Why Conservatives Are Still Crazy After All These Years by Rick Perlstein

(via Krugman)

On Goldman Executive Greg Smith's Brave Departure by Matt Taibbi

No Mercy for Ben Bernanke by Yglesias


Make Targets Robust to Human Error by Ryan Avent

The Villain by Roger Lowenstein

When Populism is Sound by Simon Johnson

(via Dean Baker)

Yes the elite's lap dogs in the media try to define it as being somehow demagogic and when politicians appeal to the least common denominator.

Obama Deserves Credit for the Recovery by Dean Baker

Muddled Economic Picture Muddles The Political One, Too by David Leonhardt

Face-ripping for fun & profit by Doug Henwood

Greg Smith's open letter to Goldman Sachs

It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as “muppets,” sometimes over internal e-mail. Even after the S.E.C., Fabulous Fab, Abacus, God’s work, Carl Levin, Vampire Squids? No humility? I mean, come on. Integrity? It is eroding. I don’t know of any illegal behavior, but will people push the envelope and pitch lucrative and complicated products to clients even if they are not the simplest investments or the ones most directly aligned with the client’s goals? Absolutely. Every day, in fact.(links in original)

I like that he links to Matt Taibbi's Vampire Squid Rolling Stone article.

Capitalism, 2012 by Tom Friedman

We also need a grand bargain between employers, employees and government — à la Germany — where government provides the incentives for employers to hire, train and retrain labor.

We can’t have any of these bargains, though, without a more informed public debate. The “big thing that’s missing” in U.S. politics today, Bill Gates said to me in a recent interview, “is this technocratic understanding of the facts and where things are working and where they’re not working,” so the debate can be driven by data, not ideology.

Friedman makes no mention of the housing bubble fiasco. My guess is that Capitalism 2012 will bring us repeat this time without bailouts unless the Republican party truly does fall apart.

An interesting theory of asset bubbles by Noah Smith

Larry Summers: The Wrong Person of World Bank President by Dean Baker

What Greece Means by Krugman

Correcting Robert Samuelson on Japan and Deflation by Dean Baker

New Jobs Report: Can We Say “Recovery” Yet? by Jonathan Cohn

The New Republic’s New Boss by Lizzie Widdicombe

Hughes appears to be a certified liberal, much to the relief of most of the magazine’s staff, alumni, and readers. Though he has been involved in some forms of activism—he ran the social media operation for the 2008 Obama campaign, and his significant other, Sean Eldridge, is the former political director of the same-sex marriage advocacy group Freedom To Marry—his comments on the direction of the magazine have been non-ideological, heavier on tech-world jargon than political talking points. On the phone from the airport, he spoke of “meeting thoughtful, intelligent people in the media space,” “integrating platforms,” and “mission-driven startups.” His reading includes both the Huffington Post and The Economist. “I wouldn’t say I’m a political junkie in the way that some people are,” he said. “I try to read about political issues of the day, but also cultural criticism, good books, and good music.” His past year’s reading included biographies of Katharine Graham and Henry Luce.

Sterilized quantitative easing by Jim Hamilton

(via DeLong)