The crisis isn’t over yet: 40 bank failures this year, and counting. The year’s not quite half over yet. We will never know how close the very biggest banks came (or will come) to failing because it simply won’t be allowed. Stay tuned for Friday afternoon’s installment of FDIC adventures.
Taking off the rose-colored glasses: official unemployment is bad enough at 9.4%. Real employment is at 16.4%. Remember that unemployed people often don’t have health insurance or the money to pay the bills (or the mortgage, or to put in the bank, etc). And now respectable economists are saying what I have long suspected, that it’s a “lost decade” for job growth. Oh, and Warren Buffett thinks it will get worse.
Poor Babies: the world’s population of millionaires is shrinking. Oh, the horror.
Ain’t nobody but Spies Like Us: (pop culture reference) Hey kid! You with the language skills and no particular job prospects! Want help paying for college and a guaranteed job when you graduate? Please step over here and talk to a representative of the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program. Now recruiting Junior Spies.
It can’t happen here?: As we watch protesters in Iran (which now include clerics and women), it’s easy to sit back and thank the founding fathers for our freedoms. However, we need to remember people are arrested in this country routinely for protesting in the wrong spot or not getting a permit or some other trumped up reason, we need to remember that Blackwater was sent to New Orleans after Katrina, and we need to remember the existence of Infragard.
Little Sister is Everywhere: and she is us. She is every one of us that has a cameraphone. She is every one of us that films that which is not right. She is the one thing that keeps Big Brother in line.
I’ve just got one question: It’s about the e.coli in the cookie dough. Salmonella I could understand, because that’s common from uncooked eggs. But e.coli comes from fecal contamination. Who’s been pooping in the cookie dough??
The get out of the airport screening line free card is dead: It was always a dumb idea, and now the company that made it seem possible is out of business. Gee, maybe now the TSA will have to get serious about security that works.
On Charter Schools and other forms of School “Choice”: Huh, it seems that charter schools aren’t doing quite as well as public schools. Oh, and look how complicated a school choice program can be. I know that locally, we have 5 magnet elementary schools, 6 magnet middle schools, and a dozen magnet high schools! Even with district provided busing, things can get very confusing if you have multiple kids in multiple programs.
If this is the best the SBA can do, let’s close it and save the tax money: Long time readers know I am a big critic of the Small Business Administration, and it’s “loan” programs that often amount to home equity lines. The latest emergency loan program for small businesses is in the process of falling, being primarily available to people who already have SBA loans, and sometimes being tied to moving the entire business’s banking.
Time to hit the old Appalachian Trail, if you know what I mean, eh?: Wow, what a strange story this Gov. Sanford thing has turned out to be! And what a classy lady his wife turns out to be (here’s the “short version“). If Republicans keep blowing up at this rate, will they have anybody that can credibly run in 2012?
If you haven’t seen this yet: Pete Hoekstra is a Meme. And Trollcats.
Weird collaboration: Buzz Aldrin and Snoop Dogg. Say wha?
Ok, I’ll close with a rather random assortment of Health Insurance Reform items: Say, can we stop calling it health care reform when it’s insurance that’s the problem? Please? Anyways. Nuts and bolts of the proposals (as of Monday). Special interest money. They needed a study to find that ER patients are more satisfied the less they wait? Gee how about a study on whether that applies to phone queues or repairmen! Don’t assume that hearing nothing means your medical test was normal. Dr. Dean on science and the difference between telling your doctor what does and doesn’t work vs telling your doctor what to do (yeah I know it’s HuffPo, somebody else pointed me there). We don’t need biparisanship when there’s 60 votes in the Senate. What Ezra thinks will happen. How to lie with statistics. Insurance companies “warn” the government and the President responds “that defies logic”. Quality Adjusted Life Years. How to talk to your Congressmen about health insurance reform. On the Wyden-Bennett plan. Maybe the reason our Congressmen don’t get it is that they have really good health insurance. Robert Reich dismantles most of the conservative argument against a public option. Rahm announces that he thinks the President is a total wuss who is able to walk away from the option that most Americans want. What should a public option look like, anyway? The bitter truth about the insurance industry. For example, they ripped off customers. JP tells it as he sees it. Seriously, call your Senators and Congressman tomorrow if you think this is important. If they get enough calls, they might get the idea that their jobs — and cushy insurance — are at risk.