Let me see if I have this straight:

1. Banks are reluctant to lend to each other these days.
2. Lenders make more money when interest rates go up, and less money when rates go down.

Therefore,
3. The Fed thinks that they can improve things by repeatedly cutting interest rates on inter-bank loans, now to almost nothing ( Read more... )

• 08:45 what a difference four years makes. #
• 09:12 disappointed: California enshrines discrimination in its constitution. #
• 12:24 Ohio made me happy. Indiana made me amazed. California made me confused. #

Of the three presidential debates this fall, the third one was definitely the most entertaining, though I'm not sure how enlightening it was. I did learn some things though, at least about John McCain....
( Read more... )

Reformer does not mean "someone who fires everyone who disagrees with her and replaces them with her cronies."

* Former Police Chief Says He Was Fired for Challenging Palin's Campaign Contributors
* "Troopergate" investigation centers on whether Gov. Palin abused her power when firing her commissioner of Public Safety Walt Monegan in July 2008. ( Read more... )

The New Republic:
"Stop kidding yourself: John McCain is a pro-life zealot."

If anyone else is as bewildered by the sudden Georgia-Russia war as I was, these two posts at Daily Kos may help:

"US Transporting Georgian Troops Out of Iraq to Fight Russia" (with multi-lingual maps!) discusses the political background between the US and Georgia, including their support for the Iraq war in return for the training they needed to ( Read more... )

NPR had a story this morning underscoring the importance of the upcoming presidential election on the Supreme Court.

The introduction says it all: the upcoming presidential election will determine whether the Court will swing hard to the right, or not at all; it will definitely not swing hard to the left.

Currently the Supreme Court is divided ( Read more... )

Warning: Politics again.

Sorry, I'm trying to stay positive, but this has been really bugging me. Of all the dumb things coming out of the Clinton campaign and some of its supporters, one stands out to me as the most maddenly, stupidly illogical ( Read more... )

(This is way later than I intended, but hey, the polls have only been open for half an hour ( Read more... )

This morning in the car I was listening to NPR news as they reported on the French election, complete with interviews with people talking excitedly about how their new president will turn France around.

After the report I changed stations. The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" was just starting. This seemed strangely appropriate.

In case you're ( Read more... )