(hat tip David Zetland) for this informal note on the question of “Where are the investigative journalists?”. This comment is from a reddit thread and is a beginning to thoughts of how to take personal responsibility for change.  Eslader writes on reddit in response to the question of ‘Where are the investigative journalists?”: know? Ex-journo here. […]

Rolling Stone (via Reader Supported News) points us to an op-ed in Armed Forces Journal  by Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis and the pdf at Rolling Stone. Earlier this week, the New York Times’ Scott Shane published a bombshell piece about Lt. Colonel Daniel Davis, a 17-year Army veteran recently returned from a second tour […]

 by Linda Beale Levin proposed carried interest bill (HR 4016) Sander Levin has proposed H.R. 4016, which would characterize allocation of partnership profits in respect of a “profits interest” received for services–i.e., carried interest compensation– of investment fund managers as ordinary income subject to employment taxes rather than allowing it to be treated as a […]

by Linda Beale U.S. Chamber and corporations fighting for low preferential capital gains rates A coalition of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and large multinational corporations such as Altria Group Inc. and Excel Energy Inc. is trying to pressure Congress to retain the extraordinarily low current tax rates on unearned income that will expire at […]

by Linda Beale The 1% are the only beneficiaries of Greek austerity, not ordinary Greeks An interesting post over on Naked Capitalism on the Greek austerity measures being demanded by the EU leaders (Germany, mostly) and the IMF: Marshal Auerback: Greece and the Rape by the Rentiers (Feb. 10, 2012). The austerity demands, in order […]

by Mike Kimel Rent Control, Redux There’s been a small dustup on rent control lately on the blogosphere. Peter Dorman has been pointing out that the theory everyone knows may not fit the facts. I myself covered the topic before here. Its worth a read, I think, but here’s the takeaway Now, I haven’t been […]

I found this link in Sitemeter and am in a quixotic mood. I couldn’t resist chasing it down as I wondered what Free Republic was and how Mike’s material could be used in a debate there. Lifted from comments at Free Republic website regarding Newt’s speech at CPAC earlier this week (and a spirited debate […]

OMB Watch notes some figures on Super Pac spending: Outside groups are spending nearly 1,300 percent more on broadcast advertising for the 2012 election than they did in 2008, according to an analysis released on Jan. 30. This is the clearest demonstration yet that Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has fundamentally rewritten the rules […]

Well, sort of on markets.There is an interesting conversation going on at Crooked Timber our public debate in the econosphere and political rhetoric . Henry posts on the use of arguments over the term neo-liberalism and finishes with: For what it’s worth, I think that the open information agenda, and the political inequality agenda have a […]

Matt Taibbi is succinct on the reported but not final agreement among state AG’s on the mortgage settlement: I think the best summation of the settlement is probably Yves Smith’s, which can be found here. The piece lists the 12 things that suck the most about the settlement. The most painful is probably #12: 12. […]