Credit Default Swaps are just insurance that a company/issuing entity won't go bankrupt - in fact they have since saved the municipal debt markets from imploding once it came out that the monoline insurers had taken huge positions in subprime debt. Berkshire Hathaway was/is charging huge fees to re-insure municipal debt that was insured by MBIA and AMBAC, but uninsured debt was a cheaper alternative that investors could swallow thanks to the introduction of the Muni CDS market in the fall. The uninsured alternatives help save lots of cities, states, and counties millions of dollars when they had to issue bonds that otherwise would have lined the pockets of Warren Buffett, who of course recently came out as an Obama fan.

I would probably be very careful before implying that CDS contracts are the reason that the subprime mess occurred.

Posted at May 29, 2008 12:50 PM in response to Today's Must Read

Of course Daily Kos diarists are all over this - it's the bastion of Obama prophetizing on the web, outside of the blog space on the campaign's website.

And the anyone who was anyone in the Democratic party in the 90's has connections to the Clinton White House - they were in power for most of the decade for crissakes.

It looks bad that they did this repeatedly in several states, but it's been pointed out that they did it for non-primary states as well. I'm skeptical there's anything there.

I'll also point out to the Obama people that you can only cry wolf so many times - racism, this, voter fraud in New Hampshire and Nevada and Texas and Ohio and every other state - before people stop listening to you.

Posted at May 1, 2008 1:51 PM in response to Board Members from Robo Calling Nonprofit Criticize Effort, But Vouch for Group

Just a quick follow up on the free ID - isn't that putting a burden on taxpayers to fund their own elections? Granted, we do that already, but it seems like issuing free ID's increases the operating cost of the BMV to Indiana taxpayers. As a Democrat, this doesn't bother me, but I'd have to think that most traditional Republicans wouldn't go for a law that increases the cost to the taxpayer. I imagine when they passed the law they just raised the fees or fines on things like DWI's or traffic tickets. Just a thought though.

Posted at April 28, 2008 11:06 AM in response to Court Upholds Voter ID Law

Yes, it is free, I checked it myself. The Indiana BMV explicitly states that an ID for voting purposes is free. I don't agree with voting ID laws, but it doesn't look like this one is creating a poll tax.

Posted at April 28, 2008 11:01 AM in response to Court Upholds Voter ID Law