Bush defies belief
President preaches to converted while Fed grapples with the real problems

The world's largest Baptist university was both an appropriate and unfortunate location for the Bush administration to pick for this week's summit on the US economy. To his detractors, the choice of Baylor University in Waco, Texas - half an hour's drive from President Bush's Crawford ranch - reinforces the image of a president too lazy to stray far from his holiday home even for a serious issue such as the economic situation. [read more]

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Clueless in Crawford

Today, in its Waco economic forum, the Bush administration will try to convince the country that everything is under control — that the economy is mending, that "shady" business practices are no longer a problem. To that end a carefully chosen audience will listen to speeches by administration officials and selected models of corporate probity. Among the speakers announced last week was John T. Chambers, C.E.O. of Cisco Systems.

They really don't get it, do they? One could hardly have picked a better example of what's wrong with the administration's whole approach. [read more]

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Confidence Men
Why the myth of Republican competence persists, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

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The Fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper

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Alarm bells ringing over US life insurers

Alarm bells are starting to ring over the creditworthiness of US life insurers as the extent of their exposure to many troubled companies becomes clear. [read more]