Duncan: I know I’ll make this point a billion times before this is all over, but there’s a difference between thinking that well run financial intermediaries (which, in theory, competition will create) are necessary for a modern economy and believing that the semi-oligopolistic system of...

And Digby, too. And this is pretty damned interesting, too. Josh Marshall: It turns out that one of the features of the 2005 Bankruptcy bill was to put derivative counter parties [like CDS holders] at the front of the line ahead of other creditors in bankruptcy proceedings. Actually, from what I can...

The latest bit of Rudeness is awesome for that image alone, but really it goes so much further into why nobody should ever listen to John McCain: The whole battle over a bullshit modicum of bullshit “pork barrel” projects is, well, bullshit. What’s budgeted in the spending bill now...

Great piece by Michael Lind in today’s Salon on the timid liberalism of Obama’s policies, an absolute must-read. Here’s an excerpt: I’m sympathetic to the argument that the public, after nearly half a century of conservative anti-government propaganda, will oppose the direct ...

“So we’ll let you continue to rape and pillage - just not as often. And you won’t be paid as much for it.” WASHINGTON - Just four months ago, the pharmaceutical industry was prepared for the worst. Drugmakers feared that Barack Obama would press for price controls on prescrip...

The horror goes on. And in the meantime, Congressional “moderate Dems” are fighting to make sure the only people who will get real help are on Wall Street! (Thanks, Rahm, for insisting we starve all the progressive primary candidates of cash. Have you explained that stategy yet to your n...

Oh, boo fucking hoo. And by the way: her district is considerably more liberal than this “business friendly” Dem. She’s more interested in wielding obstructionist power as a minority DINO....

I read this in Salon this morning, and I’ve been brooding over it all day. Mick Arran points out that the powers that be only get worked up about class war if they start losing the war. That pretty much sums up the dynamic of this country for the past 30 years or so. (I remember reading in som...

Robert Reich: Presidential budgets are aspirations. They’re not real, in the sense that no one really has to adhere to them. Obama’s budget now goes to Congress, where budget committees will draw up their own versions. Even these congressional budgets are mere guidelines for appropriatio...

I had the strangest feeling when I read this - I felt sorry for the people who would be paying this tax increase. And then I thought, “You know, I’ll bet these people weren’t worried about the tax increases in my bracket for the past thirty years or so!” I felt a lot better: ...