Late Night Video — The Speechless Banker

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A few days ago, there was a press opportunity with ECB representatives, where Irish journalist Vincent Browne wanted to know specifically why the people of Ireland are being asked to live with the debt burden of a defunct bank. This is the kind of questioning many of us would like to see our own journalists perform when standing in front of folks who are taking crazy decisions on our behalf. These questions are fierce, fearless and utterly just. And the banker has nothing to say.

Ungrateful

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They got an extraordinary bailout funded and guaranteed by the taxpayers of the United States of America -- they still are -- and yet Jamie Dimon of Citibank Chase is whining about regulations from Dodd-Frank:

Americans Are More Like Obama Than Jim DeMint

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A new Pew Poll shows Americans prefer candidates who are willing to compromise (44% more likely, 22% less likely, 29% no difference) and who voted yes on health care reform (39% more likely, 35% less likely, 22% no difference). Americans also hate the bank bailouts, 49% are less likely to vote for candidates that supported bailouts with 14% more likely and 32% no difference.

The Blame Obama Brigade

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This weekend seemed to be filled with lots of discussion all over the internet re: Matt Taibbi’s piece giving President Obama’s economic team a not undeserved beat down. I like Taibbi’s writing a lot and the fact that he doesn’t do conventional “objective” reporting doesn’t bother me (but the repetition of bad data does bother me, like the so-called “cost” of all of the bailouts being 23.7 trillion), but I still find it hugely remarkable that there are plenty of people on the left who are very comfortable blaming Obama for not being liberal or progressive enough – as if that is all it would take to get major legislation through Congress.

The Stickup Note

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On Friday, NPR aired a longish segment (almost 8 minutes) of reporting on bank bailouts via a research note set out by a Deutsche Bank economist: A single piece of…