Since 2006, Yves Smith has written the blog Naked Capitalism, which for many of us has been an indispensable guide to the meltdown of the financial system. Reading the financial news is often like reading hieroglyphics for laymen, and then there’s the question posed by Dean Starkman — How Could 9,000 Business Reporters Blow It?

One of the most entrenched, deep-seeded delusions among wingnuts is their childish need to believe that “the troops” — meaning the entire US military — hates all Democrats.

I’m having a hard time with this.

As Rep. Alan Grayson said yesterday in his chat, “AIG blew up because it was a casino that dabbled in insurance on the side.” To date they’ve received $173 billion — billion — and we’ve got no idea what they did with it.

Former U.S. Ambassador Charles “Chas” W. Freeman, Jr was considered “the wrong guy” to serve as the country’s top intelligence analyst, ….

The neo-liberal order has undoubtedly failed. But what will replace it? Today on GRITtv DAVID HARVEY, a Distinguished Professor at CUNY and the author of The Limits to Capital and ALEXANDER COCKBURN, co-editor of Counterpunch, on the end (or future) of capitalism.

Yesterday’s Dow rose 5.8 percent, which the NYT breathlessly attributed to Citigroup’s claim to have been profitable for two months running, pushing it’s stock up from $1 to a dizzying $1.49. Meanwhile Geithner’s Guys are letting the world know they deserve all the credit for saving Citi and promising as much as Citi needs.

Today we’ll be having the fabulous Yves Smith of the indispensable Naked Capitalism here to talk transparency at 2pm ET.   Be sure to join us.  (Naked Capitalism — best blog name ever?)

And if you haven’t left your comments for members of Congress about the need for transparency, you can do it here.  We’ll be delivering them early next week and taking a video camera along for the ride, so please give our representatives the gift of your humble opinion.

Yesterday, the National Center on Family Homelessness released a report on the extent of homelessness among America’s children.  The results were stunning: 1 out of every 50 children — around 1.5 million total children — will go to sleep this evening without a home. These tough economic times have been rough on families. But this is a systemic problem not just due to economic collapse, but also a lack of a comprehensive strategy for children and family programs nationwide.

• Awful.
• AIPAC gets a scalp.
• Obama to sign omnibus bill.
• But…but…the markets hate Obama’s policies.
• The missing tax bracket.
• Uh, wah…?
• A cool, interactive immigration map.
• Palin wuz robbed.
• Uh-oh.

Jackie Chan called and said to shut the f**k up