The right way to present economic statistics

I've occasionally wondered why there isn't more anger at the looting of the economy by its upper echelons. Americans are violent, but they are also lazy and disorganized. So there hasn't been the kind of rioting in the streets that the situation really demands -- most Americans don't even have proper streets, just subdivisions and strip malls, not at all suitable for civil insurrection.

Then there's this guy. plenty of violent anger but apparently confined to his own garage:


He scares me a bit, maybe due to the trace amount of racism amidst the otherwise perfectly reasonable ranting.

Of course, this being 21st century America it's likely that this anger will result in nothing more than a viral YouTube video and 15 seconds of fame, rather than a mob of baseball-bat wielding crackers marching on Wall Street looking to break heads. Probably for the best.

via Matt Taibbi

Giant Vampire Squids

Matt Taibbi and Max Keiser (who I never heard of before this) are having a very enjoyable friendly competition to see who can produce the best invective about Goldman Sachs. Are they financial terrorists who should be brought up on charges in the Hague, or giant vampire squids their tentacles wrapped around the face of humanity? We report, you decide.

Here's Keiser on French TV, which is apparently a lot better than ours:



And here's the more sober Eliot Spitzer saying essentially the same things:



As a well-known financial ignoramus, I truly am not sure how pissed off I should be at this, but until I hear otherwise I'm willing to trust the above commenters. If this anger would penetrate the gelatinous brain of the average American we might actually be at risk of something happening...but it won't.

Most depressing is the realization that the Obama administration is just as much in the pocket of the financial "services" industry as the Republicans, if not more so. Not really a surprise, but the temporary mood of hope and change sure has faded fast.