Are homeowners really skipping out on their mortgages to spend at the mall?

The case is now famous. The homeowner had applied for the Home Affordable Mortgage Program, or HAMP, an Obama administration initiative to give distressed and tapped-out borrowers lower monthly payments. But this “HAMPlicant,” the writer on the blog Calculated Risk noted, had given up on a $1,880 a month mortgage and spent hundreds of dollars instead at a spa, tanning salon, gourmet grocery store and liquor store, capping it all off with $1,700 in charges to mall stores from Baby Gap to Best Buy. She’s what bloggers are calling a “foreclosure queen.”

Washington versus Wall Street: A citizens’ guide to the regulation debate

WASHINGTON– Monday evening, Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted against Sen. Chris Dodd’s American Financial Stability Act, which seeks to reform regulation of the financial sector. It was only one round. There are many to come. Democrats only need one crossover to move the bill forward and the GOP line on the bill has already evolved, as Republican spin artist Frank Luntz’s “bank bailout” false talking point has failed to winover Americans, who overwhelmingly back reform. Bonus-loving Goldman Sachs has run out of sympathy on struggling Main Street.

Deficit lower than White House projections

Unnamed administration officials quoted by David Cho of The Washington Post say the federal deficit is lower than the White House’s initial projections. The budget gap for the first six months of the year is 8 percent lower than…

Greenspan to Crisis Commission: Finance too complicated to regulate

In some sense, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is a lame duck. Headed by Phil Angelides and created in May 2009, the FCIC is not due to file its final report until December. Financial reform legislation will likely come up…

Court rules against ‘net neutrality’

A federal appeals courts dealt a blow to net-neutrality Tuesday, ruling that the Federal Communications Commission can’t force Comcast and other telecommunications companies to treat all Internet traffic equally on their networks.

The ruling strikes at the heart…

Health reform won’t seriously ding corporate profits

As conservatives scream from the rafters about the elimination of a business tax deduction for retiree benefits in the Democrats’ health reform law, The New York Times responds today with a pretty convincing argument for why…

Survey finds racial disparities under anti-foreclosure program

Black homeowners are roughly 50 percent less likely than whites to receive help under the largest of the administration’s anti-foreclosure programs, according to a new survey of qualified families.

Bachmann ‘government takeover’ talking points refuted by CBS

As the Minnesota Independent reports, Tea Party Congresswoman Michele Bachmann appeared on Face the Nation and railed against the “government takeover” of the economy i the past year. CBS sharply criticized Bachmann for the bogus numbers she threw around…

Denver 2022 Winter Games: An insider’s guide to the Olympic debacle

Canada, which will eventually spend more than $6 billion for the recent Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, was the victim of a global golden fleece job.

Government Sachs: Democracy brought to you by Goldman-trained bureaucrats

What do people do at Goldman Sachs all day? They prepare to work at the White House and at the U.S. Treasury Department, that’s what. Even a short list might stun the uninitiated.