I’m no fan of Christmas shopping, but the last thing this struggling economy needed was a huge blizzard wiping out crucial shopping days in some of the largest markets in the country. It’s depressing to think that the only quick way out of this recession is for rampant consumerism to come roaring back. What I [...]

With job creation at the top of the economic wish list as the nation slowly recovers from the deep recession, and with the Afghanistan decision made, Obama last week convened a jobs summit. The truth is, and everyone knows it, there’s little more that can be done to create the millions of jobs needed to [...]

I had some qualms about drawing this one. I toyed with a number of Thanksgiving themes–the president pardoning the turkey, the Thanksgiving feast, both contemporary and historical, linking these images with other events like the Afghanistan decision or Wall Street bonuses–but I decided against them. Too predictable or too familiar. I ended up doing this [...]

I join the growing chorus of critics who don’t believe that Obama has focused enough on job creation. In fact, I’m more than a little disappointed in the tepid performance by Democrats in general. They won the election by large margins, yet they seem afraid to lead. The Republicans have been successful at all kinds [...]

The closer we get to economic recovery, the more difficult it’s going to be to reform Wall Street. Congress has already dithered for almost a year, and still no substantial reforms of the practices that led to the economic meltdown have emerged. For all Obama’s lecturing of the miscreants, he’s done little to force them [...]

The balloon boy story had it all: a strong human interest story, a mystery, great video, and a touch of voyeurism.  It lacked only two important elements. It wasn’t true, and it wasn’t really about anything important in the broader scheme of things. In other words, it was exactly the kind of story television news [...]

I tried to imagine how it must feel to be one of those Wall Street bankers who stand to make tens of millions in bonuses from bailout money after nearly bringing the world’s economy to its knees. I know I’d feel too guilty to take the money, so I could only speculate that these guys [...]

Great news. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached its 52-week high the other day. The economy continues to show signs of recovering from the worst recession since the Great Depression. But where are the jobs? How many years will it take to absorb the massive numbers of unemployed, not to mention the new high school [...]

A year later, and the folks who gave us the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression are back at it. You’d think that the debacle would have given them at least a small does of humility, but no. Having been bailed out with hundreds of billion of the public’s money, they’re rewarding themselves for [...]

I find it amusing that every bit of good news about the economy seems to be that it’s bad, but just not as bad as it was before, or less bad than expected. If economists and newscasters were truly telling it like it is, it would sound like this. Oddly, even though every kid over [...]