Today's Papers

A Dollar Short

The Washington Post and New York Times lead with, and the Los Angeles Times fronts, administration proposals to stave off a recession—the next one. The L.A. Times leads with a report that Southern California home prices have fallen back to 2004 levels, and the Wall Street Journal tops its newsbox with an item on Democratic efforts to challenge the White House on spying authority. USA Today leads with fears among Democrats that attacks by Hillary Clinton on Barack Obama could cost the party the White House in November.

The bulk of the proposals to prevent the next recession focus on regulating the “securitization” of mortgages, report the papers. Securitization is a financial trick that magically turns a bunch of unrelated, risky investments into one big, safe bet—C’mon, honey! It’s a sure thing!

The Post neatly sums up how the financial industry lost the nation’s house and says that the administration effort “seeks to cure three paramount failings behind the credit meltdown: Financial firms at each step of the securitization process didn’t know what they were buying, didn’t care as long as they were making money, and didn’t have enough cash to cover mistaken bets.”

The Times, though, spies a problem, noting that “the plan relies on the same market participants—from mortgage brokers to credit-rating agencies and Wall Street firms—that government officials and other experts blame for the current crisis.” It’s called capitalism, and the Times seems to be going a bit squishy on it.

Not without reason, as all the papers prominently report: Consumer confidence tumbled along with the dollar, gold prices cracked $1,000 an ounce, and oil hit a record high of $110 per barrel. Southern California home prices plunged nearly one-fifth from last year’s peak, a shockingly rapid decline, causing forecasters to “rethink their previous forecasts.” The Wall Street Journal’stop headline describes a Carlyle Group investment fund as in “free fall.” Carlyle Capital’s stock is down 97 percent and is at risk of having its assets seized. The paper suggests that “connections don’t mean much in today’s credit crunch,” a reference to the apparent powerlessness of the powerful owners of the legendary Carlyle Group to defy economic gravity.

Democrats, seconded by a Times editorial, countered that the administration plan does too little to calm the current turmoil—”a day late and a dollar short,” in the words of New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer. Democrats see it instead as a way to deflect congressional energy away from its more vigorous proposals to use government power to encourage mortgage companies to renegotiate and write down home loans to stave off foreclosures or at least prevent them from pulling the economy further down.

Paul Krugman isn’t optimistic that anyone can. He notes that, as a result of a recent fed move to back the securitization magic trick, “no advanced-country’s central bank has ever exposed itself to this much market risk.” (TP plans to lump all his upset picks in the NCAA tournament together, then sell them to investors as one risk-free product.)

USAT has a harsh assessment of Clinton’s recent campaign tactics. The first line of its lead story: “Democrats are increasingly worried about their chances for victory in November after a series of attacks by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on rival Sen. Barack Obama’s leadership, credibility, readiness as commander in chief and, now, his ability to win the White House.”

Lorne Michaels can’t get too fired up, though, as the story quotes top Clinton pollster Mark Penn saying on a conference call Thursday that “Sen. Obama really can’t win the general election.” This angle throws out the standard practice whereby members of the same party insist that any fellow contender—Dennis Kucinich, whoever—would be able to beat the other party’s candidate.

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson clarified that Pennsylvania was the context of the remark. “If you don’t compete in Pennsylvania, you can’t win a general election,” he said. (President John Kerry won Pennsylvania in the general, as TP recalls.)

The Post fronts the next piece of the puzzle that is former National Republican Congressional Committee Treasurer Christopher J. Ward, a highly regarded accountant who is under investigation for allegedly skimming hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more, from GOP coffers.

Unlike Wall Street rip-offs, which tend to require fleets of trucks to haul the stolen loot, Ward is accused of having picked one trusting pocket at a time. “Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) told The Post this week that Ward paid himself $6,000 from King’s PAC in 2007 after the congressman thought he had closed down the committee.” Politico.comTP’s other employer—”reported last night that Ward lent himself more than $4,200 from the political action committee of Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Tex.), an unusual expenditure for a campaign treasurer to make. Ward repaid the money early last month, after the FBI was called in to investigate his work at the NRCC.”

The Journal splashes a big story across the front about the impact of the crashing dollar on the Japanese economy. Japan, already facing economic pressures, could have its export industry crippled by the currency disparity.

The fall of soon-to-be-former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer continues, though attention is waning, with the Times taking the lead in what could evolve into a local story. The paper has word that investigators suspect Spitzer might have used campaign funds to pay for prostitutes.

Lt. Gov. David A. Paterson’s profile is given a huge above-the-fold photo in the Times. Asked if he has even visited a prostitute himself, he said, “Only the lobbyists.”

USA Today is in its comfort zone, the month of March and the madness that the paper lives to cover. Today’s cover story is a look at American University’s hopes and dreams. The Eagles, with a win against Colgate on Friday afternoon, will qualify for the NCAA tournament for the first time in NCAA history.

The Wall Street Journal says it has cracked the bracket and has discovered “some hidden truths, broad patterns and statistical oddities that might be helpful to anyone who wants to dominate the office pool.” This one can’t miss!