DOW JONES INDEX [last 2 years] What will we call it, this thing that happened on Monday, September 15th, 2008? It seemed so abrupt to most of us regular Americans who were mostly thinking about the election coming in a month or so. We knew about the "housing bubble" and were just catching on to […]
Hedge fund assets continued to decline in first quarter, says HFR Fri, 08 May 2009 Investors continued to withdraw capital from hedge funds in the first quarter of 2009, redeeming nearly USD104bn, according to data released by Hedge Fund Research. The USD104bn redemption figure amounted to 7.4 per cent of industry assets, but did not […]
In the front room, the T.V. Commentators are going on about swine flu, wildfires, and, oh yeah, the unemployment figures released this morning. They can’t decide which way to play it. It could be worse, or it could be better. It says unemployment is still rising at 0.4%/month. It’s not accelerating, but it’s not decelerating […]
8.9%
April Unemployment numbers are due out tomorrow. This is where we left off: Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 1999 4.3 4.4 4.2 4.3 4.2 4.3 4.3 4.2 4.2 4.1 4.1 4.0 2000 4.0 4.1 4.0 3.8 4.0 4.0 4.0 4.1 3.9 3.9 3.9 3.9 2001 4.2 4.2 […]
Dougie Feith’s Little Shop of Tortures? By: emptywheel May 5, 2009 I just happened to find Dougie Feith’s responses to Questions for the Record the Senate Intelligence Committee asked him in 2003… He said his little intelligence shop helped formulate policy on: DoD response to the presence in Iraq of the al-Qaida affiliated Ansar al-Islam […]
Prisoners of the White House By Evan Thomas NEWSWEEK May 2, 2009 It’s the curse of the modern presidency. Our chief executives need to make an active, aggressive effort to reach beyond their immediate circle of advisers, to demand fresh thinking and avoid the sycophancy that comes with the Oval Office. Otherwise, they’ll only hear […]
I was wrong, Paul Rosenberg has finished his excellent series. No, Obama, Conservatives Are NOT Just Liberals With A Different Set Of Ideas: … Conservatism As Predation: … Obama’s Conservative Impersonations of Good-Faith Consensus-Building: … The Alternative-A Genuine Cross-Ideological Approach Rooted In Core Liberal Values: … I’m not going to summarize it after all. I’m […]
… actually, George Washington was born in Virginia, but the facts aren’t always the most important thing. The recent political cycle has brought us some important new ways of thinking. At first glance, they seem less lofty, more like political "campaign techniques." Two prominant versions are Drew Weston, author of The Political Brain and George […]
Enough With the 100 Days Already By FRANK RICH May 2, 2009 … Obama needs a serious counterweight in the political arena. But the former party of Lincoln and liberty has now melted down to a fundamentalist core of aging, rural Dixiecrats and intrusive scolds — as small as 20 percent of the populace in […]