Below the fold of this open thread: A little bit of funny on political hostages and bipartisanship:

Hat tip to Naked Capitalism for the link to The Animal Spirit, and to Emmanuel Saez for the chart.

I've posted this chart because provides a useful point of reference to an interesting debate between two progressive economists,  Paul Krugman and William Greider.

The issue is whether the economic crisis we are facing right now should be laid at the doorstep of Ronald Regan who signed into law the deregulation of the Thrifts (ie the Savings & Loanl banks) as Krugman says, or whether in fact deregulation has been a bi-partisan policy beginning when Jimmy Carter was president and continuing under Bill Clinton.

It is not a moot point of merely historical interest. We can lay  Barack Obama's failure so far, to take on the banks and major financial institutions effectively is traceable to his reliance on the same team of advisors whom Bill Clinton relied upon, a team put into place by Rubin.