Political Humor – The Mutt Romney Blues

This is dedicated to my pals Nestle and Byron (thanks for the great walk, guys.)

Have a nice Thursday evening.

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• In other news: Mutt Romney | Ana Marie Cox (guardian.co.uk)
• Mutts against Mitt Romney protest at Westminster dog show (thetimes.co.uk)
• Nestle Says 2011 Was Good, But 2012 May Not Be (huffingtonpost.com)

Quote of the Day – Why I love Austan Goolsbee…

“Well, look, it pains me that we would even be talking about this. This is not a game. You know, the debt ceiling is not something to toy with. If we hit the debt ceiling, that’s essentially defaulting on our obligations, which is totally unprecedented in American history. The impact on the economy would be catastrophic. That would be a worst financial economic crisis than anything we saw in 2008.

As I say that’s not a game. I don’t see why anybody’s talking about playing chicken with the debt ceiling. If we get to the point where you’ve damaged the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity.”

- Austan Goolsbee, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, on ABC’s This Week, commenting on Tea Party insistence that the country’s debt ceiling not be raised.

Related Articles

• Risking ‘the first default in history caused purely by insanity’ (washingtonmonthly.com)



• Obama Names Austan Goolsbee as Chief Economic Adviser (dailyfinance.com)
• 10 Questions for Austan Goolsbee (thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Goolsbee backs Obama – Deal was ‘price we had to pay’ (politico.com)

Take a look at “Wall Street’s Victory Lap” by Simon Johnson

I’ll give you a clip here, but click on the HuffPo URL below and read the whole thing.

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com By now you have probably realized — correctly — that “financial reform” has turned into a victory lap for Wall Street. When they saved the big banks, with massive unconditional support (both explicit and implicit) over a year ago, top administration officials promised they would be back later to fix the underlying problems. This they — and Congress — manifestly have failed to do. Our banking structure remains unchanged, the rules will be tweaked at the margins, and the incentive and belief system that lies behind reckless risk-taking has only become more dangerous. (The back story, if you can still stomach it, is in 13 Bankers). There is only one small chance for any sensible progress remaining — and you are about to see this crushed in conference by the supporters of unfettered big banks. Senator Blanche Lincoln’s proposal with regard to derivatives has much to commend it. A fiduciary duty for swaps dealers vis-à-vis customers would be entirely appropriate — in fact long overdue.