Bad News is a collection of essays edited by our guest today, Anya Schiffrin. It features chapters by Ms. Schiffrin, as well as by Nobel Laureate Joe Stiglitz, Columbia Journalism Review’s Dean Starkman, HuffPo Business Editor Peter Goodman, and others in the field from both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

The book examines the financial press’s version of the Veal Pen, or what Stiglitz calls “cognitive capture.” Just like the political reporters inside the Beltway have become slaves to access, Financial and economic journalists are just as dependent on their sources in industry and government for information and feel the need to keep those sources happy to avoid being cut off from the information flow that is the lifeblood of their production model.

Once upon a time, a new Republican governor arrived in Madison, Wisconsin. The state was in debt, and their cash on hand was poor. The answer? For Robert La Follette in 1900, it was simple: raise taxes.

Fast forward about 100 years, and you get a very different answer from a very different Republican governor.

La Follette’s policies solved the budget crisis of his day and vastly improved the state and the lives of its citizen. But I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for Walker to learn that lesson and follow his example.

Tim Geithner has changed his tune somewhat, backing a bill that would clarify the Treasury’s right to allow Hardest Hit Fund grant money to be used for foreclosure legal aid, but it’s unclear whether there’s enough time in the end of the legislative session to get this done.

More and more Americans are waking up to the fact that with a few notable exceptions, both Republicans and Democrats in Washington are basically employees of corporate lobbyists. How do we fight the corporate beast?

The United States used to have antitrust laws to break up the bigs before they got too big. But during the Bush administration, Bigness was Better. AIG, Goldman-Sachs, JP Morgan Chase had to be bailed out with billions of taxpayer dollars. But there’s bigness elsewhere, too.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has been called a lot of names. Here’s another one for him: cheater.

It’s not surprising Steele and the Republicans are embarrassed about their party. But Steele has hit a new low (insert Munch’s “Scream” here): He’s set up an RNC fundraising page on Facebook made to look like it’s the United Steelworkers union.

Over at Washington Monthly, the editors asked a few Famous Names to describe the book they think President Obama should read. But they did not ask the rest of us.

So I’d like to submit a suggestion. In fact, I’ll go easy on the new president and offer up a report rather than an entire book.