Tim Bond of Barclays Capital: "This is the first test for central banks in 30 years and they have fluffed it. They have zero credibility, and the Fed is negative if that's possible. It has lost all credibility."

Lowering standards isn't enough: Last year the U.S. Army appointed its first Chief Marketing Officer, and is planning to open an entertainment-focused arcade-style recruiting center later this year.

Did you observe Kelo Day Monday? Wondering what Kelo Day commemorates?
On June 23, 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that your home is only securely yours as long as the government doesn't find it profitable to take it from you and give it to someone richer. Yep.

The $100 Distraction Device: Why giving poor kids laptops doesn't improve their scholastic performance.

Depave.org has one simple mission: Remove unnecessary concrete and asphalt from urban areas.

Everything's fine! Go shopping!

Remember when so many people wanted to run away to Canada after the 04 election? I always wondered if those people followed Canadian politics - things like this (sent to me by a Canadian friend).

An excellent recent article in the Economist on the transformation of American suburbs. Some excerpts:

In 1960 fewer Americans lived in suburbs than in central cities or the countryside. Ten years later the suburbs had overhauled both; by 2000 they contained more people than the cities and countryside put together.

...the white population of big-city suburbs grew by 7% between 2000 and 2006. In the same period the suburban Asian population grew by 16%, the black population by 24% and the Hispanic population by an astonishing 60%.

As the suburbs become more mixed, some inner-city areas are turning less so. Los Angeles ... and New York ... both added whites and lost blacks between 2000 and 2006.

...the Brookings Institution ... calculates that 45% of the jobs in America's 100 biggest metropolitan areas are found more than ten miles from the downtown core.

The popularity of such confections [outdoor lifestyle retail centers] suggests that Americans want to spend time in places that look like cities but feel like suburbs. They hint at a broader pattern: cities and suburbs are converging.

Since 2001 the number of violent crimes in suburban areas has risen by 10%, according to the FBI. ... it is a poor record compared with America's big cities, which have cut violent crime by 17%.

A secret element slipped into the farm bill makes it even more difficult to discover just how wasteful the Farm Bill actually is. Details...