Somewhere this morning, tax cheat bazillionaires are clenching: The Justice Department charged that over several years UBS provided Swiss bank accounts to approximately 20,000 U.S. clients with assets of about $20 billion. About 17,000 of those clients concealed their identities and the existence of their UBS accounts from the IRS, the Justice Department alleged….

Recession and Depression have vague meanings in economics. Economists can’t define them even though our lives depend on it. It’s time we did something about that.

Ezra Klein responds to my post on Peter Orszag, addresing a quote from Ben Stein’s Politico interview with Orszag this morning:

Orszag’s long-running project – something that has made him the Left’s favorite Cabinet member – has been replacing talk of an “entitlement crisis” with his argument that Social Security requires only modest tax hikes and benefit cuts, while Medicare and Medicaid have much more dramatic fiscal woes.

A horrible, no-good deal has been struck to pass California’s budget Thursday morning. Here’s what it looks like.

Behold, the winner of the World Press Photo of the Year 2008 award.

For those outside the United States, this is the image of our nation:

U.S. Economy in Crisis: Following eviction, Detective Robert Kole must ensure residents have moved out of their home in Cleveland, Ohio, 26 March 2008.

In light of Motion Picture Television Fund’s annual $10 million deficit–which has resulted in the closure of their extended care facility and acute care hospital, displacing 100 elderly residents, and the laying off of 240 employees–the seventh annual Night Before party at the Beverly Hills Hotel benefitting the MPTF is cutting out the gift bags.

The fund’s chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg who hosts the pre-Oscar party which has raised approximately $6 million a year said when the closures and firings were announced:

MPTF is initiating these changes because it’s the right thing to do, but the fact is that we have no choice.

I’m sure he feels the same wya about the gift bags.

In what Calculated Risk notes may be the “rant of the year,”
CNBC’s Rick Santelli calls ordinary Americans who face losing their homes to foreclosure “losers” who don’t deserve government help. Note the approving cheers from both the traders and the CNBC hosts/commenters.

Gen. David McKiernan, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, spoke to the Pentagon press corps yesterday and gave some indications of the state of his thinking on the war.

Someone. Anyone. Please make him stop.

As reported yesterday, the Blue Dog dream of having a Gregg-Conrad task force to make recommendations on Social Security and other “entitlement” reforms that would be subject to an up-or-down vote of Congress will not be forthcoming any time soon. Contrary to what the Wall Street Journal said Obama told the Blue Dogs, plans to create such a task force will not be pursued after the February 23 “fiscal responsibility” conference.