Remember all that talk about how the unemployment rate fell by .1 percent last month and this proved, definitively, that happy days were here again? Remember all the sailors kissing ladies in the streets, and the wonderful ticker-tape parades? Well, everything has gone back to being terrible, according to New Statistics. MORE »

Well, here is some depressing news! The hot new housing sector in the US isn’t houses at all: it’s shacks. That’s because the kind of people who used to be your next-door neighbor if you lived in a sort of marginal neighborhood in a largeish city are now squatters living under bridges in Fresno. Hell, maybe you’re one of them. MORE »

Hey hobos! If you are looking for some Golden Ameros to replace your lost I-banking wages, or your lost 401(k), or your lost home, look no farther than your local pawn shop! They can give you all the money that the banks can’t, now that the banks don’t have any money. MORE »

Hmm so yes, this is what it’s come to: our national financial crisis was predicted by a comic book movie about a villain with a lumpy white sliced-up face. This mashup of George Bush’s sad address from last night and Heath Ledger’s bravura performance as an insane person with drymouth is dreadfully offensive to the beautiful legacy of The Joker, who would have suspended the filming of his movie in order to tend to the nation’s business in Washington DC. Also why isn’t Sarah Palin running around in a neoprene cat suit listing the regulatory accomplishments of her running mate? Fail. [YouTube]

The Democratic presidential candidate constantly condescends to Ordinary Americans by saying, “you’re smarter than Washington gives you credit for,” and “I have great faith in the intelligence of the American people,” and by asking voters to “read” and “think about” things. OH SNOOZE. Well, here is his latest bit of elitist propaganda: two minutes talking into a camera about how everybody’s poor but he has a Plan to fix it. This ad would have improved by at least 50 percent if he had worn a bear suit, talked to a parrot, or been “disrespectful” to whatserface, the one with the snow shoes. ["Plan for Change" ad via Mike Allen]