There was a time in my life when I seriously considered getting into the real estate game. House flipping shows were all the rage, and as someone determined to work for myself, I thought buying fixer up properties and selling them would be a rewarding way to make a living. The ...read more
A great piece by Alex Magnin on the history of technological innovation and how the latest economic slump may pave the way for a more sustainable future: The great technologies of our era – computing and the internet – drove twin bubbles and crashes. The late 1990’s ...read more
Glenn Reynolds links to the below video of Rep. Barney Frank ably defending himself against the fallacy that is now Republican gospel about who had what role in the mortgage crisis (somehow the fact that the economic collapse happened under a conservative Republican obsessed with ...read more
The wingers are in town for CPAC this week and in the midst of all that crazy (joking about Chicago being nuked, for instance) they're having their Rick Santelli inspired tea parties - which is just the latest version of the Joe The Plumber (who called for journalists to be shot ...read more
The mortgage industry is fighting against new laws and regulations that would allow courts to readjust mortgage terms. In normal circumstances they might have a leg to stand on. But it happens we're standing in the middle of a global recession aided in part by a mortgage industry ...read more
The Republican party is just trying out the latest version of the Southern Strategy. First of all, even if Fannie and Freddie were the most awful companies in the history of the planet, its books chock-a-block with non-performing loans, none of the financial contagion—none of ...read more
After this campaign is over there's got to be some in depth examination of why John McCain so strongly desired to surround himself with lobbyists. The latest is William Timmons Sr., tapped to lead McCain's transition team, who is a Freddie Mac lobbyist. God willing, this ...read more
I'm tempted to say that CNBC's Larry Kudlow came to this conclusion because he's back on drugs, but it's even worse than that. Kudlow, and many conservatives, are not in fact chemically imbalanced but seriously believe this crap. In this clip from Morning Joe, Kudlow details how ...read more
Running the federal government is, indeed, "hard work". Republicans, for the past decade or so, have worked hard at getting elected then once in office they think the job is done - mission accomplished. That's why they argue so strenously against the government we are all a ...read more
As John McCain says, the fundamentals of our economy are strong Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) might have to borrow money from the Treasury Department to see it through an expected wave of bank failures, the Wall Street Journal reported. The borrowing could be needed to ...read more
