Thirteen Observations made by Lemony Snicket while watching Occupy Wall Street from a Discreet Distance

—By Barbara Ehrenreich

...research showing the economists are untrustworthy, selfish ideologues, in general...

“Nice middle class you got here,” said Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader. “It would be a shame if something happened to it.”... Threats to punish innocent bystanders unless your political rivals give you what you want have no legitimate place in democratic politics.

The employment situation in the United States is much worse than even the dismal numbers from last week’s jobless report would indicate. The nation is facing a full-blown employment crisis and policy makers are not responding with anything like the sense of urgency that is needed.

A look at thousands of abandoned pools in foreclosed California houses.
Eerily beautiful.

The good news is that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a k a the Obama stimulus plan, is working just about the way textbook macroeconomics said it would. But that’s also the bad news — because the same textbook analysis says that the stimulus was far too small given the scale of our economic problems. Unless something changes drastically, we’re looking at many years of high unemployment.

Why Wall Street bonuses won't go away.

The crash of 2008 continues to reverberate loudly nationwide—destroying jobs, bankrupting businesses, and displacing homeowners. But already, it has damaged some places much more severely than others. On the other side of the crisis, America’s economic landscape will look very different than it does today. What fate will the coming years hold for New York, Charlotte, Detroit, Las Vegas? Will the suburbs be ineffably changed? Which cities and regions can come back strong? And which will never come back at all?

A wave of foreclosures and evictions is about to sweep the United States in the wake of the sub-prime mortgage lending crisis.

Simple, powerful mobile tools for developing economies: Tapan Parikh is using mobile phones to transform microfinance in rural India.

...Modern capitalism's emphasis on flexibility, he says, has deprived employees of any sense of narrative in their working lives. They no longer acquire skills, develop them, become better at what they do and thus rise up the pay and promotion ladder....

"THERE are probably more annoying things than being hectored about African development by a wealthy Irish rock star in a cowboy hat, but I can't think of one at the moment."

More on Bush and Social Security

Stephen Roach, the chief economist at Morgan Stanley, says America has no better than a 10 percent chance of avoiding economic ``armageddon.''