With the economic collapse last year, many mainstream voices suddenly started to talk about alternatives to capitalism. The economy seems to be stabilizing a bit, but as we’ve discussed many times, people are still suffering and jobless. Yet Citigroup is getting more tax breaks, and Ben Bernanke is Time’s Man of the Year.

Can capitalism be saved, and is it worth saving? We’re thinking big this Wednesday with Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute and Max Fraad Wolff of the New School.

Back in May, Marcy Wheeler met with Chris Dodd and I asked him if he knew, as Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which banks the Fed was lending to. He said he’d find out and get back to me. He finally did. He asks the Fed why he shouldn’t know these things, and then sent me their response. The letter is below the fold.

The sole defense of this massive corporate giveaway, formally known as the Senate health care reform bill, is that it would still do some “good,” helping millions of the uninsured. Unfortunately, the bill would dramatically worsen the quality of current insurance coverage for tens of millions Americans, thanks to the new excise tax on insurance plans. It is unlikely that any of the remaining “good” in this bill will outweigh the massive amount of harm.

Sam Stein reports White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs suggested that the President has been as insistent that Joe Lieberman make concessions for the team as he’s been with liberals. Huh.

A brief look at the news on the morning of Wednesday, December 16th, 2009.

Richard Cohen is a smooth operator.

Bituin Escalante and Lana Jalosjos – Merry Christmas Baby. What’s on your mind?

A new study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reveals that Democrats are more likely than Republican to have experienced communication with the dead, visiting fortune tellers, or seeing ghosts.

The real monsters aren’t the mashed-up creature we’ve seen cobbled before our eyes over the last year.

Lieberman, as the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein put it, “seems primarily motivated by torturing liberals.”