I'll resist the urge of many of my liberal co-bloggers (as well as members of the librel drive-by media) to make snickering sexual references about the hissy-fit-a-thon being thrown across the country. But I just wanted to remind you it is happening. The gist of the rather nebulous complaints by these teabaggers is that the government taxes and spends too … Read More
Next Victim Of The Recession: Blockbuster
Blockbuster might be joining Circuit City and CompUSA soon: Blockbuster may be counting down the days until it's forced to close its retail stores, the company revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week. In the filing, the company revealed that it may not be able to meet the terms of a recent $250 million loan, … Read More
Poll Of The Day: Only 53% Of Americans Say Capitalism Is Better Than Socialism
This comes from Rasmussen Reports which, as polling firms go, tends to be woefully inadequate and partisan (to the right). But it is still astonishing. Now, this survey doesn't mean that 47% of Americans think socialism is better. The question was quite simply: "Which is a better system – capitalism or socialism?" The response: 53% Capitalism 20% Socialism27% Not sure … Read More
Defense Department Doing The Right Thing
These two graphs on United States defense spending are worth 2000 words: Yeah, there's a war on terrorism and we're in Iraq and Afghanistan, but do we really need to spend over $400 billion, or 20% of our budget on defense? Now, defense secretary Robert Gates' proposed defense budget hasn't actually cut defense spending, but he seems to have … Read More
Executive Compensation
If there's anything to glean from this NYT chart on executive compensation, it's the fact that it is so arbitrary. For example, each of the executives below received wildly different compensation in 2008, yet all of their companies had revenue at around $37 billion that year: What gives? There seems to no rationality to this. But Matt Yglesius notes … Read More
Diplomacy In Action
For those who ever doubted that effective diplomacy cannot lead to results, and that our new president is a skilled diplomat, read this: According to sources inside the room, President Obama just played peacemaker in a spat between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of China. In the finaly plenary session among the G-20 … Read More
Quote Of The Day
From Barack Obama, at a meeting with bank CEOs last week: “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.” That's probably more true than not.
Local Unemployment Still Worse Than National Level
March numbers are out: Nationwide, the unemployment rate is 8.5%. Below is an updated chart showing job losses in this recession compared to five prior recessions. Robert Reich, Clinton economist, doesn't mince words. "It's a depression", he blogs. The March employment numbers, out this morning, are bleak: 8.5 percent of Americans officially unemployed, 663,000 more jobs lost. But if … Read More
Credit Crisis Primer
You know who you are. You know there is something bad going on with the economy, and it has to do with subprime mortgages and credit default swaps or blah blah yada yada something. But you don't know what any of that means. Welcome to the Credit Crisis Primer. This explains in very simple terms and fun graphics exactly what … Read More
Photo Of The Day
Obama (dead center) seems to be the only one aware that their picture was being taken…. It kind of make him look like a dork. UPDATE: OMG. The "photo of the day" just got beaten out by another photo of the day from the same shoot. Apparently, the photographer told the G20 group to "go nuts". The result? Okay, … Read More
Stock Market Watch: Obama’s Bull Market?
It was less than a month ago when conservative pundits were chomping at the bit to call the stock market downturn by the name "Obama's Bear Market" WALLACE: Well, as we've been discussing, the stock market is officially in bear territory, down exactly 20% since the Obama inauguration. Brit, John McCain didn't want to answer the question, but I'll ask … Read More
The Republican Budget
Well, having been deservedly mocked last week when they brought out their budget (you remember, the one that had no numbers?), the GOP tried again today. To their credit, it has numbers this time. But not surprisingly, it has the tired old GOP plan. This time it is 62 pages long (pdf). Once again, their idea is to make the … Read More
Why Michelle Malkin Should Never Be Listened To
From her site: The soul-fixer-in-chief is here to dry your tears By Michelle Malkin • March 31, 2009 12:44 AM Reuters is running a story on the Obama administration’s new federally subsidized counseling services/referrals for those suffering from depression related to the economy. As usual, the government’s prescription for pain is…more government. The economic psychology guide was developed with help from the … Read More
Frank Sinatra, Paul Newman, and Rob Lowe To Blame For Economic Crisis
ABC News: Brazil's President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has raised a few brows by suggesting the global financial crisis has been caused by "white people with blue eyes". WTF? Oh, oh, oh… I see.
Fun With The GOP Budget
Like me (see post below), everyone else is laughing at the GOP budget, and their helpful graphs. Yes, it's spoof time. Nate Silver has some fun: And others join in: