Paul Krugman, today:

Nouriel is right: this is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, and the Fed, with the best will in the world, probably lacks the tools to deal with it. Broader action is necessary.

But then comes the question: who ya gonna call?

The Gang That Couldn’t think Straight still holds the White House; no good ideas will come from that quarter. Worse, Incurious George would probably veto any sensible plan from Congress, even if said plan could get past a filibuster.

Hey, here’s an idea! Let’s create a nonpartisan expert commission, headed by Alan Gr …. oh, wait. He’s part of the problem. In fact, is there any way we can repossess his book royalties?

Seriously, it’s very hard to see who can take charge.

Things fall apart, and the center doesn’t exist.

The guys who broke it are still in charge. I can’t believe how doomed we are with this setup.

Or at least much better known mainstream political commentator (Tim Russert has a job again why?):

Misadventures in logical reasoning
* Sometimes, people get drunk and drive, or get drunk and abuse others. Therefore, we should outlaw all alcohol (rather than just outlaw drunk driving and assault).
* Sometimes, the media libels people and destroys their reputations. Therefore, we should outlaw all freedom of the press (rather than just proscribe libel).
* Sometimes, children get a hold of cigarettes or pornography. Therefore, we should outlaw all smoking and pornography (rather than just outlaw the act of selling cigarettes or porn to minors).

…

Things I learned over the last 48 hours
* It’s possible to eliminate recreational activities that people have engaged in privately for thousands of years simply by making it illegal and then imprisoning the people who do it. Thus, we criminalize prostitution and drugs to ensure that nobody does those things.
* People who work at an unpleasant job in order to support themselves, rather than because they enjoy it, are the functional equivalent of brutalized, exploited slaves and therefore should be barred by others from choosing that job — when the job in question is prostitution, but not when it’s factory work or fast food cashier or large corporate law firm associate or massage therapist or porn actor.

…

Yes, prostitution is against the law in New York. No, Eliot Spitzer is not entitled to break the law. Yes, Eliot Spitzer should be treated the same as any average citizen who hires prostitutes (neither better nor worse). No, I have no sympathy for Spitzer personally given how aggressively he prosecuted multiple prostitution cases and how guilty he is of rank hypocrisy and overzealous prosecutions.

None of those issues pertains in any way to the points above.

Remember three years ago when I got a little hot under the collar about people refusing to move to reusable grocery bags?

China has banned plastic bags.

Surprising to me was the factoid that China spends 37 million barrels of crude oil just on plastic bag production per year. What must we be spending?

(Of course, as Al Gore pointed out in An Inconvenient Truth, here in the US it’s an epic (and losing) political battle to regulate car manufacturers to increase fuel efficiency standards to 35 miles per gallon…by 2020. China is already at 35 mpg, Japan is at 40 mpg, and the EU is at a staggering 48.9 mpg.)

We could do so much to get off the goddamn oil syringe, and apparently it’s just too damn taxing for us to even try.