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I am reminded of the 2002 Spielberg movie “Minority Report” when I think of the digital age, terrorism and privacy concerns.  The movie is interesting not just for its Big Brother overtones, but also because of its prescience on technology (some of the technology used in the movie, like multi-touch screens, are now in use). [...]

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Marshall Auerback here with a commentary on Robert Rubin’s recent Newsweek article on getting the economy back on track.
As we all know, during his tenure as Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin laid the groundwork for today’s crisis through his aggressive championing of financial deregulation.  Had he at least acknowledged some remorse or recognition of error, he [...]

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Byron Wien was amazingly accurate last year in his economic predictions even though his annual list is an attempt to build a non-consensus list of likely outlier events.  So, I was eager to see his 2010 list, which was unveiled earlier today. Please read his list in the post here as background.
Reviewing 2009 predictions
When Wien [...]

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I will have some commentary on this in a future post or an updated version of this one. Update 1600 ET: you can see my commentary in the next post here.
The Surprises of 2010

The United States economy grows at a stronger than expected 5% real rate during the year and the unemployment level drops below [...]

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You kind of saw this coming didn’t you. Asians remember the Depression that began there a decade ago all too vividly. Many still see the West to blame because of the draconian economic policy solutions meted out by the IMF, including now-US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner amongst others.
Incongruously, the very same Tim Geithner of [...]

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I must be incredibly sleep-deprived because my last post overlooked a critical case in the financial blogosphere where the same issues of blogging and government coercion are at issue.
I completely forgot that the Implode-o-Meter sites are taking an enormous hit right now because of their coverage on the housing bubble. You may recall, back in [...]

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Michael Arrington, a prolific blogger in the Tech community, has written a thoughtful piece on bloggers’ right/duty to protect confidential sources in the face of government pressure to do otherwise.  I’d like to post a portion of that article here and ask you what you think of his arguments.  He says:
Last week two bloggers, Steven [...]

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Back in September I posted “Now watch this drive” to explain voters’ increasing alarm at Obama’s detachment from the economic problems of ordinary Americans.  Commenting on a video featuring a famous George W. Bush gaffe, I said:

As I see it, the man in video number one shows extreme callousness when switching abruptly from a serious [...]

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Yesterday, I indicated I would write a few thematic posts as a look back at some of the more important economic topics that this credit crisis has uncovered. Tying posts together in a theme definitely gives a better holistic view of a the themes than the posts do in isolation. But I also enjoy writing [...]

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Liu Xiaobo: China’s top pro-democracy dissident goes on trial – CSMonitor.com
Ruling: Runaway teen doesn’t have to talk to family | The Columbus Dispatch (This is a legal case about a Muslim girl who converted to Christianity. Watch this case.)
FBI releases files on Michael Jackson involving child-molestation charges – NYPOST.com
How do I know [...]