From the Washington Post:
The House ethics committee ruled Friday that seven lawmakers who steered hundreds of millions of dollars in largely no-bid contracts to clients of a lobbying firm had not violated any rules or laws by also collecting large campaign donations from those contractors.
In a 305-page report, the ethics committee declared that lawmakers are [...]
The economic data this week continued the pattern that has dominated for months now - manufacturing strong, real estate and consumer weak. The recovery from this recession has been a more traditional inventory cycle recovery. Whether it morphs into something that is sustainable beyond restocking is the $64 question and one for which we don’t [...]
The number of people filing for first time unemployment benefits rose in the latest week, causing fear and doubt, whether it be reasonable or not, that this recovery is strong and sustainable enough. According to the US Department of Labor, for the week ending February 20th, initial jobless claims rose 22,000 to stand at a seasonally-adjusted 496,000. The reading is worse than forecast, as expectations [...]
From an article by Bradford Cornell at Project Syndicate:
Given the central role of financial intermediation in the current crisis, the government should instead expedite the restructuring process through bankruptcy law. The key is to accept bad news: losses must be recognized before efficient realignment can occur.
This suggests the following solution to the banking crisis. First, [...]
