Visual source: Newseum
David Carr:
Almost two weeks ago, USA Today put its finger on why the Occupy Wall Street protests continued to gain traction.
“The bonus system has gone beyond a means of rewarding talent and is now Wall Street’s primary business,” the newspaper editorial stated, adding: “Institutions take huge gambles because the short-term returns are a rationale for their rich payouts. But even when the consequences of their risky behavior come back to haunt them, they still pay huge bonuses.”
Well thought and well put, but for one thing: If you were looking for bonus excess despite miserable operations, the best recent example I can think of is Gannett, which owns USA Today.
AP with an OWS update:
Some of the latest developments in the Occupy protests taking place in cities across the world:
I expect that from us; I am pleased AP is doing so as well.
Des Moines Register:
Just 10 weeks before the GOP caucuses here, no single candidate has won the devotion of the evangelicals, who boosted evangelical Christian Mike Huckabee to a win in the caucuses four years ago
Iowa’s Christian conservatives have earned a reputation for a fixation on social issues, partly because voters last fall ousted three Iowa Supreme Court justices who helped legalize same-sex marriage here.
But several members of the audience at the barn-like Knapp Center at the Iowa State Fairgrounds said the economy trumps marriage and abortion issues right now.
Ross Douthat on the inevitable Romney:
To date, neither the establishment nor the populists have come to terms with the failures of the last age of Republican dominance. And despite occasional flashes of creativity, neither has groped its way to a credible vision of what the next conservative era should look like.
What they have to offer instead is a largely opportunistic critique of a flailing liberal president. So it’s fitting that America’s most opportunistic politician is destined to be the standard-bearer for their cause.
What I love about this is the CW that Bush was a failure, but an absence of insight about it
at the time, when it would have been helpful for the country.
Paul Krugman:
If it weren’t so tragic, the current European crisis would be funny, in a gallows-humor sort of way. For as one rescue plan after another falls flat, Europe’s Very Serious People — who are, if such a thing is possible, even more pompous and self-regarding than their American counterparts — just keep looking more and more ridiculous.
Robert J Samuelson gives a fantastic example of why no one listens to him. Bush's tax cuts helped cause the deficit therefore it's Clinton's fault. Why? Because he refused to cut Social Security, which is not responsible for the deficit. Columnists exhibiting blatant ignorance on the subject matter they're supposed to be experts on? Check.