The topic? Their favorite restaurants in D.C. No, of course it’s the economic crisis and the housing situation and the banks and TARP and and and and and and… Most of the pundit shows really don’t have the time to give complicated topics like the economic crisis the attention they deserve. So what we usually [...]

This is rich… After dismissing calls for the Bush email system to be more accountable, Rep. Darrell Issa of California is demanding that the Obama administration report back to him in two weeks about how they plan on archiving and saving emails they had to send via Gmail because the Bush system kept breaking down. [...]

They think he’s moving too slow? I guess bipartisanship is back from the dead. From CNN… A group of six moderate House Republicans have written to President Obama urging him to lift President Bush’s ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. “We are writing to respectfully urge that you immediately lift the current [...]

On February 1st, I noted in this post that, based on the data in hand and reliable projections, the recession seemed to be on track to become the worst downturn since the back-to-back recessions of 1980-82, but that it was a huge exaggeration — and unecessarily alarmist — to say that it’s the worst since the [...]

On the subject of George W. Bush’s presidency, there have already been a great number of postmortems written. Many of these are scathing, insult-filled diatribes for which the authors had been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to compose… for the last four-to-eight years. Not this one. While I will be the first to admit that I [...]

So much wealth has been lost, and not just at the top. Yahoo Finance has some sobering numbers… There’s no question the American consumer is hurting in the face of a burst housing bubble, financial market meltdown and rising unemployment. But “the worst is yet to come,” according to Howard Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & [...]

Two words: entitlement reform. First orders of business: Medicare and Medicaid… Now, [Director of Obama’s Office of Management and Budget, Peter] Orszag is preparing for the biggest week of his career, with a “fiscal responsibility” summit Monday and the release of Obama’s first budget Thursday. He’s signaling that the moves in the stimulus package are [...]

If you missed CNBC this morning, here’s Rick Santelli going off about Obama’s mortgage bailout plan and the strongly positive reception it got from the traders on the floor: Frankly, I think this is a sign that the criticism of Obama’s mortgage “relief” plan — especially the argument that it is rewarding irresponsible practices by [...]

Well, maybe.  Some of them.  This from today’s edition of FirstRead: This is a fascinating story, per the AP: “A half-dozen Republican governors are considering turning down some money from the federal stimulus package, a move opponents say puts conservative ideology ahead of the needs of constituents struggling with foreclosures and unemployment.” Who are these [...]

Well, Joe Biden did warn us that our adversaries would challenge Barack Obama if he was elected. Looks like North Korea is doing just that. In a statement released today, the government in Pyongyang said the North is prepared for war against the South and would consider retaliating if the U.S. and South Korea go [...]

After months of pleas from the small business community, the New York Times (the so-called paper of record) finally decided to cover some of the central elements of the legislation. Except that it was not an article discussing the potential costs of the legislation; nor was it even an article discussing the debate over the [...]

No more placeholders. The site has finally launched and it has some good content, Including links to pretty much anything they have created about the bill and a place to share your story. There’s also a map that details how many jobs in each state will be created or saved in the next 2 years. [...]

It is not too early to checkpoint how President Obama is progressing on “undoing the damage” of the Bush/Cheney Imperial Presidency. The most egregious offenses of the Bush/Cheney administration fall under the umbrella of expanding executive branch power at the expense of the legislative and judicial branches, with a commensurate erosion of constitutional protections. On balance – So far… all is not so good.

Michelle Malkin and several other conservative bloggers are having a lot of fun with this particular statistic: On Nov. 4, after Barack Obama clinched the White House, the market closed at 9,625.28. In mid-morning trading today, the day President Obama signs his massive Generational Theft Act into law and a day before he unveils a [...]

I found this interview through Little Green Footballs, and I have to ask one question: What was Sean Hannity thinking? Look, I understand that Hannity and his ilk make tons of money off of scaring people. But for this Martin Mawyer guy to suggest assert that this Muslim  group has WMDs… without any shred of evidence [...]

It’s pretty simple. He lied and he should resign. The end.

The plan is pretty straight forward. Bankruptcy judges can modify loan terms and lenders will get assistance if the agree to modify existing loans so people aren’t paying more than their homes are worth. From Bloomberg: Obama intends to make loan modifications the centerpiece of plan that also gives bankruptcy judges more power to help [...]

Following up on his campaign promise to have a surge-like push in Afghanistan to see if it could help the country. From Fox News: “This reinforcement will contribute to the security of the Afghan people and to stability in Afghanistan,” Obama said in a statement. “I recognize the extraordinary strain that this deployment places on [...]

Just because President Obama has now signed the gargantuan stimulus bill into law doesn’t mean he’s done addressing the economy. Up next: solving the housing crisis. The ambitious plan [Obama] was announcing at a Phoenix high school Wednesday was expected to offer government cash to mortgage companies that reduce interest rates — and therefore monthly [...]

“It may be necessary to temporarily nationalise some banks in order to facilitate a swift and orderly restructuring. I understand that once in a hundred years this is what you do.” – Alan Greenspan in an interview with Financial Times Here’s more… Mr Greenspan’s comments capped a frenetic day in which policymakers across the political [...]