Last week, Arizona Senator and Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl came together with other members of the GOP and passed a non-binding resolution that called a sweeping moratorium on earmarks. And this week…

Same song. Different singers. Reuters interviewed Republican Buck McKeon, the new chairman of the House Armed Services committee. And guess what? From McKeon: We’re spending less than at times in the past and we’re involved in two wars, as a percentage of our gross product. So I think, myself, I think you have to be [...]

So much for Google’s mantra of “Don’t be evil.” Bloomberg has more… Google Inc. cut its taxes by $3.1 billion in the last three years using a technique that moves most of its foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands to Bermuda. Wait, that’s just $3.1B. What about the other $56.9B? Well, the rest isn’t [...]

Kevin Drum shares this sobering chart, which shows the share of total earnings that go to each income bracket. It pretty clearly demonstrates how supply side economic policies have benefitted the rich and the super rich. Meanwhile, everybody else is left holding the bag. Where’d he get the data? The CBO. Here’s more… If you [...]

Bloomberg has some news that reinforces what many of us suspected…the rich save their tax cuts: Hand the wealthiest Americans a tax cut and history suggests they will save the money rather than spend it. Tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 under President George W. Bush were followed by increases in the saving rate among [...]

To those who claim that the stimulus has failed, well, many serious economists and the the CBO say that without it we’d be in much worse shape. And even those who opposed it are wishy washy about it effects…which basically means it helped. Regardless, a large chunk is still waiting to get into the economy [...]

Well, as was mentioned when it happened, now unlimited, anonymous money can flow into the election cycle via what are now being dubbed “Super PACs”, and these entities can run advertising and say pretty much whatever they want. From Bloomberg: These political action committees can take unlimited company, union and individual donations and explicitly urge [...]

Here ya go… Pretty straightforward. Dems aren’t going to win any economic ingenuity awards, but we’re out of the recession, private sector job growth is still holding on and we’ve got the shopping season coming up, which should drive even more. But what if the Republicans had their way? Well, let’s refer back to the [...]

Now they’re just rubbing it in our faces… From Wash Post: Jack Horner, a spokesman for News Corp., said in an interview: “It’s patently false that a corporate donation would have any bearing on our news-gathering activities at Fox News or any other of our properties.” News Corp., which also owns the New York Post, [...]

If you’re lucky enough to earn a lot of income, you knew this was coming. After all, you only get taxed for Social Security on the first $106,800 of your income. Anything after that draws no SS tax. So, basically, while the rest of us get taxed on our entire income, you all pay into [...]

The title says it all, but here’s a bit more detail… From NY Times: Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission, one of the largest penalties ever paid by a Wall Street firm, to settle charges of securities fraud linked to mortgage investments. The S.E.C. filed a lawsuit [...]

Listen, if a public or private company makes money and wants to keep it close to their chest, that’s their right. But those same businesses can’t then go and collectively fault the White House’s policies for preventing them from hiring more people. And that’s exactly what they’re doing through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and [...]

Republican lawmakers Scott Brown and Olympia Snowe jumped on board to give Dems the votes they needed to pass a sweeping financial reform law. Susan Collins had previously committed to supporting the bill. And one has to wonder, after reading what’s in the legislation…why are Republicans opposing this? From The Hill: The legislation aims to [...]

The doomsayers are out in full force today…which I find puzzling. After all, the jobs report today, while not overtly positive, was still nearly 200,000 better than the previous month and one would think it could be seen as either neutral or slightly positive. Yes, many of the jobs added were seasonal and created by [...]

It seems to be a question that’s popping up a lot lately, and the simple answer is: they don’t know how to stop it. Of course they have the authority. The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 gives Obama all the authority he needs to take over the spill if need be. But the government just [...]

A couple of fun videos outlining what happened in Southern Europe. Part One Part Two I’ll share Part Three when it’s available…but we all know that the EU opened up the cash drawer and created a TARP fund of their very own to make sure that these countries remain solvent…at least for now. More as [...]

Human error? Computer error? Greece? Spain? China? WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?!?! Wall Street Journal tries to sort out the mess… A bad day in the financial markets was made worse by an apparent trading glitch, leaving traders and investors nervous and scratching their heads over how a mistake could send the Dow [...]

Finally, bipartisan cooperation! From CNN: Washington (CNN) – With midterm elections on the horizon and the nation’s unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to block pay raises for members of Congress for the next fiscal year. The vote was 402-15. Rules approved by Congress in 1989 provide for an [...]

Alex Gibney, the filmmaker behind Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, is back with his take on the Abramoff scandal and it seems like it’ll be illuminating…and scary. Check out this featurette… Basically…Money + Power = Problems. Especially when it comes to the upcoming financial reform legislation. Which is why I’m heartened that the [...]

And they could break even this year. So while they won’t be paying back the government loans as soon as GM, they’re still on track to meet their obligations in the future. More from Wash Post: Chrysler, which emerged from bankruptcy last June, reported Wednesday that it lost $3.8 billion through the end of the [...]