*Obama: "Sometimes I forget" the extent of the recession.
*Bernanke: Hey Dems, do something already!
*The national average price for a gallon of unleaded has dropped slowly - around 20 cents off a gallon of unleaded in the last month. More declines are expected.
On Twitter David Axelrod asks: “Gas prices have been going down for the past six weeks. You think the GOP will blame the President?”
Good question. Or, someone might wonder: will the President blame, er, credit those reprehensible oil speculators
*Bad news for Republicans: Former Bill Clinton advisor Dick Morris, whose projection average hovers around the Mendoza Line, foresees presidential hopeful Mitt Romney winning in a landslide.
*JPMorgan Chase lost $2 billion due to some reckless trading of synthetic credit securities. Chief executive Jamie Dimon blamed “errors, sloppiness and bad judgment.” JPMorgan Chase earned $19 billion last year so this won't sink them. And, as one might expect, many folks immediately blamed the lack of regulation for the loss – because, apparently, some people believe the market should be risk free. And actual, isn’t this a great argument not to layer the industry with more regulatory burden? (Unless, of course, there was something illegal going on.) Sloppiness and bad judgment should cost you money.
Rhetorical question: Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone got similarly worked up when government wastes billions on sloppiness and bad judgment?
*Mark Zandi, the Democrats favorite economic soothsayer, sees better job performance than the 115,000 initially estimated by the Labor Department for April. Though he says,“The unemployment rate is likely to remain at 8.1 percent.”
