Congratulations to the 35,000 doomed people who filed new unemployment claims last week — thanks to you unlucky folks, January job losses hit 626,000, the highest unemployment numbers since the Ronald Reagan Recession/Depression of 1982. That was a fun catastrophe. Why doesn’t anyone ever talk about Reagan’s Depression? MORE »

If you’re freaked out over oil topping $90 a barrel for the first time in history, maybe this will add some depressing historical perspective: Oil topped $100 per barrel at another grim point in U.S. history when George Bush was first running for president and America’s imperial troubles in Iran and Iraq threatened our precious oil supply from the Persian Gulf — in 1980! MORE »