F%$k You OPEC

OPEC, united in driving up the price of gas.

How The Truth In Lending Act Could Have Saved Our Economy

Seems like it could have been the answer and can be in the future:
Imagine that a few years ago, at a time when you were renting your home, a fast-talking lender had approached you and explained how you could afford to buy your first house. The monthly payments seemed affordable.
At the closing, you were swamped [...]

312

This is truly pathetic . . .
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Steve Preston said the centerpiece of the federal government’s effort to help struggling homeowners has been a failure and he’s blaming Congress.
The three-year program was supposed to help 400,000 borrowers avoid foreclosure. But it has attracted only 312 applications since its October launch [...]

Gary Dorrien on Taking Social Investment Seriously

Dorrien on the opportunity presented to Obama in these challenging times:
We need to remember what happened last time. Franklin Roosevelt inherited bank runs, twenty-five percent unemployment, a manufacturing output decline of thirty-five percent from 1929, and a devastating deflation of currency values. The New Deal stopped the bleeding, whittling unemployment to fourteen percent by 1937. [...]

UAW Fights To The End . . . And It May Really Be The End

WASHINGTON — A $14 billion emergency bailout for U.S. automakers collapsed in the Senate Thursday night after the United Auto Workers refused to accede to Republican demands for swift wage cuts.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was “terribly disappointed” about the demise of an emerging bipartisan deal to rescue Detroit’s Big Three.
He spoke shortly [...]

Egalitarian Unemployment

I guess everybody needs to watch their back . . .
Well-paid professionals like lawyers and architects are joining the rapidly expanding unemployment rolls in New York City, according to a new unemployment study.
The report, released by the Fiscal Policy Institute, shows that the effects of the financial crisis have spread well beyond Wall Street [...]

The Rising Cost Of Water

About 1.1 billion people have no access to clean water, and half the planet lacks the same quality of water that the ancient Romans enjoyed. (link)
How, the hell, did this happen?

Ho Ho Ho . . . Merry Christmas!

(Center for American Progress Cartoon)

For Those Just Getting Depressed About The Econcomy You Should Have Been Depressed A Year Ago

So says the National Bureau of Economic Research. Awesome.

F$%k You Rating Agencies

Seriously.
As I have recently been learning more about the mortgage meltdown, it has become apparent to me that if these entities had been better regulated we would not be where we are today.
I hate you . . . rating agencies.