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- Is Wall Street on a hiring spree in "Anticipation of an Economic Recovery?" Annie Lowry says no, based on two pieces of data. First, the crash of 2008 eliminated a lot of the competition, and those firms that have weathered the storm are now that much more profitable. Second, low interest rates mean firms can still borrow cheaply, allowing them to expand. And since the banksters believe they are the center of the universe, naturally they believe their own return to boom times presages a general economic recovery.
- The reasons why the macroeconomic debate sounds like history repeating itself aren't difficult to identify. Eighty years, after all, was a long time ago, and since then the opposition to government intervention in the economy has become more rigidly ideological, professionalized, and myopic in its view that taxing business and the wealthy does unspeakable damage to the economy.
- The idea that the Internet is demarcated by its egalitarianism is of course absurd, but the more puzzling idea David Brooks explores in a recent column is that there is a debate between book knowledge and Internet knowledge. The hierarchical universe of books, Brooks says, requires time to to learn how to distinguish the masters from the hacks -- to discriminate. Agreed. But if we're going to be aristocratic about this, then can't we say someone who uses the Internet primarily for celebrity gossip just lacks taste and refinement?
- Weekend Remainders: Senate hopeful Jack Conway (D-KY) has a plan so crazy it just might work; shockingly, misinformation has a powerful effect on the weak-minded; today's dilution of human cruelty is brought to you by Michele Bachmann; Republicans sure are fond of redacting the Constitution; and underestimating the efficiency of the U.S. Postal Service.
--Mori Dinauer
