This is the political atmosphere within which the battle will unfold over who is to blame for the damage done by the sequester. Now, in fairness, Republicans are favored on the deficit and controlling government spending. But even here, when you drill down deeper, you find that fifty two percent say the automatic across the […]

To me, one of the big mysteries of the sequester blame game is why some in the punditry keep echoing John Boehner’s proud Obama-proposed-the-sequester line, without pointing out what the only alternative was.  The most baldly ridiculous of articles in that narrow genre is Washington Post columnist–and, I suspect, not coincidentally, Bob Woodward colleague–David Ignatius’s […]

by Mike Kimel What it Takes to Get a Mortgage These Days About six months ago I got a job that required relocation. To make a long story short, we just purchased a new home. As part of the process, the lenders required a lot of paperwork. Not a surprise. But some of the paperwork […]

I guess I have to report. update: 2/28/2013It is hard to keep up with Grillo.  His position has totally changed twice since I wrote the post below.  His current view is that the PD (which has an absolute majority in the lower house) should vote confidence in a prime minister from his brand new party. […]

A few days ago, Dr. Black gave the game away: The actions of our Fed have been ineffective because they’ve relied on the banking channel even though quite obviously our financial sector is completely screwed up.

I’m delighted to see the U Chicago IGM Forum ask a really useful, non-softball question. The panelists are evenly split on whether an increase to $9 would make it “noticeably harder for low-skilled workers to find employment.” A 4:1 majority thinks that weighing the costs and benefits, “this would be a desirable policy.” I note […]

  http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2013/02/26/business/26reuters-usa-fdic-earnings.html?src=busln&nl=business&emc=edit_dlbkpm_20130226&_r=0 The U.S. banking industry in 2012 recorded its highest earnings since before the 2007-2009 financial crisis, according to data released on Tuesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The FDIC said the industry’s full-year earnings were the second-highest on record at $141.3 billion, an increase over 2011 of $22.9 billion, or 19.3 percent.

Forget that being-worth-a-thousand-words thing. The picture and its caption in this Krugman blog post are … priceless.  (I just about fell out of my chair when I saw that.  And, five minutes later, I’m still laughing.)

As Greg Sargent pointed out this morning, the new “it” gimmick of the pox-on-both-houses punditry is to borrow National Journal editorial something-or-other Ron Fournier’s tac of pretending that Obama can order the military to invade the House of Representatives and hold its members at assault-weapon-point until they agree to a grand bargain.  Or at least […]

Here’s what risk looks like: Having to tell your six-year-old son that you don’t have a birthday present for him because you didn’t have any money left after buying food for the week. Telling your daughter she has to attend the semi-shitty local community college instead of the awesome out-of-state school where she was accepted […]