Two weeks ago, I applauded as European leaders finally forced their mega banks to take a haircut. But events this week have illustrated how fragile their plan is. The union is too multifaceted to deal with the extraordinary mess the so called best and brightest have managed to create. As Tom Walkom points out in The Toronto Star, what began as a noble experiment fell victim to arrogance: The arrogance emerged...

Top Ten Cloves: Possible New Fees Banks Will Start Charging News Item: The Jeopardy Fee; You didn’t phrase your transaction request in the form of a question 2. Groucho Marx Fee – Don’t know the Secret Word, it will cost you a $100 fee (Image courtesy of Will Oremus: Fee-Market Capitalism – Bank of America learns it has to be more subtle about screwing its customers. Even The S.E.C...

For several years now, Greece has been presenting on a global stage, a never-ending “Waiting For Godot” comic-tragedy in which there is constant worldwide audience participation despite a complete lack of plot, or any ideas on how to end this story. A Greek default on its international debts may not bring down the global financial system, but it regularly paralyzes governments, bondholders, and stock markets...

The Occupy Wall Street protests entered a new and potentially violent phase this week as protesters shut down operations at Oakland’s busy port in the latest demonstrations against economic inequality and police brutality. A small splinter group wielding makeshift shields broke off and roamed through downtown streets spraying graffiti, burning garbage and breaking windows. They were confronted by police...

It will require this kind of balancing act for the GOP to retake the White House Shortly after midnight exactly one year from this Sunday the first voters will go to the polls in two tiny New Hampshire towns to vote in a presidential election that will be singularly significant in defining the course of American politics in the years to come. Before the sun sets in Hawaii on November 6, 2012, 130 million...

Despite Booming Economy, Brazilians Rally Against Amazonian Dam by John C.K. Daley No one in the developing world is against hydroelectric projects, which bring the benefits of power and development. Except perhaps the locals. Brazil’s proposed Belo Monte Amazon dam is experiencing an “occupy” moment, with 100s of Xingu River basin indigenous peoples and riverine community members gathering to protest...

Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Some good economic news: employers cut fewer jobs in October than expected: In a positive sign for the US economy, governments and businesses did not cut jobs in October nearly has much as they had initially planned. At the same time, companies have announced many more hiring plans than layoffs, as they gear up for the holiday season, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago-based outplacement...

Megan McArdle reports on the Greek crisis and the likelihood that there will be real trouble much more quickly than many expect. If EU economic policy were a soap opera–and apparently, it is–Greece would be the sultry, irresponsible beauty in a tumultuous love-hate relationship with rigid, authoritarian Germany. Obviously after years of tumultuous breakups and teary reunions, this is the season...

Have and have-not nation by Eugene Robinson WASHINGTON — The hard-right conservatives who dominate the Republican Party claim to despise the redistribution of wealth, but secretly they love it — as long as the process involves depriving the poor and middle class to benefit the rich, not the other way around. That is precisely what has been happening, as a jaw-dropping new report by the...

The crisis in Greece is threatening the European and American economies. Read Andrew Sullivan’s solid roundup HERE. Also be sure to read The Christian Science Monitor’s take on the crisis.

I have long felt that modern conservatives lack a sense of irony. I can think of no credible explanation for this impediment. Perhaps it is genetic. But, as Paul Krugman points out in Monday’s New York Times, whether they’re aware of it or not, their irony is showing. Krugman credits Barney Frank with a phrase which accurately describes them — “weaponized Keynesians.” Right now...

And that is not leadership. Whether we’re talking Herman Cain’s economic plan (9-9-9 or 9-0-9) or how he and his campaign are failing to deal with Politico’s reporting on the settlement specifics between the National Restaurant Association (when Cain was its head) and two of its former employees regarding alleged sexual harassment in the workplace, Cain seems to believe that he can reduce,...

Ya gotta feel sorry for the Left. So lost and leaderless they have to trot out 92 year old Pete Seeger and unheard-of-since-Alice’s-Restaurant Arlo Guthrie to draw attention to their participation in OWS. It’s fine that Pete and Arlo get to be relevant one more time, but it says too much about the vacuum that has become the American Left. That’s not to say that a little class warfare isn’t called...

And so November rears its chilly head — in northern climes, anyway — with Europe having avoided a financial meltdown for the time being and the U.S. showing tentative signs that the hangover from the Great Recession may at long last be easing. Bully for that, you might say, but I say bullspit. This is because banksters (which conveniently rhymes with gangsters) are at the heart of the economic malaise...

Driving through Tennessee in the outback, and there is plenty outback to Tennessee, one sees tiny shotgun shacks with tiny side yards planted in tobacco. Driveways ripped out, if ever existing, all aerable land, no matter how small, planted with sentinels of tobacco, yellow, green, brown, depending on time of year. One sees too that tobacco more or less takes care of itself til ready to harvest, so the poor...

So says a Bloomberg report today. It is interesting given that the statistics are gathered over 30 years so that would seem to weed out any short term bull or bear markets. Yet bonds remain the poor cousin to the stock market in the minds of many. Personally I have no money to invest so it’s somewhat academic for me, but it is interesting.

WASHINGTON — We may be reaching an inflection point, the moment when the terms of the political argument change decisively. Three indicators: An important speech by Rep. Paul Ryan, the increasingly sharp tone of President Obama’s rhetoric, and the success of Occupy Wall Street in resisting attempts to marginalize the movement. The most telling was Ryan’s address at the Heritage Foundation...

Our political Quote of the Day comes from an op-ed column in the New York Post by law prof Glenn Reynolds, aka InstaPundit, who says the government is to blame for the college loan bubble but Obama’s recent announcement of a fix will do little to fix it. Keep in mind when you read this must-read-in-full column that Reynolds works in the college community, so this is more than just an impersonal analysis: It’s...

In a recent piece about how the GOP seems to be bent on blowing off the Latino vote, Shaun Mullen sees the Latino answer to the GOP as being “¡Muéranse!” or drop dead. I believe that the GOP begets — deserves — such a reaction because the GOP has, for years, been telling Latinos exactly the same. According to the New York Times, seven Republican presidential candidates are telling Latinos...

Our political Quote of the Day comes from John Yemma, editor of The Christian Science Monitor, who looks at the Occupy movements in the United States and Europe and asks whether we are in a new era of leaderlessness. Here’s part of his must-read-in-full post: The tea party and the “Occupy Wall Street” movements evolved on different planets, even if members of both groups sport red-white-and-blue face...

Accountants working for companies provide a valuable service. They compile numbers about various aspects of a company’s operations that management can use as guides to improve performance. But there are caveats. If the counting doesn’t include all important factors, if it seems to emphasis one factor above another in an incorrect way, or if management uncritically uses numbers that accountants provide...

And now the bad news: our national debt is nearly as big as our economy. USA Today reports: The Obama administration won a reprieve this week from some particularly scary economic news that had been projected to occur around Halloween. The news: The ever-escalating national debt will hit and then surpass the size of the entire U.S. economy — an ignominious distinction previously achieved by the likes of...

Americans See Themselves as Homesteaders…Not the Eventual Rich by Tina Dupuy I spoke with a thirty-something mother of two residing in suburban New Jersey about the Occupy Wall Street movement. She was disgusted by their antics. “Our business failed, our house was foreclosed on, we lost everything and you don’t see us blaming someone else for it!” she exclaimed. “It’s about...

On Halloween weekend, Americans apparently are tired of all-tricks, no-treats on Capitol Hill, sending approval ratings down to the GOP’s favorite single digit while the President sees a slight gain in public favor. Gallup attributes the Obama bump to Iraq troop withdrawal, a rising stock market and that golden oldie, the death of a Mideast tyrant, reflecting Gadhafi’s demise as it did that of Osama bin...