Hoglet's roasting by the open fire

By Fester:

Just a few things I have seen over the past few days that I want to highlight:

Pete Davis at Capital Gains and Games takes a quick look at the impact of capital gains tax arbitrage and the housing bubble....

The Center for American Progress is looking at new and exciting ways to blow credibility and goats at the same time.....

Brad Delong thinks the mortgage crisis and the credit crunch is presenting a once in a lifetime credit access arbitrage opportunity for the US government --- people are willing to give the US money at less than 1% short term, while everyone else can not get cheap money --- opportunity + need = profit.... Not sure if I agree on a couple of levels, but interesting...

Emoticons may now be trademarked --- at least in Russia.  The original Smiley Face emoticon was a Carnegie Mellon inovation. 

Fact-esque looks into credit card practices of cutting credit depending on where you shop:

Uh-huh. But Kevin represents no risk. His credit history is A-1. This is a guy that they ought to want. Instead, they're penalizing him because somebody else who didn't pay shopped at some of the same places? That's nonsense. Amex is cutting its own throat.....Amex is in a panic. Credit card companies had a lot to do with creating the economic crash, and they have no intention of suffering from what they themselves made. As a result, they're overcompensating big time, running like rabbits with the hounds after them.

Ian Welsh at Firedoglake looks at the horizons of hope and the disconnection of the elites:\

When I was poor and working in lousy jobs I used to look in the mirror and see myself at 50, or 60.  I expected to still be working at grindingly hard jobs, being treated badly by bosses (because there is no rule more iron than that the worse you are paid the worse your employer will treat you), and still being paid little more than minimum wage.  That was the future I saw for myself....

My life was a daily grind of humiliation.

And that's what I expected my life to be.

When politicians participate in one of those "live on Welfare for a week/month" programs I'm happy, but I'm also dubious.  The difference is that they know they're getting out in a week or a month.  They know it's going to end.....

Living without that safety net, knowing that if something goes wrong, that's just too bad, changes you.  Living without any real hope of the future, knowing that the shitty job you've got now is probably about as good a job you're ever going to have, changes you.

And it changes your sense of what hard work is, of what it means to be deserving.

Empty of Empty's Corner looks at the shoe-thrower and the consensus American exceptionalism and definitions of justice....

Warren Strobel at Nukes and Spooks examines the impact of American sanctions on Iran --- not much once the Iranians find alternative suppliers of near substitutes and work-arounds...  

Rob Schumacher  chronicles the start of McCains "Whoops, my bad, sorry about the McCain Palin campaign, that was my evil doppleganger" Reputation Rehab Apologizing Extravaganza Tour....