NYT]
• Washington Mutual failure has already passed from the headlines, but it was a big deal [LaCroix, D&O Diary]
• Analysis of bailout bill's provisions on "excessive" executive compensation [Hodak Value]
• Will credit default swap litigation be the next big thing? [American Lawyer]
• More: What do economists want? WaMu-style surgical recapitalization of banks? [Tabarrok] Or current bailout bill as better than nothing? [E. Posner]