Joseph Stiglitz & his Vanity Fair article on inequality in America.

Excellent overview on Conservative cognitive dissonance.

Parke said there could be a cosmic shortcut through another dimension – physics theory is full of unseen dimensions – that allows the neutrinos to beat the speed of light.

I wish she would have made a primary run against Obama…

German Army study foresees: 1. increasing oil prices that will reduce consumption and economic output (i.e. a recession or worse); 2. increasing transportation costs that will lead to lower trade volumes – less income for many and unaffordable food for some (cost-push inflation); and 3. pressure on government budgets

In other words, banks take risks, get paid for the upside, and then transfer the downside to shareholders, taxpayers, and even retirees.

Fiscal intervention targeted at employment is the only tool left in the box. I agree, it is the only tool left and we must use it.

From Ron Suskind's Confidence Men: An account of how Obama and his economic team handled the banking crisis.

The recent debt exchange deal Europe offered Greece was a rip-off, providing much less debt relief than the country needed.

the real impact of the European bailout has been to shore up the continent’s banks – not to help the continent’s debtors

Not surprising… maybe the stupidity of 'conservative economic policy' will become more transparent.

The Washington Post continues to discredit itself.

Carville to Obama: Fire your staff, Indict Wall Street, and Fight the GOP if you want to win reelection (politico.com)

There is tremendous economic waste and human hardship in an economy that is operating well below full capacity.  The goods and services that are not produced, the wages and business income that is not earned, and the revenues not received are lost forever. 

"We have an 8% of GDP problem and the AJA is only a 2% of GDP solution. Don't get me wrong: it is certainly worth passing, and lobbying for, and working for."

…the Galveston plan gave some participants more retirement funds? Well perhaps it is due in part to the fact that this plan is a defined contribution plan whereas Social Security is a defined benefits plan…

"There is every reason to believe that the worst is yet to come. The rising working-age poverty rate is presumably linked to the sharp increase in long-term unemployment. The percentage of unemployed who have been out of work for six months or more has been stuck well above 40 percent throughout the faltering recovery. At times long-term unemployment has been nearly double the previous post-World War II peak. The lag in reporting unemployment data is much shorter than for the annual poverty numbers. Already, long-term unemployment has averaged 44.2 percent of all unemployed in 2011, up from 43.3 percent in 2010. That in itself suggests that the working-age poverty rate for 2011 is likely to be even higher when the report finally comes out next September."

"Unsurprisingly, the Census Bureau's Gini Index of Income Inequality shows a steady increase in income inequality over the past four decades"

"….Social Security is thus an elegant collaborative solution to a universal challenge.”

"We need more debt restructurings & writedowns to get the debt overhang resolved faster, & fiscal deficits to offset the deflationary effects"