Fact-esque

Jobless Claims Rise As GOP Blocks Jobs Bill; Oil Spill Continues While BP Fiddles

I mean, what can you say at this point? How does one explain such suicidal behavior? Unemployment claims "unexpectedly" rise by more than the 3 previous months combined -

The number of people filing new claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week by the largest amount in three months. The surge is evidence of how volatile the job market remains, even as the economy grows.

Applications for unemployment benefits rose to 471,000 last week, up by 25,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday. It was the first increase in five weeks and the biggest jump since a gain of 40,000 in February.

- and Republicans react by promising to kill the jobs bill?

Sestak, Critz & Financial Reform: Sense From Nonsense

A week or so ago I suggested in response to Chris Bowers that there was as yet no evidence of a progressive swing in the electorate though there were "indications".

That was last week. This week we have some real live evidence. Joe Sestak beat Arlen Specter to be the Democratic Senate candidate from PA and Mark Critz won a special election to replace the deceased John Murtha in Westmoreland County. Neither was supposed to win, neither could win, according to the Usual Pundits. Right-wing ex-Pub and avid Bush Baby Specter was welcomed into the BD Democrat party primarily on the strength of a conservative-spun rumor that nobody could beat him and it was the only way to keep PA in the Dem column. Sestak, they said, was yet another Quixote-ish librul loser tilting at windmills he couldn't possibly knock over and it was a waste of time for SERIOUS PEOPLE to work for his campaign or even talk about it.

Uh-huh.

Will the Fed Get Audited After All?

It seems that for once - and I do mean once - my pessimism may have led me uncustomarily astray. It appears that the White House, Wall Street, and conservatives are actually going to lose the battle to make sure the Fed stays unaudited and therefore unaccountable in every way. According to both TPM and the NYT, Bernie Sanders' amendment is now expected to pass.

Really.

Out of the Shadows: The Obama Admin Fights Fed Audit

During each political kabuki there usually comes a time - at least one - when working from the shadows backstage just doesn't cut it any more and you need to risk coming out into the open. In the financial "reform" kabuki, that moment came when Bernie Sanders entered an amendment to the Dodd bill that would require the Fed to be audited. All of a sudden the back room playas were all out front in a full-court press.

C'ing the D's: In the Mortgage Crisis, Everybody Was Involved

The more that comes out about the origins of the economic crisis the banksters created, the more we find out that nobody on The Street was innocent. Back at the beginning of the month, we talked about Moody's being pretty deep into enabling Goldman Sachs to pull off its betting scam. Now we're finding out it was way more than that. Moody, S&P and Fitch all sent execs to work for investment houses so they could help The Street play out the biggest con game since Henry Gondorff retired.

Cognitive Dissonance: It's Not Just for Republicans Any More

I haven't looked but I suppose the usual suspects are all excited about the "anti-Wall Street" speech Obama gave today. You know, the one where he gave the banksters and their lobbyists Holy Heck.

C'ing the D's: Is There a Democrat Disconnect Between What They Say and What They Do?

Are we tired of the financial "reform" kabuki yet? I try not to waste time beating on dead horses, but I honestly don't know if this one's dead yet.

SEC Charges Against Goldman Strike Spark

The shocking news that the SEC was actually going to charge Goldman Sachs with criminal fraud, a move most of us had long ago given up expecting, was so well-received that it seems to have galvanized rank-and-file Democrats.

SEC Charges Goldman With Fraud. No, Really. It Did . Honest.

No this is not an April Fool's joke or a satire. Hard as it may be to believe, Goldman has just been charged with fraud by the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Banking Reform: We Can Do It If We Want To, We Just Don't Want To

OK, so Krugman isn't wild about Dodd's banking reform bill. Nevertheless he is bending over backwards to make it sound better than it is.

[H]ow good is the legislation on the table, the bill put together by Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut?

Not good enough. It's a good-faith effort to do what needs to be done, but it would create a system highly dependent on the wisdom and good intentions of government officials. And as the history of the last decade demonstrates, trusting in the quality of officials can be dangerous to the economy's health.

"Good faith effort"? That's pushing the benefit of the doubt past the breaking point. The admittedly minimal House bill was a "good faith effort" if your definition of "good faith" is an effort to just barely control the worst of Wall Street's usual financial scams, shenanigans, and skullduggery. Dodd's bill is a bad faith effort to make non-reform smell like reform, thus keeping Wall Street happy with him so his life-after-the-Senate will be a very comfortable one.