Religious right unifies behind Santorum to beat Romney

It's no great surprise that either Santorum or Gingrich would be the religious right favorite over Romney, and it's also no surprise that they chose Santorum.  Gingrich is as much a family values poser as Romney, but in different ways.  Romney doesn't believe in family values policies and Gingrich doesn't believe in the family values lifestyle (read: multiple adulteries, divorces and marriages).  Santorum is a nut, to be sure, but that's why he's the perfect candidate for the religious right.  He's more than hateful enough to win over the "values voter" crowd.  More from the NYT. Read the rest of this post...

JPMorgan heavily exposed to EU crisis

Our old friend Jamie Dimon has a bit of a situation on his hands. Having a $15 billion exposure is not insignificant and if the estimates today are anything like the conservative estimates that we heard about back in 2008, it may be worse. It's highly likely that other US banks have exposure as well, so 2012 could be a bit bouncy in the banking industry.

JPMorgan Chase & Co could lose up to $5 billion from its exposure to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said in an interview with Class CNBC, carried in Italian newspaper Milano Finanza on Saturday. Dimon said the bank was exposed to the five countries (PIIGS) to the tune of around $15 billion. "We fear we could lose up to $5 billion ... We hope the worst won't happen, but even if it did happen, I wouldn't be pulling my hair out," he said.

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US restores diplomatic ties with Myanmar

The pace of change between Myanmar and the west has been rapid lately. This past week, Myanmar released a number of political prisoners, which led to this latest move by the US. Nudging the closed government into opening up should be good for the people of Myanmar. LA Times:

The Obama administration formally restored U.S. diplomatic relations with Myanmar on Friday in recognition of the isolated regime’s recent steps toward reform, including the release of political prisoners and a cease-fire with a rebel group. Capping months of cautious steps toward normalization, U.S. officials said they had growing confidence that the Myanmar’s government is serious about political reforms and opening up to the outside world after years of repression. President Obama hailed the pardon and release Friday of 651 prisoners in Myanmar, also known as Burma, calling it "a substantial step forward for political reform." The released group included a number of prominent pro-democracy leaders, some of whom were imprisoned after major protests in 1988.

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France stripped of AAA credit rating

Borrowing costs will be higher but somehow the US managed to survive a downgrade. It's obviously not great, but worse things could happen. The bigger problem is the ratings agencies themselves. It was a missed opportunity following the initial part of the crisis when they were allowed to dismiss the real world implications of their ratings. If they're supposed to be useless, let's make them useless. But if they're going to be used and have an impact, they still need to be much more regulated so that they can't abuse the system as they did leading up to the 2008 crash. The Guardian:

S&P said austerity was driving Europe even deeper into financial crisis as it also cut Austria's triple-A rating, and relegated Portugal and Cyprus to junk status. The humiliating loss of France's top-rated status leaves Germany as the only other major economy inside the eurozone with a AAA rating, and rekindled financial market anxiety about a possible break-up of the single currency. S&P brought an abrupt end to the uneasy calm that has existed in the eurozone since the turn of the year by downgrading the ratings of Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain by two notches. Austria, France, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia were all cut by one notch.

Note from John: As an aside, check out the photo the Guardian is using with this article. It's from Getty Images, and it's been photoshopped, not very well in fact. Note the two clouds I circle:

It's an interesting question as to when, and how much, photoshopping is permissible in news photography.

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Krugman on the Post-Truth Election: Not one word of Romney's stump speech is true

There's nothing like just saying what you think. The Professor (my emphasis):

I was deeply radicalized by the 2000 election. At first I couldn’t believe that then-candidate George W. Bush was saying so many clearly, provably false things; then I couldn’t believe that nobody in the news media was willing to point out the lies. (At the time, the Times actually told me that I couldn’t use the l-word either). That was when I formulated my “views differ on shape of planet” motto.

Now, however, Mitt Romney seems determined to rehabilitate Bush’s reputation, by running a campaign so dishonest that it makes Bush look like a model of truth-telling.

I mean, is there anything at all in Romney’s stump speech that’s true? It’s all based on attacking Obama for apologizing for America, which he didn’t, on making deep cuts in defense, which he also didn’t, and on being a radical redistributionist who wants equality of outcomes, which he isn’t. When the issue turns to jobs, Romney makes false assertions both about Obama’s record and about his own. I can’t find a single true assertion anywhere.

The post contains other examples, but the bare fact stands. In the literal sense of "literally," it's literally true that every assertion in Romney's stump speech is false. Each one.

Has the entire media-candidate nexus turned into a huge PR & ad campaign, in which words are chosen only for their effectiveness in moving the listener to action, just like a Walmart or Viagra (or beer-sanctioned "manliness") ad?

The answer, of course, is Yes, and has been for a while. The good news? People are actually noticing.

And you have to believe that Krugman is throwing down the challenge especially in the face of this.

Occupy the Truth, sir.

GP Read the rest of this post...