Fractured Fairy Tales

Every one of us who follows the bloodlust sport of politics closely knows that something’s  afoot in the game. We’ve had the two party system for some time and there are divisions within both parties that sometimes make it difficult to find consensus on issues or for a party leader to govern.  There have been [...]

Economics outside of the Black Box

Ever so often  I feel the need to bring a little reality to my very abstract field.  Even though much of what I research is empirical–I’m not into modeling theories–it’s still a far step away from the practical reality of the basic reason economics exists.  It exists to study the problem of scarcity and of [...]

Risky Business

Well, it’s another one of those studies where the results are hardly surprising but I wonder if the conclusions will lead to any concrete change in policy.  Three highly respected IMF economists have found a correlation between a bank’s poor performance, its risky lending practices and lavish, high dollar lobbying.
This brief explanation of the [...]

How about we do a little Shock and Awe on Wall Street?

I’m back to Bloomberg again and I’m more and more of the opinion that what we need is a shock and awe policy to deal with Wall Street. Perhaps a little windfall bonus tax is in order?  The title is meek compared to the contents of the piece.  It’s called “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished [...]

Oh, Brother …

This has to rate up there with one of the biggest displays of ignorance by a pundit/journalist I’ve read in some time. Of course, it happened on Faux News, and of course, its bias shows their bias in general. It’s a biggie from Brit Hume about Tiger Woods’ serial infidelity. I guess if [...]

What’s the Principle Here?

I want to share with you my last stand on FDL where I used to spend a lot of time trying to find issues to discuss with like-minded Liberals. I have to admit to starting this last little bit of blogshock politics by sending every admin here Jane’s screed that showed up in my Facebook [...]

dangerous mood …

Dont know about you … but I’m in a dangerous mood.
Pull up a chair and order up a tall one and tell us all about it…
(open thread)

The Dakini’s Office Pool

Okay, here’s my annual tribute to William Safire and his NY Times Office Pool.  Last year’s edition can be found here.
Here’s the list from 2009 and we can spend some time finding out the REAL answers.  I’ll fill them in as we find them.
1.        Then number of troops left in Iraq by the end of [...]

We weren’t Fooled by the Obama Disconnect

I got the link for this from Peter Daou on Facebook.  At first, I put a quote and the  link downpage on the morning news thread but I  really think it deserves some discussion and top page status on its own merits.  The article comes via Personal Democracy Forum and starts by documenting all the [...]

Can We stop the Next Madoff or the next AIG?

I know you think I spend a lot of time obsessing on financial market regulations. Part of this obsession is an occupational hazard, but a good deal of it has to do with how close I am supposed to be to cashing in on a well-earned retirement while rectifying my retirement savings with the worst [...]