The American Jewish Establishment

This article in the New York Review of Books about the divergence of Israel and American Jewish sentiment is a fantastic read. I'm not too well-versed on these issues, but the thrust of the article is that criticizing Israel is becoming more common from American Jews as Israel's policies diverge from liberal secular American Jewish mentality.

Bailout Funds

The financial regulation we're going to pass looks like it may have a bailout fund, filled by taxes on the big banks, which will be used to pay expenses incurred in winding down any bank that goes belly-up. Another similar concept is Superfund, where a tax was levied to create a pool that could pay for hazardous waste cleanup. It may be instructive to realize that currently Superfund money no longer comes from these taxes; the Federal Government pays out of pocket.

I'm very curious, though, why we think that establishing these funds is a good thing. In my opinion, every bank executive will now be searching for ways to get a hold of the bailout fund money. Furthermore, by establishing a bailout fund, aren't we creating an incentive for banks to continue with high risk investments? The only way to rein in the risk is to explicitly declare that there is NO safety net for these banks or for their creditors.