Making a mess that can't be cleaned up?

Just my feeling about the downward spiral of American politics these days. Sigh.

• Lessons of the Crisis -- The debt-ceiling debacle revealed that politics is broken in every possible way and there's no point in explaining complicated matters to the American people. (author's subtitle)


• On Rules and Norms: Four Reasons to Regret This Moment -- once somebody has tried "things that just aren't done" and succeeded, is there any going back to rational discourse?

Every economic study seems to indicate that the economy needs more stimulus, but our idiot leaders are going with austerity instead, and I fear that Ireland and Greece are our future. Hard to know what to do with one's own savings and future planning in that light, let alone how to steel oneself for the wider national suffering to come...