Madam, DOOM has arrived to escort you to the ball.

Lots of debt-ceiling stuff broke over the weekend. I'll put a placeholder story here that covers the basics. Like many of you, I am tired of this whole ridiculous exercise. We, as a nation, just went through a wrenching two weeks to eke out a bill that barely changes the status quo -- our debt goes up, our spending goes up, and most of the "cuts" are imaginary.

Still, if the compromise bill is passed by both houses and gets signed by the President (still not a sure bet), it will represent a small tactical victory by the GOP. A political victory, to be sure, not a fiscal one. But we must take what ground we can ahead of the elections next year. Every inch of ground we take now is one inch we won't have to take later.

Some additional debt-ceiling links:

• The President's "over the cliff" moment.
• The GOP wins the rhetorical battle over cuts rather than taxes.
• You can almost feel the spittle hitting your face in this NYT screed. (This is the best evidence that the GOP won significant concessions, by the way. You don't win when you think you've won; you win when the enemy thinks you won.)
• Ding dong, the Keynesian witch is dead.
• Don't forget: the Hobbits prevailed in Lord of the Rings.
• Will the debt-ceiling fight lead to the end of Harry Reid as we know him?

It turns out that American cities aren't the only ones who are over-borrowing. Chinese cities are also loading up on debt.

The myth of the "jobless recovery". Jobless, yes. Recovery? Not so much.

Atlas has shrugged in Detroit.

Stocks: the asset class of low expectations.

Hard times may get harder still. These are the wages of depending on the "And then a miracle happens!" theory of economic recovery -- when the miracle fails to happen, there is no plan B.

UPDATE 1: Teh Krugman doesn't love Obama any more. Also, it's apparently the End of Days. I expect to see Krugs running around Times Square later on today, wearing a sandwich-board that says THE END IS NIGH, ringing a bell, and hollering, "Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!"

UPDATE 2: America is merely wounded, Europe risks death. It's bad here, but it's much worse over there. Pull quote:

We can only pray that at least one half of the Atlantic system holds relatively firm. If both go down together, buy a shotgun and prepare for 1932.

UPDATE 3: Greg Mankiw (a fairly conservative guy and a good economist) -- "I do not come here to bury Teh Bernank, but to praise him." Needless to say, I disagree with Mankiw's reasoning...but it's important to realize that there is a positive case to be made for Bernanke's actions.

UPDATE 4: Debt Deal or Not, Confidence in America Is Shredded. Via Insty, who dryly notes, "Well, we have the worst political class we’ve ever had, with the possible exception of the 1850s."

UPDATE 5: Er, about that debt-ceiling deal that won't raise taxes? Well...it might raise taxes.

posted by Monty at 09:02 AM

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