[Editor's Note: Due to a technical glitch part of this post was missing today. So we're reposting it and putting in on top.] How can a sitting Democratic President in 2012, who came to office with a huge electoral mandate four years earlier in the wake of a Republican-generated economic disaster, actually look like he might lose this coming November to a Republican who politically, economically and even personally so perfectly embodies virtually everything that got this Democratic president elected...

Good, lord, Mr. B. You’re white as a sheet. What’s the matter, sir? They did it again, Selig. They spray painted those nine horrible words on our front entrance. You must have seen them when you came to work this morning. No, sir. Don’t you remember? Only top earners can use the front entrance these days. You made that a rule a few years back to give the rest of us something to aspire to. Right. I remember now. So I guess you didn’t see those spray painted words when you came...

Are you frightened about what’s going on in markets these days? Perhaps you should be. The EU’s euro is shrinking, like a summer ice cream scoop; Our own overspending has left us, awash in that old debt soup; The struggling Dow and Nasdaq, can’t seem to find a floor. And investor fears are rising, rising, rising, Investor fears are rising, Are rising more and more. The days are past when investors viewed all losers as fallen gems, And rushed to their rescue with money, like nurturing...

Economists have a lot of ways to measure how the economy is doing. I’ve got a measure of my own — at least about the local economy of my neighborhood and a few surrounding areas. It’s the number of yard sales every weekend, and the kind of things being offered. Yard sales hereabouts used to be an adult version of kids’ lemonade stands. They were basically just fun affairs, a chance to sit around with friends for a few hours on a sunny weekend, and in the adult version, maybe unload...

A couple of days ago a piece of mine ran in The Philadelphia Inquirer. It was a satirical one that looked at new voter ID laws from a personal vanity perspective. A fair number of people emailed me about it — almost all of them angry Obama-haters. It’s hard to be funny these days when the subject has any sort of political edge. Here’s a link to my Inquirer piece: http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20120514_The_sum_of_our_driver_rsquo_s_licenses.html

Poor, poor Jaimie Dimon. My heart goes out to the man, Selig. But Mr. B, he’s a competitor. He heads another Wall Street bank, JPMorgan Chase. I know Selig. I know. But his company lost $2 billion on some trading deals. Lost money, Selig! It was terribly embarrassing for the poor man. But don’t Wall Street banks often lose money on their trading? Almost never, Selig. Goldman made money 25 days last month and only lost money one day — and that was a bad month. Sometimes we go whole quarters...

There was a story about solar energy in yesterday’s New York Times. There was a very different story about solar energy in today’s Los Angeles Times. It would be nice, very nice indeed, if policy makers in this country read both these stories and drew the appropriate conclusions. The New York Times story was about a wonderfully intelligent, market-based method of putting solar panel-generating electricity atop individual homes in a way that cost homeowners nothing (that’s right...

Mr. B. You’re looking radiant. Today’s visit to Stall #8 seems to have touched you in a very positive way. It has, Selig, It has. What was that wonderful music I was listening to with my headphones in there? It was so…so… Strangely recognizable, sir? Uplifting? A perfect something to go with your reading of this month’s cover story in Bloomberg Markets Magazine? Yes, Selig. And so much more appropriate than my usual listening choice in there. Better than Wagner’s...

There are national elections today in France, Greece and Serbia, and local ones in Germany and Italy. These being very different countries, there are of course many local issues that will decide some of these races. But the overriding issue that unites all of them is a referendum on the present high-finance-friendly policies of governments throughout the continent. This isn’t a good guy-bad guy choice. Nor, as some on the right would call it, a choice between fiscal sanity and unsustainable...

Before I became a senior editor with Bloomberg Financial News where my work revolved around business and economic issues, I spent years writing about the environment. This background has given me a rather interesting focus — an ability to see some important similarities in the ways the natural world and the world of economics operate. From this perspective, it’s clear to me why Mitt Romney should not be put in charge of the U.S. economy. Predators and vultures play important roles in both...

The New York Times today reported that a former associate of Mitt Romney at Bain Capital is writing a book that purports to show why greater income inequality is good for the economy, and also benefits the 99 percent-plus who haven’t been cunning or well connected enough to become super-rich. His argument, in brief, is this: most of the money garnered by these super rich worthies isn’t spent on their own luxuries. Rather, it is invested in ways that generate wealth that ends up being...

Jobs aren’t coming back rapidly in most parts of the country. They are, however, coming back slowly in most places. One major exception is Wisconsin. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that Wisconsin was the only state in the country to experience “statistically significant job losses” in the 12 months ended in March. And though most of these loses were in the public sector, it lost more than any other state in the private sector as well. Let’s put this into...

I admit it. I’ve been having a lot of trouble understanding this family values thing. I knew it had something to do with gun ownership and undermining environmental regulations, of course. But its larger meaning had alluded me until this past week, when the family value-loving House of Representatives finally made the term’s meaning crystal clear to us all. To fund government subsidies for student loans, House Republicans could either have come up with the money from eliminating some...

Mr. B. You’re back again. Nothing bad on the digestive front, I hope. No. Selig. I actually came by to talk with you about something important. To get your advice. Can we sit down and chat? Sit down, sir? This is a washroom. The only places where we could… Point taken. We can chat standing. Do you know what a political action committee is, Selig? A PAC? Yes sir. They’re things that promote free speech. They free the media from the clutches of socialist indigents and allow decent...

Tomorrow is Earth day. Did you notice? The New York Times didn’t mention the fact in today’s edition of the paper. Neither did the Wall Street Journal. Nor did the Los Angeles Times, though it did have a short piece about German environmentalists and nuclear power in their coutry. Come Earth Day itself, of course, some notice of the natural environment will be on view. Doubtless the Obama Administration will use the day to strike out against Republicans’ non-existent environment...

If Obama loses the presidency this fall, it will probably be because he ran against the wrong opponent. He ran against Mitt Romney. Democrats used to know who and how to demonize Republicans in order to win elections. When FDR ran for reelection in 1936, he didn’t run against his official Republican opponent that year, Kansas Governor Alf Landon. He ran against Herbert Hoover. Against Hoovervilles. Against problems the New Deal had not yet fixed because the economic legacy of Herbert Hoover...

Is inflation in this country well under control? You might think so if you listen to what’s coming from the Fed on the subject, or even from Paul Krugman, whose analysis of economic matters I usually find quite perceptive. Unfortunately, however, inflation here is not well under control when you look at it more closely and distinguish between “bad inflation” and “good inflation” as these two measures affect most Americans. Bad inflation takes the form of higher costs...

Sorry to bother you, Mr. B. But something happened this morning I thought you should know about. What is it Selig? A leak in the piping? I hope my Stall #8 hasn’t been flooded. No, sir. Nothing that serious. It was just that guy who came by this morning. I don’t know who he was, but he said he was here to install gun mounts over the sinks and toilet bowls. Oh that. No need to worry. He was authorized. Something new we’re offering our staffers. For their protection. Protection?...

It’s the start of a new baseball season, so how could I not post this political knock-off of the immortal “Casey At The Bat?” I don’t believe the progressives in this version of the poem, however, are going to strike out this November the way Casey did… Progressives At The Bat It looked extremely rocky for progressives in D.C., The folks they’d long depended on to others bent a knee; The White House rarely answered calls, the Senate had been cowed, Tea party members...

Labor union heroes like Joe Hill have long been immortalized in song. Why not heroes of Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand — and Rand herself? Especially since Rand’s views reportedly inspire the likes of Rep. Paul Ryan, who sets budget policies in the U.S. House of Representatives… I Dreamed I Saw Ayn Rand Last Night I dreamed I saw Ayn Rand last night, It gave me quite a chill, “They won’t heed you for long,” I cried, Said she: “Oh yes they will.” Said...