TheNextReport

Yer Doin' a Heck of a Job, Paulie Last July, as Congress was about to vote on a request by the Bush Administration that would grant authority to shore up mortgage kingpins Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in an interview on Meet the Press that it might take several months for the US economy to recover, but that the nation's banking system remained sound. That diagnosis, reminiscent of recent statements from John McCain and President Bush, was delivered two months ago. With the collapse yesterday of Washington Mutual, the largest bank failure in American history, Mr. Paulson's skills as a financial MD could certainly have been called into question. Yet, before last week, when the US Congress challenged a Bush plan to bailout the financial institutions that undergird the American economy, the administration was suggesting that the treasury boss be given almost sole control over a $700 billion I-V designed to keep the economy from completely

Fannie, Freddie and Daisy Mae It would be funny if it wasn’t so scary. George Bush is winding up his presidency by ushering in a financial crisis that not only threatens the security of the United States, but that of the entire world. In the midst of it all, the Republican Party continues to sing the praises of its choice for vice-president, an attractive, ditzy young woman who clearly hasn't got a clue and who could end up as the next occupant of the Oval Office. One would think that the American people would finally have gotten the message that putting poorly educated, greedy businessmen, -- aristocrats disguised as common folk -- in charge of the nation, would invariably result in disaster. After a long political campaign where voters heard numerous politicians and their surrogates describe the United States as “the greatest nation on the face of the earth,” Americans find they are losing their jobs to foreign labor, losing their homes to greedy speculators, losing their inves

PT Barnum Rides Again or The Marketing of a Hockey Mom The absurd circus that Americans sometime refer to as their democracy is revealing itself in all its glory. Our electoral system - like so much of our society - is all about the marketing and branding of products. The selection of Alaskan governor Sarah Palin as candidate for vice president by the controllers of the GOP is a clear message to the electorate: we are going to market an attractive female politician to you, unlike anyone you have ever seen on the national political stage; someone with radical right-wing views; a petite woman with a cute macho swagger who is totally unqualified to be president of the United States! We will succeed in doing this because we are masters in creating brand loyalty and we have ultimate faith in the depth of your stupidity. The ascendancy of Sarah Palin reads a bit too much like a hymn to PT Barnum. After months of excoriating Barack Obama, accusing him of being a fast-talking, far-left celebr