Barack Obama: The U.S.'s 44th President (and 25th Lawyer-President)
Obama’s Harvard law degree puts him in the company of our 19th president, Rutherford Hayes (Kenyon College, Harvard law), the only other president— believe it or not— to hold a JD from the Law School. Below is a complete list of our lawyer-presidents.
#2 — John Adams (Harvard, then apprenticed as a lawyer)
#3 — Thomas Jefferson (College of William & Mary, then apprenticed as a lawyer)
#4 — James Madison (College of New Jersey — now Princeton — then read law)
#6 — John Quincy Adams (Harvard, then apprenticed as a lawyer)
#7 — Andrew Jackson (self-taught lawyer)
#8 — Martin Van Buren (Kinderhook Academy, then apprenticed as a lawyer)
#10 — John Tyler (College of William & Mary, then apprenticed as a lawyer)
#11 — James Polk (University of North Carolina, then apprenticed as a lawyer)
#13 — Millard Fillmore (clerked for and studied under New York Judge Walter Wood)
#14 — Franklin Pierce (Bowdoin College, then studied law)
#15 — James Buchanan (Dickinson College, then studied law)
#16 — Abraham Lincoln (No formal education, a self-taught lawyer)
#19 — Rutherford Hayes (Kenyon College, Harvard law)
#21 — Chester Arthur (Union College, then studied law)
#22 — Grover Cleveland (apprenticed as a lawyer)
#23 — Benjamin Harrison (Miami University in Ohio, then studied law)
#25 — William McKinley (Allegheny College, Albany law)
#27 — William Howard Taft (Yale, Cincinnati law)
#28 — Woodrow Wilson (College of New Jersey — now Princeton — then UVA law)
#30 — Calvin Coolidge (Amherst, then apprenticed as a lawyer)
#32 — Franklin Roosevelt (Harvard, Columbia law)
#37 — Richard Nixon (Whittier College, Duke law)
#38 — Gerald Ford (University of Michigan, Yale law)
#42 — Bill Clinton (Georgetown University, Yale law)
#44 — Barack Obama (Columbia, Harvard law)
NOTE: Our 33rd president, Harry Truman, was the only president who served after 1897 not to earn a college degree. However he did study law for two years at the Kansas City Law School, now the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.
WSJ Law Blog November 5, 2008

Congressional Research Service Report - Presidential Transitions: Issues Involving Outgoing and Incoming Administrations, October 23, 2008.
"The smooth and orderly transfer of power can be a notable feature of presidential transitions, and a testament to the legitimacy and durability of the electoral and democratic processes. Yet, at the same time, a variety of events, decisions, and activities contribute to what some may characterize as the unfolding drama of a presidential transition. Interparty transitions in particular might be contentious. Using the various powers available, a sitting President might use the transition period to attempt to secure his legacy or effect policy changes. Some observers have suggested that, if the incumbent has lost the election, he might try to enact policies in the waning months of his presidency that would “tie his successor’s hands.” On the other hand, a President-elect, eager to establish his policy agenda and populate his Administration with his appointees, will be involved in a host of decisions and activities, some of which might modify or overturn the previous Administration’s actions or decisions."

Stock Market Fluctuations and Retiree Incomes: An Update - by Gary Burtless, The Brookings Institution
Social Security was created in the middle of the Great Depression. The recent dive in stock prices and home values offers a painful reminder of why government-guaranteed pensions seemed like a good idea in the 1930s. President Franklin Roosevelt proposed creation of the Social Security program in 1935, a bit more than five years after the stock market crash of October 1929. The collapse of stock prices and the bankruptcy of thousands of farms, businesses, and banks wiped out the lifetime savings of millions of retirees and aging workers. Many industrial and trade union pension plans became insolvent, leaving former pensioners with no dependable source of income in old age. In view of the precariousness of private savings, it is not surprising that the President, Congress, and most American voters thought a public pension plan, backed by the taxing power of the federal government, was preferable to sole reliance on private retirement savings...If Congress does not raise the contribution rate or trim benefits in the next three decades, the reserves of the system will be depleted shortly after 2040. At that point Social Security pensions will have to be cut or contributions into the system increased. If all of the adjustment takes the form of a benefit cut, monthly pensions will have to be trimmed about 25% around the time the Social Security reserve fund is exhausted."

Federal Reserve: Commercial Paper Rates and Outstanding
Data as of November 3, 2008 - Commercial Paper Rates and Outstanding Derived from data supplied by The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation
"Commercial paper consists of short-term, promissary notes issued primarily by corporations. Maturities range up to 270 days but average about 30 days. Many companies use commercial paper to raise cash needed for current transactions, and many find it to be a lower-cost alternative to bank loans. The Federal Reserve Board disseminates information on commercial paper (CP) primarily through its World Wide Web site. In addition, the Board publishes one-, two-, and three-month rates on AA nonfinancial and AA financial CP weekly in its H.15 Statistical Release and monthly in its G.13 Statistical Release. It also publishes some data on CP outstandings in the monthly Federal Reserve Bulletin."
Related postings on financial system

From a new blog: I walk home from work a lot, camera in hand. It presents a new way of looking at things: slowly, deliberately. And I notice little pieces of everyday magic. Two recent findings: someone suspended autumn leaves with twigs and copper wire, in a halo around a tree trunk. Another is a mossy staircase leading to a wrought iron gate, covered in leaves. It looked like a portal. Art is a portal. http://blog.paperrosedesigns.com/