NewsJunk.com
It's about the news of politics. We're not going for the cream of the crop, we're not distillers, we're wholesalers, a proprietor of bulk news. The river floweth here. Don't blink you might miss a scandal. It's called NewsJunk cause it's for junkies, not mere users. :-)

• [Paul Krugman]: Bubble blindness
  The big mystery is the failure to see the housing bubble. The data screamed "bubble," even in real time. And there was no excuse for believing that such things don't happen in efficient markets, not with the dead body of the dot-com bubble still warm.
• [Star-Tribune]: With most ballot challenges settled, Franken leads by 48
  With most ballot challenges settled, Democrat Al Franken holds a 48-vote lead over Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in the U.S. Senate recount, according to a Star Tribune analysis of a draft report from the Secretary of State's office.
• [Krugman]: Life Without Bubbles
  It may take a lot longer than many people think before the U.S. economy is ready to live without bubbles. And until then, the economy is going to need a lot of government help.
• [Reuters]: Toyota sees first oper loss, "unprecedented" crisis
  Toyota Motor Corp forecast a first-ever annual operating loss, blaming a relentless sales slide and a crippling rise in the yen in what it said was an emergency unprecedented in its 70-year history.
• [Reuters]: Gasoline prices fall to lowest since February 2004
  The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States fell 5 percent from two weeks earlier, hitting its lowest level since February 2004, according to the nationwide Lundberg survey released on Sunday.
• [Reuters]: Gasoline prices fall to lowest since February 2004
  The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the United States fell 5 percent from two weeks earlier, hitting its lowest level since February 2004, according to the nationwide Lundberg survey released on Sunday.
• [Reuters]: California in fiscal emergency, governor eyes layoffs
  California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency on Friday to call lawmakers into another special session to tackle the state's weakening finances, and separately ordered state officials to prepare to furlough and lay off employees to cut costs.
• [Frank Rich]: Who Wants to Kick a Millionaire?
  There are more black boxes still to be pried open, whether at private outfits like Madoff’s or at publicly traded companies like General Electric, parent of the opaque GE Capital Corporation, the financial services unit that has been the single biggest contributor to the G.E. bottom line in recent years. But have we yet learned anything? Incredibly enough, as we careen into 2009, the very government operation tasked with repairing the damage caused by Wall Street’s black boxes is itself a black box of secrecy and impenetrability.
• [The Economist]: Lexington: Jumping the gun
  Mr Obama repeatedly insists that America only has "one president at a time". But since election day that "one president" seems to have been the junior senator from Illinois rather than the former governor of Texas.
• [Reuters]: Up to 30,000 new U.S. troops in Afghanistan by summer
  The United States is aiming to send 20,000 to 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan by the beginning of next summer, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Saturday.
• [CNN]: Obama increases new jobs goal to 3 million
  President-elect Barack Obama has decided to increase his goal for creating new jobs after receiving economic forecasts that suggest the economy is in worse shape than had been predicted, two Democratic officials told CNN.
• [NYT]: A Scheme With No Off Button
  Mathematically speaking, Ponzi schemes are doomed. So, what's the exit strategy?
• [USA Today]: Pastor Warren defends invite to inauguration
  Rick Warren, one of the nation's most influential evangelical pastors, is defending President-elect Barack Obama's invitation.
• [WSJ]: Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits
  After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy.
• [Political Animal]: The Party of Herbert Hoover
  On Wednesday, Dick Cheney met with Senate Republicans and emphasized the importance of keeping the American automotive industry afloat. "If we don't do this, we will be known as the party of Herbert Hoover forever," the vice president said. The Neo-Hooverite caucus apparently seems willing to wear the label with pride.
• [Brad Setser]: Global trade is shrinking, fast
  China's November trade data (a 2.2% year over year fall in exports; a 17.9% year over year fall in imports) suggests that global trade is contracting quite rapidly. And since trade accounts for a rising share of global activity, it suggests that the global economy has stalled -- and perhaps is contracting.
• [Reuters]: Krugman's worst case: a lost decade
  "A scenario I fear is that we'll see, for the whole world, an equivalent of Japan's lost decade, the 1990s -- that we'll see a world of zero interest rates, deflation, no sign of recovery, and it will just go on for a very extended period."
• [FT Alphaville]: MS cuts global growth forecast, again
  The Morgan Stanley global economics team is bearish on the global growth. Today the team cuts its outlook for the sixth time in seven months, and pretty sharply -- to 0.9 per cent from 1.7 per cent. Global inflation meanwhile is seen coming down to 1.7 per cent from 3.8 per cent.
• [Bloomberg]: Treasury Bills Trade at Negative Rates as Haven Demand Surges
  The Treasury sold $27 billion of three-month bills yesterday at a discount rate of 0.005 percent, the lowest since it starting auctioning the securities in 1929. The U.S. also sold $30 billion of four-week bills today at zero percent for the first time since it began selling the debt in 2001.
• [Wordyard ]: Carr diagnoses the economy: How irrational are we?
  What does it take to feel that a recession is real? Carr, like Noonan, seems to be waiting for the appearance of Hoovervilles. There are millions of lost jobs, and many more whom the labor statisticians miss whose hours have been cut back involuntarily.
• [Calculated Risk]: Credit Suisse Forecast: 8.1 million foreclosures by 2012
  In a research note titled "Foreclosure Update: over 8 million foreclosures expected" updated last week, Credit Suisse analysts are now forecasting 8.1 million homes will be in foreclosure by the end of 2012, representing 16% of all households with mortgages.
• [IHT]: Times Co. to borrow against building
  The New York Times Company plans to borrow up to $225 million against its mid-Manhattan headquarters building, to ease a potential cash flow squeeze as the company grapples with tighter credit and shrinking profits.
• [NYT]: Deeply in Debt, Tribune Co. Could Be Flirting With Bankruptcy
  The Tribune Company, the newspaper chain that owns The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times, is trying to negotiate new terms with its creditors and has hired advisers for a possible bankruptcy filing, according to people briefed on the matter.
• [NYT]: In Factory Sit-In, an Anger Spread Wide
  Workers who were laid off Friday are occupying a Chicago plant, arguing that the government's bailout plans leave out regular workers.
• [AP]: Krugman: US auto industry will probably disappear
  "It will do so because of the geographical forces that me and my colleagues have discussed," the Princeton University professor and New York Times columnist told reporters in Stockholm. "It is no longer sustained by the current economy."
• [NYT]: Democrats Agree to Push Auto Bailout Plan
  Faced with staggering new unemployment figures, Democratic Congressional leaders said on Friday that they were ready to provide a short-term rescue plan for the cash-strapped American automakers, and expected to hold votes on the legislation during a special session next week.
• [Vanity Fair]: Profiles in Panic
  With Wall Street hemorrhaging jobs and assets, even many of the wealthiest players are retrenching.
• [Mankiw]: Deflation Alert
  I think it is time for the Fed to consider in earnest taking up some form of inflation targeting. (Or, bet