Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Would Have Been Hoisted from Comments Elsewhere

But Steve Randy Waldman already did the heavy lifting: several of the other officers had been stationed at the height of the housing bubble at facilities located near D.C. in Northern Virginia. They lived in very modest homes which were removed from their workplaces by substantial driving distances, but these homes were nevertheless particularly pricey […]

Are TBTF Banks Out of Danger? The Market Doesn’t Think So

Down here it’s just winners and losersAnd don’t get caught on the wrong side of that line This will be a long post. Even with all the pictures above the fold. It started with a finger exercise during my daughter’s swim team practice: Just in case you thought I was picking on The Big C […]

Why Does Santa hate poor kids? (Seven shopping days to Christmas )

by Bruce Webb I posted the below last Christmas Eve. Which was too late to actually discuss the issue. People decry the commercialization of Christmas, which is fair enough. And on econoblogs we discuss income inequality a lot, plus we wonder why working class people simply accept the logic of “no poor person ever gave […]

Much to My Amazement

UPDATE: It gets even stranger. The bankrupt-since-October-2008 Lehman Brothers is going to pay $50,000,000 in bonuses for this year. (h/t alea’s Twitter feed) It appears all of the “gosh, we really made a lot of money from bailing out rich bankers who socked it to their customers” rhetoric is having a small problem in the […]

Banks exiting TARP

by Linda Beale (cross posted from ataxingmatter) Banks exiting TARP Citibank has confirmed its plans to pay back the bailout funds directly provided to it. See NY Times. Of course, the fact that banks are paying back direct bailout funds does not mean that there is no further bank bailout going on. The government now […]

Mohamed v. Jeppesen today

Hat tip to Glen Greenwald for following this case and today’s presentation for Mohamed v. Jeppesen and Ben Wizner’s oral argument at the United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit. Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick also offers comment.____________________________________ Today marks the beginning of testimony for a jobs policy hearings in the Senate as well.____________________________________