Rich Broderick's blog

Rich Broderick • 10/2/08 • Today, the whole elaborate system of easy short-term credit that keeps our version of capitalism afloat is on the verge of a shutdown. And soon.

If that happens, if businesses from auto dealerships to tool-dye manufacturers to dry cleaners cannot order supplies or meet payrolls because the local bank won’t lend the money, the effect on the economy will be akin to driving a car with no oil in it.

by Rich Broderick • 9/27/08 • Maybe it’s the time of year – the cusp of October, the approach of yet another anniversary of the Bolshevik’s 1917 coup d’etat — but Friday night’s surreal “debate” between Barack Obama and John McCain reminded me of A People’s Tragedy, The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924, Orlando Figes’s magisterial history of Russia’s epic revolutionary era.

by Rich Broderick, September 16, 2008 • Ever have one of those moments when you are just dozing off and you dream that you are coming down a stairway and step into – empty space?

Something like that sensation is afflicting the investment community and is now rapidly spreading throughout the banking system. Only it’s not empty space they’re stepping into, but the nightmarish prospect of something economists call “debt deflation.”

by Rich Broderick • 9/11/08 • If there were any lingering doubts about whether the mainstream press, with a decreasing number of honorable exceptions, has ceased to operate as an independent source of news and information, you need look no further than the shameless “embedding” of journalists with the police during the Republican National Convention.

Rich Broderick, September 4, 2008 • The word “glamour” entered the language by way of sorcery – originally it meant a method of casting a spell in which a witch or wizard bedazzled a victim by taking on the appearance of great physical beauty and accompanying sexual allure. In other words, a form of shape-shifting. Glamour was considered particularly effective for ensnaring people of the upper ranks of society – those who, it might be said, thought of themselves as “glamorous” in the modern sense of the term.

by Rich Broderick • September 1, 2008 • The conversation started off on a positive note. More than positive. I shook the Mayor’s hand and commended the St. Paul Police Department for its low profile during the weekend’s worth of patently unconstitutional raids around St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“I know John Harrington slightly,” I pointed out, “and he doesn’t seem to be the kind of law enforcement official who engages in breaking the law.”