Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - Posts
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A difficult announcement for me to make. .... 12:15 A.M.
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Reihan Salam writes, of the secretive liberal JournoList:
I only wish right-of-center types could form something equally fun and stimulating and influential ...
I think the Right is ... well, here's what I think. ... Esprit d'escalier: A point I should have made in my debate with Bob Wright, who argues that there have always been private salon-style discussions. True. But the Web can take things that were once benign and render them problematic (and vice versa, I guess). For example, Wright himself frequently argues that the internet has made it easier for angry people with a common, minority grievance to find each other and form groups that can turn to terrorism. There have been angry people for a long time, and there have been angry people who have turned to violence, but the technology of the Web makes a qualitative difference, just as advances in fertility technology can make the qualitative difference between a woman with a long-sought child and Octomom. It's true that there have been "tongs" and salons and other off-the-record discussions for a long time, but the Web might enable an increase in scale so that they become something less benign that actually inhibits productive public debate. Or not! But it's not enough to say "well, this is just an Internet version of something that existed pre-Web." ... 12:10 A.M.
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Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Most interesting thing I've read on the auto bailout today: Why is it so difficult to get GM's bondholders to take a "haircut"? Tom Maguire explains. It turns out there is a big potential free rider problem: If you hold out, while all the other bondholders settle, you can win big. And it has been done. Recently. To Obama. Hence, the disinclination of GM bondholders to cave, pre-bankruptcy. .... Obama would have to put on a huge show of coldbloodedness and credibly threaten bankruptcy in order to now have a chance at intimidating bond holdouts. And, gee, that's just what we've seen. ... P.S.: Maybe everyone already knows this. I didn't. ... P.P.S.: Extracting concessions from unions, in contrast, is relatively straightforward: Once the union agrees to a giveback, the concession binds all of its members. Individual workers can't hold out for their old deal. (This isn't to say that extracting concessions where there is no union--make that imposing concessions--isn't easier still.) .... 5:45 P.M.
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