White House Year in Photos

White House photographer Pete Souza's favorites from this year. Some wonderful frames.

Landslide Harry

I've never really liked Harry Reid ... but maybe that's because I never (like most Americans) really knew anything about him. This Esquire piece is a great background on his life and demeanor.

The North Star President

Obama's press conference last week, announcing his much derived tax-cut deal with republicans ended on a massive note. This Daily Beast article sums it up. Essentially Obama took to task idealists on both sides and made the case for long view ("north star") goals that allow for short term concessions. And - brilliantly - he reminds us that our union was built on compromise .... and that he couldn't have "walked through the front door" at the nation's inception.

I was really moved, even though I thought that he should have made the GOP explicitly and publicly fight for the rich. But he reminded me I'm not President ...

Watch - starting at 26:00 - here.

If Productivity Has Been Rising - Who's Benefiting?

(via Syd O) Check out Charles Hugh Smith's post on Baumol's Disease and productivity. It's a tour de force describing how productivity over the last quarter century has actually increased the debt, rising cost of education and service sector salaries, rising health care costs, corporate profits, and income disparity. Check it out.