This is to bring a little levity to those of you filling out income tax forms or extension requests today. Get them postmarked by midnight.

Here's an open thread, where you can rant about taxes or anything else.

The employment crisis is THE crisis of our times. Bob Herbert on the unemployment crisis:

The evidence is stark. More than 44 percent of unemployed Americans have been out of work for six months or longer, the highest rate since World War II. Perhaps more chilling is a new analysis by the Pew Economic Policy Group that found that nearly a quarter of the nation’s 15 million unemployed workers have been jobless for a year or more.

[. . . T]he biggest threat to the health of the economy — corrosive, intractable, demoralizing unemployment — is still with us. And the deficit zealots, growing in strength, would do nothing to counter this scourge. [. . .] The crippling nature of the joblessness that has moved through the society like a devastating virus has gotten neither the attention nor the response that it warrants. [. . .] Whole segments of the U.S. population are being left behind, even as economists are touting modest improvements in some categories of economic data, like the creation of 162,000 jobs in March. Jobless workers who are 55 or older are having a brutal time of it. Thirty percent have been jobless for a year or more.

This truly is the most serious problem we face and official Washington seems not to care. It is the crisis of the Obama Administration and it is not at all clear they are facing up to it.

Speaking for me only

Good news:

The nation's economy posted its largest job gain in three years in March, while the unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent for the third straight month. [. . .] The Labor Department said employers added 162,000 jobs in March, the most since the recession began but below analysts' expectations of 190,000. The total includes 48,000 temporary workers hired for the U.S. Census, also fewer than many economists forecast. Private employers added 123,000 jobs, the most since May 2007.

Sustainability is a question, but this is a good report.

Jed Lewison has a video roundup of Republican refusal to extend a helping hand to the unemployed in the midst of the worst economic times since the Great Depression:

Herbert Hoover lives, and he resides in the GOP.

Speaking for me only

Remember HOLC? Via Atrios, Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) is talking about it again:

If the government could purchase, either by voluntary sale or by eminent domain, distressed mortgages for 30 to 50 cents on the dollar, there would be ample room to reduce the principal to make the mortgage affordable. In other cases, the government could buy the home in exchange for cancelling the mortgage and enter into a long-term lease with the former homeowner.

[. . .] The Obama administration can establish a new HOLC without any additional action by Congress. The Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) legislation already gives the Treasury Department the power to acquire financial assets, specifically mortgages, and Treasury could fund the program with the $75 billion of the TARP appropriation allocated for HAMP.

The time for a new HOLC was last year. But better late than never.

Speaking for me only

It's not just California. Think Progress reports Wellpoint (Blue Cross Blue Shield) is going to impose double-digit rate increases in 11 of the 14 states it does business. In addiition to California, the states are: Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, and Wisconsin.”

The findings are based on a new survey by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Here's a sample:

Colorado: Average rates are expected to increase 19.9 percent in 2010, with increases of up to 24.5 percent for some policyholders.

Indiana: Rates are expected to increase 21 percent in 2010.

[More...]

The new credit card rules go into effect tomorrow. Here's a summary from the Federal Reserve Board about the changes.

It's not all good news for the consumer.

In the end, Congress made banks give up some abusive tactics while allowing them ample time and latitude to dream up new ones.

Bottom line: The new day brings new fees. [More...]

Yesterday, the Fed raised the interest rate banks pay on emergency Fed loans:

Financial markets were sent into a late-day spin after being caught off-guard by the Federal Reserve decision to raise the rate it charges banks for emergency loans. [. . .] The increase in the discount rate is just one of several moves the Fed is taking to reverse its unprecedented easing of monetary policy, but it is perhaps the most visible action taken so far. [. . .] [T]he move was widely seen as a key step in the central bank's move toward raising interest rates more broadly.

Why in heaven's name would the Fed take such an approach? Surely not a rational fear of inflation. Today, new inflation numbers were released - they show DEflation for the first time since 1982:

Ben Nelson:

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) has raised the concern that a shortage in customer demand could render the tax break useless. “There’s a question of whether that puts the cart before the horse,” said Nelson. “If I don’t have enough customers for my product, hiring more people is not going to help and tax credits are not going to be to my advantage.”

True enough Senator Nelson. That is a very compelling reason to shelve the tax cut formula and to increase government spending targetted to increasing aggregate demand. This is why the mindless Republican/Blue Dog approach to stimulus and job creation should be a nonstarter. It is also an explanation of what was flawed in the stimulus bill last year - too much non-stimulative tax cuts, not enough stimulative government spending.

Speaking for me only

Credit "Goldman Fleece" to Mark Kleiman. See also Robert Stein on "The Ponzifying of America."

Goldman Sachs has not only helped or encouraged some European governments to hide a large part of their debts, but it also endeavored to do so for Greece as recently as last November. These actions are fundamentally destabilizing to the global financial system, as they undermine: the eurozone area; all attempts to bring greater transparency to government accounting; and the most basic principles that underlie well-functioning markets. When the data are all lies, the outcomes are all bad – see the subprime mortgage crisis for further detail.

[MORE . . .]

Matt Taibbi's new article in Rolling Stone castigating Obama for his choice of economic advisors and handling of the economy is creating a big buzz. Here's Digby and Kevin Drum. Taibbi ends his extremely long article with:

What's most troubling is that we don't know if Obama has changed, or if the influence of Wall Street is simply a fundamental and ineradicable element of our electoral system. What we do know is that Barack Obama pulled a bait-and-switch on us. If it were any other politician, we wouldn't be surprised. Maybe it's our fault, for thinking he was different.

I don't see why anyone is surprised that Obama is a moderate -- or not progressive on many issues the left cares about most. [More...]

Some good news:

In the strongest employment report since the recession began nearly two years ago, the government said Friday that the nation’s employers had all but stopped shedding jobs in November, taking some of the pressure off of President Obama to come up with a wide-ranging jobs creation program. The Labor Department reported that the United States economy lost 11,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate fell to 10 percent, down from 10.2 percent in October.

I have not had time to dig into the details, but at first blush, this seems like unconditional good news. Let's hope it continues.

Speaking for me only