For the most part David Brooks’ column is a confused diatribe against the Obama administration’s economic policies with a lecture on moral rectitude thrown in for good measure. He starts by condemning the efforts to stimulate the economy, which he misrepresents. Then it gets worse.

In the New York Times Economists Bowl, I call it Princeton 2, Harvard 0.

Trade associations are leeches and parasites, but it’s the productive workers who get screwed.

For most of us (John McCain excepted), the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, AIG (and others no doubt yet to come), is a clear sign something major has gone wrong with our financial system.

One of the main culprits in this debacle is the deregulation of the financial industry—which happened in large part through the efforts of McCain economic adviser Phil Gramm, who as senator, pushed through legislation allowing institutions to combine commercial banking and investment services.

Quick, let’s all raise our hands: How many of us could live on less than $10 an hour?

That’s a take-home pay of roughly $300 a week. Most one-bedroom apartments cost at least $1,000 a month. Ooops. There goes nearly the entire salary in one rent check.

So how do the nearly 33 million U.S. workers who make less than $10 an hour survive?

Good news. Just found out author Jared Bernstein can join us for a short time. Help me welcome Jared, a progressive economist at the Economic Policy Institute here in Washington, D.C. Jared can discuss anything from “guns vs. butter,” to “how the capitalists killed capitalism”—and make it understandable.

Economics is scary.

Back in January 2001, in an article presciently titled: “Bush: ‘Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity is Finally Over,’ ” The Onion satirized the list of horrors on our horizon following the installation of the Bush regime. Here’s what The Onion had to say about Bush and America’s economy: