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...

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 ...

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...

Digby: All day I see Republicans on television, filled with sanctimony and phony concern, keening about the deficit and reckless spending and fiscal responsibility. Today, they’ve even resurrected the “tax and spend” trope. These are the same Republicans who gave away the budget su...

From Oxdown Gazette (h/t Corrente), David Cay Johnston on Lou Dobbs:...

Obey over at TPM: To get to the point, my question is, what has happened to Krugman that we have him playing Baldrick to Emanuel’s Count Blackadder (oh, go look it up…)? I first became familiar with the man in the nineties with his lovely take-downs of the illiterate economic frauds in t...

Obama starts talking about reforming Social Security. The progressive wing pushes back. Obama backs off. (For now.) Let’s do this more often. UPDATE: Mmm, maybe not so much. Jane Hamsher: If “there’s no intention to touch Social Security in the foreseeable future,” why doesn&...

Thom Hartmann:...

Interesting WSJ interview with Nouriel Roubini: “Again, I don’t want to personalize things, but the last decade was one of self-regulation. But in the financial markets, without proper institutional rules, there’s the law of the jungle — because there’s greed! ThereR...

Jane: After a report in the Wall Street Journal appeared indicating that Obama “met with 44 fiscally conservative ‘Blue Dog’ Democrats this week and gave a nod to legislation that would set up commissions to deal with long-term deficit strains,” noting that “the commiss...