The Value of Lobbying

Posted on March 21, 2012 by novahockey

This article in the Atlantic addresses the “money and politics” problems and touches on what successful lobbyists offer members of Congress: expertise and research. Congressional staffers are not typically paid that well and they’re overworked, so they rely on well funded and staffed people to do their research, draft their white papers, etc. for them. I’d include coalition building in that. The whole thing is worth a read.

The article links to a Ezra Klein piece, also worth reading, on lobbying that includes this nugget from a book that he was reviewing:

The lobbyist today is ethical, and well educated. He or she works extremely hard to live within the letter of the law. More than ever before, most lobbyists are just well-paid policy wonks, expert in a field and able to advise and guide Congress well. Regulation is complex; regulators understand very little; the lobbyist is the essential link between what the regulator wants to do and how it can get done…. Most of it is decent, aboveboard, the sort of stuff we would hope happens inside the Beltway.

Couldn’t have said it better.

Also, every so often a member will gloat that he returned money from his budget that would have been spent on staff. That just tells me he’s not hiring well. You learn very quickly how well or poorly a particular member is staffed.

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Morning Report

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Brent Nyitray

Vital Statistics:

Last Change Percent
S&P Futures 1402.7 2.7 0.19%
Eurostoxx Index 2576.3 -0.4 -0.01%
Oil (WTI) 106.45 0.4 0.36%
LIBOR 0.4742 0.000 0.00%
US Dollar Index (DXY) 79.593 0.000 0.00%
10 Year Govt Bond Yield 2.34% -0.02%

World equity markets are higher this morning ahead of existing home sales data at 10:00am. Bonds are rallying as well, with the 10 year futures up 11 ticks, retracing some of the pounding it has taken over the last week.

Unsurprisingly, the Mortgage Bankers Association index of mortgage applications was down for the prior week, with refis down big. The average rate on a 30 year fixed rate loan was 4.19%.

The Federal Reserve released its financial statements for 2011 yesterday. Total assets were 2.92 trillion at the end of 2011, an increase of almost 500 billion. Total capital is 53.8B, and they distributed 77.4 billion to the US Treasury. They currently hold 895B worth of MBS, which is down 13% from last year.  So it appears they are not fully re-investing P&I payments.  Maiden Lane has been nearly cut in half and is down to 36B, when you include capitalized interest and all the other variable interest entities.

Speaking the the Fed, the WaPo has an article asking the question if Bernake is aggressive enough regarding unemployment. Naturally the inflation doves think he isn’t. Would QEIII lop a percentage point off of the unemployment rate? It is hard to make an argument that it would. A real market-clearing bottom in housing would do more to get the economy moving than more games from the Fed.

How would the major European banks have fared under the Fed’s stress-tests?  They would have passed, according to analysts at Barclay’s. Surprising result, unless they explicitly did not model another sovereign default.

Filed under: Morning Report | 14 Comments »

Amazing video

Posted on March 21, 2012 by ashot

Total drive by post. I am swamped at work, but this video was too cool not to share.  For whatever reason it would not let me put the video in the post, but if someone else can, please do so.

Filed under: fun stuff | 2 Comments »