IMF economist: The Ruinous Fiscal Impact of Big Banks

As always, plenty of bluster, threats and lies from the financial industry. The problem is that too many politicians fall for this rubbish time after time. Do they really believe the banks or are they lining up a more profitable position for themselves or their team down the road? Whatever the reason, it's not helping anyone other than the banks. Besides the small excerpt below, you want to click through and read everything. The final paragraph below needs to be raised a lot more with the Republicans to counter their "cut everything and we will be fine" lies. NY Times:

No one forced the banks to take on so much risk. Top bankers lobbied long and hard for the rules that allowed them to behave recklessly. And these same people effectively captured the hearts, minds and, some would say, pocketbooks of the regulators – in the sense that a well-regarded regulator can and often does go work for a bank afterward.

The mega-recession, which is starting to look more like a mini-depression in terms of employment terms for the United States (which lost 6 percent of employment and is still down 5 percent from the pre-crisis peak), caused a big decline in tax revenues. Falling taxes under such circumstances are part of what is known technically as the “automatic stabilizers” of the economy, meaning they help offset the contractionary effect of the financial shock without the government having to take any discretionary action.

Whatever you think about the effectiveness of the additional fiscal stimulus packages provided to the economy in early 2008 (under President Bush) or starting in early 2009 (under President Obama), remember that the impact of these on the deficit was small relative to the decline in tax revenue.

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The early universe looks a lot like blood vessels (or cobwebs)

Very cool photo, this-a-way. And the Hubble found a galaxy that was formed only 480m years after the Big Bang. Read the rest of this post...

Joe Stiglitz on strengthening the economy

It's a few days old but well worth the investment of six minutes of your time. This is a great discussion on how the US ought to be addressing the surplus of labor available today (rebuilding infrastructure) and getting tax revenues in the door. Cutting everything as the GOP (and some Democrats) want is wrong on so many levels. There's also an amusing moment when CNBC repeats a recent Geithner line about Keynesian economics being dead. I thought Stiglitz was going to fall over at that moment but he quickly recovered. Read the rest of this post...

Huff Post: GOP rep. introduces pro-life bill to let women die

From HuffPost Hill:

Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Pitts has introduced a bill that would amend health care reform to allow doctors at anti-abortion hospitals to let an ailing pregnant woman die rather than admit her and perform a life-saving abortion. Evan McMorris-Santoro with background: "Currently, all hospitals in America that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding are bound by a 1986 law known as EMTALA to provide emergency care to all comers, regardless of their ability to pay or other factors...In the case of an anti-abortion hospital with a patient requiring an emergency abortion, ETMALA would require that hospital to perform it or transfer the patient to someone who can...Pitts' new bill would free hospitals from any abortion requirement under EMTALA, meaning that medical providers who aren't willing to terminate pregnancies wouldn't have to -- nor would they have to facilitate a transfer."

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The Big Short's Michael Lewis on Dylan Ratigan to discuss record Wall Street pay

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Besides the Washington insiders who profit enormously from the revolving door between DC and Wall Street, everyone else with open eyes views the system as corrupt. Look back to last May when Bill Clinton offered support for Wall Street by claiming they did nothing illegal or wrong. What kind of society legalizes and endorses what Wall Street did? There's a reason the US is becoming a Banana Republic with more income disparity than Egypt and the Washington insiders are the reason. Clinton's remarks were disgusting but he's no different than most of the mainstream political leadership. Until this issue is resolved there's very little hope for fixing the problems of a declining middle class. Read the rest of this post...

Scott Horton: Why Mubarak is clinging to a few more months of power

Many think that Mubarak is already on his way out. He appointed Omar Suleiman ("our man in Cairo," it seems) as his VP last week, and now the Obama administration is asking him to step down and make Suleiman his "transitional" successor. The exit dance may already have begun.

So, two questions:

1. Who is directing the anti-press attacks?
2. Why is Mubarak dragging his feet?

About the first, we don't know; and it would be a mistake to assume that Mubarak is doing it. There are many people around him who want his apparatus to remain in control, if not the man himself. And that apparatus has many pieces.

About the second, we have Scott Horton to help. Fast answer: "The Hague". In a new article in Foreign Policy, he says the following:

Time was when a dictator like Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, watching his hold on power crumbling in the face of an uprising, had plenty of retirement options. Odds were he could find a quiet life in one of Europe's posher watering holes: Mougins in the hills above Cannes, on the shores of Lake Geneva, or maybe a smart Belgravia townhouse. He generally had plenty of cash parked outside the country and often would take a last dip in the treasury on the way out the door. To be sure, he had to keep his wits about him to avoid anarchists and assassins, and he had to avoid too much obvious meddling in his homeland's politics lest this jeopardize his host's grant of asylum. But he could usually look forward to a peaceful and comfortable run for his waning days.

So why is Mubarak trying to squeeze a few more months out of his three-decade career in office and avowing his intentions to stay in Egypt rather than packing for the Riviera? It may be because exile isn't what it used to be; over the last 30 years, things have gotten increasingly difficult for dictators in flight. Successor regimes launch criminal probes; major efforts are mounted to identify assets that may have been stripped or looted by the autocrat, or more commonly, members of his immediate family. ... [H]uman rights lawyers and international prosecutors may take a close look at the tools the deposed dictator used to stay in power: Did he torture? Did he authorize the shooting of adversaries? Did he cause his enemies to "disappear"? Was there a mass crackdown that resulted in dozens or hundreds of deaths? A trip to The Hague or another tribunal might be in his future.

So what's a dictator to do?

[H]ow can Mubarak protect himself if he eventually makes an escape from Cairo? He's taking the usual steps now. Start with his decision to install foreign intelligence chief and CIA confidant Omar Suleiman as vice president and constitutional successor. ... Suleiman, a close and loyal advisor to Mubarak, had of course long been expected to emerge as vice president, but his assumption of the office had been blocked by his bitter rival, Defense Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. With the forces of opposition swirling out of control, appointing a successor who was both credible and capable of protecting Mubarak in exile was a priority move, and identifying someone with the tightest possible connections both to the United States and Israel was doubtless an added advantage.

That's just the start of this fascinating article. The exit process is detailed, along with the new regime's likely blocking moves (assuming the "new" regime is actually new).

Me, I wouldn't be surprised if Mubarak didn't have "negotiating room" with the U.S. As in, "mutual silence is good for us both." After all, Suleiman is a keeper of both sides secrets.

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Thugs destroy al-Jazeera Cairo office

WSJ:

Pan-Arab satellite news channel al-Jazeera said Friday its office in Cairo has been destroyed and its website was hacked.

The broadcaster, which has been the target of repeated attempts by the Egyptian authorities to interfere with its coverage of the country's political protests, said its Cairo office was attacked by "a gang of thugs" and equipment was destroyed.

"The office has been burned along with the equipment inside it," al-Jazeera said in a statement. "It appears to be the latest attempt by the Egyptian regime or its supporters to hinder al-Jazeera's coverage of events in the country."

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Green Bay Packers talk about jobs and community

No matter who you're rooting for in the Super Bowl, this is something everyone can respect. But surely everyone is rooting for the Packers, right? Read the rest of this post...

Join our live chat with Justin Elzie, author and DADT activist

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Supporters of Egyptian protests beaten in Syria

Sounds like another dictator is getting nervous about the protests spreading.

Human Rights Watch said on Thursday that Syrian authorities failed to intervene as 15 people who tried to hold a candle vigil in support of the Egyptian revolution were beaten in Old Damascus.

Syrians have been organizing campaigns on Facebook and Twitter that call for a "day of rage" in Damascus this week in using social networking sites to rally their followers for sweeping political reforms.

Like Egypt and Tunisia, Syria suffers from corruption, poverty and unemployment. All three nations have seen subsidy cuts on staples like bread and oil. Syria's authoritarian president has resisted calls for political freedoms and jailed critics of his regime.

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American grad student helped bypass internet lock down in Egypt

Well done.

More on John Scott Railton here.

Scott-Railton's Twitter account lists him as having just over 4,000 followers, but that considerably understates his influence, as his tweets — which he posts at a rate of around 50 a day — are visible to all those who search for information on the protests. Blake Hounshell, managing editor of Foreign Policy Magazine, subscribes to his posts, as do the editors of several other major news publications. And Scott-Railton says that the BBC, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, Al Jazeera and the Wall Street Journal have all reached out to him for analysis or help finding Egyptians to interview. "In years past, the idea was that you could only understand the situation if you were on the ground," says Sree Sreenivasan, a professor of digital media at Columbia Journalism School in NYC, who has been tracking the developments in Egypt. "What we have learned though is that there is a real role for social media for people who are far away from the action to bring context, understanding and analysis."

Scott-Railton, who speaks rudimentary Arabic and has mostly used English — and occasionally French — in his reporting, has no training as a journalist. And yet, "a lot of the questions of journalistic ethics are now on my mind," he says. "How do you confirm information? How do you avoid echo chambers? How do you substantiate?" When new sources began emailing him after his initial postings, he insisted they provide contacts, preferably in the U.S., who could vouch for their identities. He says his goal is to provide the "human component" of the story, "to make it feel as exciting and as relevant as the pictures of tanks rolling around."

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Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians protest on the 'Day of Departure'

It's another day of massive protests in Egypt today. So far, it seems that things are relatively peaceful. Via Al Jazeera:

Chants urging Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, to leave office are reverberating across Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Hundreds of thousands of people have gathered at the square, the focal point of protests in Egypt, for what they have termed the "Day of Departure".

As the country entered its eleventh day of unrest, mass demonstrations commenced after Friday prayers.

Thousands also gathered in the city of Alexandria, holding up placards and chanting "He must go!" an Al Jazeera correspondent there reported.

Protesters there have said they will march to the city's main train station and stage a sit-in until Mubarak resigns.

Three thousand people also joined demonstrations in Giza.

The pro-Mubarak security forces are still wreaking havoc -- or trying to. CNN's Ivan Watson reported a short time ago that Egyptian Security Forces are trying to prevent foreign journalists from doing live broadcasting today.

Al Jazeera is live blogging events here. The network's offices were ransacked by pro-Mubarak thugs. Read the rest of this post...

January Jobs report: Unemployment down to 9.0% with only 36,000 new jobs

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):

The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage point to 9.0 percent in January, while nonfarm payroll employment changed little (+36,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment rose in manufacturing and in retail trade but was down in construction and in transportation and warehousing. Employment in most other major industries changed little over the month.

That job creation is below expectations. BLS cited winter weather as one factor for job losses.

Earlier today, Reuters reported:

The government is expected to report on Friday that nonfarm payrolls grew 145,000, according to a Reuters survey, after adding 103,000 in December. But severe snow storms that slammed large parts of the nation could result in a much lower figure.

All of the anticipated job gains are expected to have been generated by the private sector and would add to other data suggesting that the manufacturing-driven recovery is now spreading to other sectors of the economy.

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'Day of departure' protests set for today in Egypt

We will find out soon enough whether Mubarak is going to call off the thugs or let the country be torn apart even more. His options become more limited each day so for everyone, it's best that today turns out to be his day of departure. Al Jazeera:

The developments come as the New York Times reports, quoting US officials and Arab diplomats, that the US administration is discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for Mubarak to resign immediately and hand over power to a transitional government headed by Omar Suleiman, the newly appointed vice-president.

The Egyptian president, for his part, says he has had enough and is ready to go but fears chaos if he resigns now.

Mubarak's remarks, to an American TV network on Thursday, came as two days of clashes between protesters and his supporters on Cairo's streets left at least 13 people dead and hundreds injured.

Ahmed Shafiq, Egypt's new prime minister, said the interior minister should not obstruct Friday's peaceful marches. The interior ministry has denied it ordered its agents or officers to attack pro-democracy demonstrators.

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Was 2010 drought in Amazon a 'climate tipping point?'

It certainly doesn't sound like good news.

Billions of trees died in the record drought that struck the Amazon in 2010, raising fears that the vast forest is on the verge of a tipping point, where it will stop absorbing greenhouse gas emissions and instead increase them.

The dense forests of the Amazon soak up more than one-quarter of the world's atmospheric carbon, making it a critically important buffer against global warming. But if the Amazon switches from a carbon sink to a carbon source that prompts further droughts and mass tree deaths, such a feedback loop could cause runaway climate change, with disastrous consequences.

"Put starkly, current emissions pathways risk playing Russian roulette with the world's largest forest," said tropical forest expert Simon Lewis, at the University of Leeds, and who led the research published today in the journal Science. Lewis was careful to note that significant scientific uncertainties remain and that the 2010 and 2005 drought – thought then to be of once-a-century severity – might yet be explained by natural climate variation.

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Shell profits doubled in 2010

And we give Big Oil tax breaks because...why? They look like they're doing fine so maybe it's time they operate without government welfare. If Washington is obsessed with giving away handouts, maybe they should give the tax breaks to another industry that actually needs help growing. BBC News:

The oil giant Shell has reported profits almost doubled from $9.8bn to $18.6bn (£11.5bn) for 2010 thanks to rising oil prices and production.

Its chief executive, Peter Voser, said the company had made good progress and that there was "still more to come".

During the year, the company made $7bn of acquisitions and invested $3bn in exploration.

For the final quarter Shell made profits of $5.7bn, compared with $1.2bn for the same period in 2009.

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