Still so far so good

and now, the stupid.

The housing bubble: Dean Baker needs to get out more:

Being completely wrong about an issue only makes you better qualified to discuss it than the people who understood it well to begin with. Megan has to figure out what makes her fuck up for the obvious sake of humanity, and she's determined to get as many major issues wrong as it takes to understand why she keeps getting them wrong.

Credit crunch? Your intrepid correspondent tests the waters:

There is absolutely nothing I can do or say that will cause me to be fired. I could post nothing but the nonsense word "flapdoodlyicousnessacity" in blinking neon pink 45 point font 50 times a day for the next week without anyone noticing. Not that I'd actually put in that much effort, I'd only manage 4 or 5.

Dorothy, get in the storm cellar! Open thread on belt-tightening:

I really like PB&J and ramen
...
Yes, this is a list that screams "middle class single professional". I'm sorry. I can't help what I am. I was born this way.

Shlaes and the Depression:

I... uh, my dog ate my response to Rauchway, but this one book even I don't really agree with argues something that would be helpful if it weren't wrong in ways that my dog hid my notes on. So.... yeah.

I'd like to vote Republican again, someday:

The Republican Party should give up on the anti-abortion component of its platform and thus the religious right half of its base in favor of wooing libertarians, because flapdoodlyicousnessacity.

Who's in at Treasury?:

Everyone seems to think it's down to Larry Summers or Tim Geithner. I'd be happy with either, though the left wing of the Democratic Party seems to be gearing up for a hate-fest on Summers. The previous two sentences may, of course, be related.

Sure, Summers claimed girls are bad at math, an unfounded stereotype which I pretend to be offended by unless I'm using it myself, but I like his bend over backwards for corporations mentality. And besides, girls who disagree with me are bad at math.

Credit crunch? What credit crunch?:

The NYTimes is not a bank, and thus should suffer for its mistakes.

Invidious comparisons:

Silly proles. The point of government intervention in the markets is to maintain the system of free market crony capitalism, not to help people.

Labor's love lost:

The auto companies would be fine if communist unions didn't demand compensation for labor in the form of money. That generations worth of auto executives decided to spend money fighting innovation instead of investing in it wouldn't matter if their massive work force didn't have unions in positions to effectively demand a living wage.

And we're caught up. I'm so proud of myself.