News You Can Chew On: Economic Edition

Photo by RichSeattle, used with permission

If thinking about your credit card bill makes your head hurt, you should probably read a few of these articles. Right now. Or else they'll get 20% longer by next month.

Frank Rich shares his thoughts on John McCain's economic incoherence, declaring that "The McCain-Gramm bond, dating back 15 years, is more scandalous than Mr. Obama’s connection with his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright." In the midst of a crisis, do we want someone who can lead us out of it, or someone who doesn't know how we got in (or doesn't even think we're in crisis mode)?

Americans in debt share their stories with the New York Times. Most of the debt stories are rooted in health problems, poor credit card usage (always pay it off!), lack of savings, sketchy refinancing deals, a short-term economic outlook, or combinations thereof. The debt stories are laden with worrisome statements like "She stopped paying her credit cards so that she could afford her mortgage," and "even though her credit profile is ruined, she still receives [credit card] come-ons." The Times also reveals that the credit card industry is even richer than we'd thought, and getting more so: "since 2005, when the bankruptcy law was changed, the credit card industry has increased its earnings 25 percent, according to a new study by Michael Simkovic, a former James M. Olin fellow in Law and Economics at Harvard Law School." Well, now we know what industry to enter if we want to pay off our debt.

Reversing the trend of focusing on big business, the Boston Review examines small businesses and how the National Federation of Independent Businesses may not actually be serving its members' interests.

Maybe we could all save a little money by ignoring our lawns. Assuming we have lawns.

Jonathan Chait dares to raise questions about Naomi Klein's new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, even suggesting that maybe it's not so bad to learn from and improve after tragedies (New Deal, anyone?), and that not every conflict has economic roots. He also brings up the sticky point that Milton Friedman--whose economic theories Klein blames for the Iraq War--was opposed to the attack.

On a related note, Pope Benedict criticized materialism today. There are a lot of Catholic viewpoints we don't endorse, but in light of the debt crisis we might be getting down with this one.