The "green new deal" is a cliche. Now we hear of a national green bank. As if Alexander Hamilton had hooked up with Rachel Carson. The Biden administration's long talk of a "national green bank" came into focus last week with the announcement that the administration is providing $27 billion in climate finance funds to coalitions of nonprofit lenders. The funding comes out of funds already appropriated by last year's Inflation Reduction Act. Formally, the "bank" is known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The hope is that the GGRF will evolve into something like a true bank, borrowing from private capital on the one hand what it lends out to private enterprises on the other, and making enough back from its debtors to pay its creditors. The hope, furthermore, is that this will truly be a NATIONAL bank in a Hamiltonian sense, the center of a network of private banks that will end up financing everything from community solar projects to EV chargi...
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The Cato Institute has presented its institutionally generated thoughts about cryptocurrencies and government regulation thereof, in podcast form. The podcast is the work of Jack Solowey and Jennifer Schulp. Solowey is the head of Cato's Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives. Schulp is the director of financial regulation studies within that Center. The titular question: "Is Congress Tackling Tough Questions on Crypto Regulation?" The answer is almost certainly "no," because Congress of late isn't tackling anything of importance, especially given that the Republican majority in the House of Representatives is traveling up the butt-hole of its own self-absorption. But is that really the answer that they're looking for? See for yourself. Is Congress Tackling Tough Questions on Crypto Regulation? | Cato Institute
Dennis Kucinich lost the primary this spring. He won't be on the ballot in November. He was seeking the Democratic Party nomination for the Governor of Ohio. He was defeated, soundly, by Richard Cordray, whose chief qualification for high office is his tenure under President Obama as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. So Cordray will take on the Republican nominee, Ohio AG Mike DeWine. But my focus today is on Kucinich, pictured here, who has been a big part of Ohio politics, and a somewhat peripheral but often amusing, part of the national political scene, for a long time. He has been around since his election to the Cleveland City Council in 1969. He may finally be fading from the picture. Even his true-believer base has moved on. So why bother discussing him? Well ... a few days ago I incidentally mentioned the chemtrail conspiracy theory in this blog. So I think it fair, building on that, to point out that the Fading One, DK, helped give this theory what...
Pity former Speaker of the House of Representatives Dennis Hastert. He is now the defendant in a lawsuit brought by one of the anonymous individuals who were apparently extorting money from him. The extortionist wants $1.8 million. Lest we forget, Hastert has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for having been too sneaky about withdrawing the funds he was using to pay this guy off. From an NBC report: When the FBI questioned Hastert about the money, he lied and said he just wanted to keep it in a safe place, prosecutors said. His lawyers later contacted agents and told them he was actually being extorted by an ex-student with a false claim of sexual abuse from decades ago. With recorders running, the agents had Hastert speak with Individual A and claim he was having trouble coming up with the next payment. They said the other man's tone and remarks were not consistent with an extortion plot. So the key legal distinction here is between "extortion" on...
So Hastert has pleaded guilty to one of the two counts in front of him. I'm not at all an expert in the federal criminal laws designed to protect the banking system but I'll say this, I find certain aspects of this case odd. They won't be clarified by the sort of investigation now under way by various media outlets, because what those outlets seem to be interested in is: what did Hastert do that made him the extortion target? They want to uncover precisely the res that Hastert has worked so hard to hide all these years, and ideally give a name and face to the blackmailer and victim (everyone is assuming arguendo that they are the same person, or at least that they are kin). That's just gossip at this point. Hastert has pleaded guilty to structuring his withdrawals in such a way as to avoid reporting requirements. But isn't it generally lawful to act in such a way as to avoid breaking the law? This seems an odd sort of offense. I am reminded somewhat of Rob...