In an announcement serendipitously timed to coincide with the last, gasping vestiges of what once was the American dream, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that the Statue of Liberty will close down until further notice for some desperately needed repairs.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords returned to the House of Representatives on Monday, receiving a standing ovation and enthusiastically greeting her colleagues after casting her vote (her first since being shot in January) for the debt ceiling bill, which passed 269-161.
The new monthly jobs report is out, and guess what? Unemployment is up to 9.2%, the economy only added 18,000 jobs (one-tenth of the number needed to find jobs for all the poor saps entering the workforce right now), we created 44,000 fewer jobs than we thought in April and May, 14.1 million Americans are out of work, and roving bandit gangs are lighting tire fires in the street outside your house right now.
Oh good heavens, it looks like we've got some trouble in Mittens Land. The presidential candidate formerly known as Willard Romney has been yapping to anyone who'll listen that President Obama made the recession "worse" since coming into office. This is a defensible line under the loose standards of Republican primary campaign rhetoric; he could argue that Obama's policies on net hampered what would've been a quicker recovery. Could. So is this a line that he egregiously lied about ever saying yesterday? It's tricky!
Few people are more reviled in the over-leveraged United States than debt collectors. They'll talk all kinds of shit to you on the phone about credit card bills, or student loans that you one day decided to stop paying (but eventually started paying again to clear your guilty conscience and to be a good person), sure, but they're also victims of verbal abuse and stupid laws and they're just not gonna take it anymore.
Elizabeth Warren, the consumer advocate and Harvard professor who's heading up the brand-new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in its infancy, stopped by the House of Representatives today for a hearing called — seriously — "Who's Watching the Watchmen?" It got kind of intense!
The first quickie poll of President Obama's approval rating since the killing of Osama bin Laden is in, and the predicted boost is definitely materializing.
If you're disappointed by your own unemployment or depressed salary in the post-recession era, at least be heartened that some of your fellow Americans are doing well: According to the Times, CEOs at 200 major corporations made a median $9.6 million last year, with Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman pulling in $84.5 million for the top spot. Yes, corporate profits are way up, and along with them executive compensation; and while the Times notes that "so far, this recovery has not trickled down," we're sure it's only a matter of time! And, until then, absolutely no need to tax the super rich at higher rates. [NYT; image via Shutterstock]
