Heckuva Job

While all the little Hoovers aren't helping things, one not so little Hoover - California - has a nontrivial impact on the rest of the economy.

Gambling Our Way To Prosperity

I don't have anything against casinos and certainly think casinos with table games are at least somewhat more interesting than slot parlors, but I'm not sure moving to all-casino economy is really a long term recipe for success.

Not Working

Loan modification program isn't really working.


It seems to have been somewhat forgotten, but the foreclosure crisis continues..

Dead of Night

Even ancient inside blogball can become relevant once again through the magic of the Intenets!

UPDATED

GOP WANTS TO BAN BACON. SHIT JUST GOT REAL. (Towards the end of the video.)

Late Night

Jealous!

Friday Night Thread

Looks like nobody got eated this week.

BFF holiday weekend!

Friday Evening Thread

Enjoy.

Big Shitpile

It is difficult to see how we will avoid a bailout of the FHA, potentially a massive one.

Not Everyone's Happy

On a boat ride I took around Bergen, the captain seemed to enjoy complaining about his country. Of particular concern was the price of a bottle of whiskey. He said something along the lines of, "Norway, where the country is rich and the people are poor."

On a related note, if you're ever traveling around there do go to the duty free shops. When the duty is very high, duty free is good!

Speaking Of Northern European Transportation

Here's the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, conviently located next to a tram stop.

Oslo has a mix of trams (and buses) and a DC metro-style below/above ground system which will take up you up into the mountains.

If You Ever Ride The Copenhagen Subway

Ride up in the front car, as there is no driver and you can look out of the front of the train.

But, yes, it is surprisingly expensive even by the everything's expensive there standards.

Cars we will always have with us, but they really are the enemy of nice walkable cities. If cheaper transit can get get people out of their cars, then local authorities really should consider lowering the price. The congestion costs, broadly defined, in major cities are huge at peak periods and getting more drivers off the road benefits everyone, especially drivers.

Our Dumb Discourse

I think people can legitimately think all kinds of things about Obama's peace prize, but of course the Villagers ran right for the stupid.

Wanker of the Day

Clive Crook.

Lunch Thread

enjoy

SCANDAL

As for Letterman, what Jill says, plus the fact that the Villagers were more obsessed with that than Ensign revelations...

Villagers

Their enduring obsession with Sarah Palin says much about them...

What They Want

It's sometimes difficult to discern just what institutions like the AP actually want, what wrong Google is actually doing to them. I think the biggest thing is that they're mad that when someone searches for something that they've covered, Google might direct them to, say, some sucky blue blog which has some commentary about the story instead of the story itself. This makes them very mad and they stamp their feet and they want that nasty Google to prioritize their news stories. At least that's what I think they're mad at, until they start bitching about things like Google News which... mostly do just that.

Ok, never mind, I really don't get it.

Good Luck With That

After $300 million in goodies from the state, Dell closes factory. Somehow I don't think they state is going to get any money back...

Good Luck With That

I wonder if the AP is truly unaware that Google basically pays them as a favor...

New thread

I was gonna refer to it as the Henry Kissinger Peace Prize, but I guess that would be in poor taste, eh?

Signed,
Not Atrios