Video embedded below.

See also Democratic Rep. DeFazio Calls for Geithner and Summers to Be Fired – Yves Smith

Here’s another interesting piece from Randall Wray, the economics professor from University of Missouri-Kansas City (that same school which employs Bill Black of “The Best Way to Rob a bank is to own one” fame).
Wray has a lot to say most, but not all, of which I found convincing – but that’s a story for [...]

The Rise and Fall of Empires – Paul Kedrosky (cool visual)
FT Alphaville – A Minskian roadmap to the next gold mania
At Failed Banks, Post-Mortems Disclose Excessive, Yet Obvious, Risk – NYTimes.com
Economic Perspectives from Kansas City: Should America Kowtow to China?
FT.com – Fears of China property bubble
The Ayn Rand revival | [...]

Initial jobless claims for the past week were 505,000, tied with last week for the lowest since January. This brings the 4-week average down to 514,000, the lowest since November of last year and the 11th consecutive week of declines. 
Clearly, fewer people are losing their jobs.  But, 505,000 is still a large number – [...]

I want to take a break from banking and macro stuff and talk a little bit about technology. I wrote an article about Android a few weeks back. That was a more personal account on why I was switching from a Windows Mobile phone to Android, the latest whiz-bang operating system running mobile phones. (Don’t [...]

Hat tip Rolfe Winkler.

After a huge fall off in credit consistent with the fall in nominal GDP, we are seeing credit stabilise at a lower level. Debt to GDP ratios may not be lower, but as GDP is lower, so too is credit in the system.  Yet there is a large difference between the haves and the have-nots, [...]

Barack Obama has now come clean about his thinking on why his administration has decided to focus first on reducing the deficit and next on jobs. He fears a double-dip recession will occur if foreigners lose confidence in the U.S. dollar, causing interest rates to spike. 
This is nonsense and it demonstrates how much at [...]

Josh Reviews Everything: And then he took his pants off. Again.
frontline: a class divided: watch the program | PBS
In Case Someone Says You Couldnt See This Coming – Yves Smith
U.S. conservatives: Obama bowed too deeply to Emperor | The Japan Times Online
Bankruptcy Experts Challenge Obama’s ‘Too Big To Fail’ Plans – [...]

Credit Suisse has a note out urging caution on Citigroup shares due to regulatory hurdles.  Their logic bears noting as it can be useful for other U.S.-based banks.
On Monday the CS analysts met with Citi management, who were somewhat cautious. The CS note indicates that regulatory changes in the U.S. are likely to mandate higher [...]