SAR #9118

Has the democracy bubble popped? John Carney

How Will They Do That? According to Federal Reserve policy notes, the current interest rate should be -5%. In that very few folks, other than my Aunt Vi, would agree to giving you $100 on the promise that she'd get only $95 back, how can they accomplish this? Hint: Rhymes with Printing Press, Printing Press.

Six of One... Fox says it will air 'Lie To Me' instead of Obama's press conference.

Fatted Ox: Apparently the people of the world are saved from starvation - the IMF is going to print a new kind of money. Apparently on edible paper.

Half-Off is not a Bargain: New York City's tax revenues have decreased by half; its public services will follow.

Summerstime: Assistant Chief Cheerleader Larry Summers expects the economy to continue to decline, with “sharp declines in employment for quite some time." Krugman thinks Larry's a bit optimistic. And the Economist isn't too cherry either: darker days lie ahead. Despite the scale of the slump, no conventional recovery is in sight. Growth, when it comes, will be too feeble to stop unemployment rising and idle capacity swelling. And for years most of the world's economies will depend on their governments.

Daily Grin: Former Citi chairman Sanford Weill insists that he and his unindicted co-conspirators earn the immense sums they siphon out of the system. Straight face and all.

It's Later Now: The Republicans made fun of the Democrats wanting to spend some money on pandemic flu prevention. Why, that's as silly as worrying about hurricanes and storm surges. Why waste $870 million now when "we can deal with that issue later."

Say it With Flowers: Consensus is that someone (at the Times, if not Goldman Sachs?) is not best pleased with Little Timmy.

Slideshow: Commercial real estate prices are plummeting, down 21% y/y. The ride's just beginning.

My Way... Jay Bybee's explanation for facilitating the Bush administration's desire to torture was just this: He wanted to be a federal judge. And now he is. Works for me.

Strange Idea: How much would a house be worth if it was worth what it cost to build it?

Yes, But... Now that the treaty removing US troops from Iraq's cities is coming into force, it's time to renegotiate exceptions to the June 30 deadline. The US will be keeping combat troops wherever it wants, some by "exception" to the treaty, and some by renaming them "trainers" or civil action units or death squads.

Inside Out: As you suspected all along, "financial markets operate on the principle that, at our core, we’re all basically shit: selfish, self-interested creatures."

Get Smart: The only electricity use I can schedule is the dishwasher. I run the AC when it's hot, the lights at night, the TV when I want to watch it and so on. There'll have to be a large price difference to encourage me to set a timer to do the laundry.

Brothers Grimm: "Bank regulation by law is supposed to be carried out by the independent banking agencies without any political interference.” Good one!

Let's Try This Again! The idea behind the HomeSaver Advance loans was that Fannie Mae would give unsecured loans to delinquent homeowners to help them pay Fannie Mae for missed mortgage payments, magically bringing the mortgages current. What could possibly go wrong? Everything. 98% of the $464 million has been lost. Don't worry, they've got a new plan.

Déjà vu: In the next year or so, shoddy corporate loans will reprise the role originally played by subprime mortgages, as companies begin a wave of defaults on junk bonds and iffy loans.

Porn O'Graph: It don't take many folks not to make nothing.