Hurting GM hurts unions. Hurting Wall Street doesn't. Wall Street will continue to be handled with silk gloves as they loot the treasury for the greater good.

The right is wrong and the left is right. The right is wrong about Obama. He is not leading us down the path to socialism. If he was, he would support some socialist things. Such as single payer health care, or the employer free choice act. Both of those things Obama refuses to stand up for. Those are real social democrat policies and Obama only supported them just enough for democrats to vote for him. However, Obama has handled every Wall Street fat cat with the softest of silk gloves, letting them negotiate the terms of their own bailouts and requiring no "changing of the rules after the fact" that might jeopardize their private gains. The left is factually correct in its charges against Obama only looking out for Wall Street, while the right is incorrect in charging that Obama is looking out for the working man.

"He should have humility" "This is just letting technocrats run things instead of elites" Those are garbage criticisms. Technocrats should run things instead of elites. Technocrats are trained to deal with systemic risk. Technocrats will manage our system not with their own interests in mind, but with the system's since technocrats are essentially government employees. And humility is irrelevant to the issue at hand. Who cares if the technocrats are jerks? As long as they fix the financial system no one cares.

SJ was head of the IMF during 2007-2008. In Leonard's own article he points out that the IMF has softened its stance. This means that SJ was almost certainly involved in that softening process as president of the IMF. That the IMF was once an engine of evil does not mean that it was an engine of evil while SJ ran it.

Man I hope he gets back into the game. And he just happens to have been the guy closest to blowing open the AIG fiasco before it happened.

Just noticing a trend on this blog. Every post needs a critics from the left, critic from the right comparison that doesn't measure the merits of either criticism, and dismisses them both as equally silly.

So the governor dates multiple women at the same time. So what. Isn't that the point of climbing the political ladder and gaining power? In more civilized countries executive mistresses are tolerated and expected. Look at the standards that Wall Street is held to. Everyone knows about the high prices call girl industry. Remember Spitzer? Why is it a travesty when public servants engage in what private actors do on a regular basis? Men of success and power date multiple women at the same time. It has been that way since the dawn of humanity. Can we please get over this.

If you are dating a mafia boss, pimp, strip club owner, investment banker, politician, or high powered executive, that man will use his power to get multiple women at the same time. Powerful men get lots of women. That is the point of power.

I am glad Keith has come around. I can start watching him again.

Summers is standing in the way of policy actions that will actually work. See Elizabeth Warren and the CBO oversight report:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bRerUGAOAw&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.calculatedriskblog.com%2F&feature=player_embedded

Voting for womanizers is not a new thing. Even voting for whore mongers. Here is a list of Presidents and elected executive that were womanizers and were voted into office multiple times:

FDR, long time affair with someone that wasn't Elizabeth.

JFK.

Clinton.

LA Mayor Villiagrosa.

The SF major, Gavin Newsom.

NY Governor Patterson.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Senator David Vitter.

This list is not exhaustive.

So ... why all the hate on Spitzer? Polygamous men are popular and electable. If women really didn't like polygamous men, they would stop sleeping with them.

Why work when you receive welfare for keeping your income low? Why lend when you receive bailouts for keeping your lending low?

Man, is there anything this guy can't screw up? Project for a new American century, Iraq war intelligence, Iraq war planning, GITMO planning, and then after his firing he goes on to nearly destroy the world bank! Remarkable. How can one man be so wrong so many times yet still get hired. If I screwed up in world of warcraft 1/10th as much as this guy screws up foreign policy, I would get kicked from my guild and never get loot again. Wolfowitz though, no error is too large.

Yes yes, this is excellent news. Let Obama see the hungry and homeless Chrysler employees. Yes.... this will teach him. Teach him that Summers is not on the side of the hungry and the homeless just looking to work. Obama has been protecting Wall Street from the masses for too long. Now that Obama see what their true interests are, Obama might actually take a stand and throw off Summer WyrmTongue.

Obama has now signaled that those responsible for the financial crisis will be made to LOSE MONEY on the financial crisis. This is everything. Until those who caused the calamity take their losses, there will be no adjusting of prices and values to their proper levels. The recovery starts now.

They had a trial. They might have had real evidence. If there were lawyers, judge, and jury ... I am inclined to believe in the results of judicial process. Spy trials are always kind of dubious since they involve the patriotism issue, but I think it is plausible that she was a spy. I would like to have seen the evidence.

Thx for having an NC piece on Salon. Where did all these Noam haters come from? I don't recognize them from other threads.