As consternation sweeps the ranks of Dems in the wake of Wisconsin, and as a back and forth rages on these pages over the prospect of Obama's next campaign, a subtext that may bear some examination is the appropriate frame within which to view the voters who pull a lever adjoining the letter "R"

I should at the outset, for purposes of candor, state the premise I bring to this question.

It seems to me that if you have an annual income below $250k you are a deluded moron to vote Repugnant.

DISCLAIMER: Casting about during a cash short period, I volunteered ($450) to have a PET scan as a control for an experiment involving serotonin receptor efficiency as it varies with depressive susceptibility.  Turns out that I am pathologically optimistic (150% of normal number of receptors).

I share this bit of personal data so you will know that my analyses are profoundly tainted by the same sort of strategic defects that led Napoleon to invade Russia and Alexander to try and conquer Afghanistan.

Signaling the accelerating skid of the evil empire (that would be us...), the big kahuna of bond managers is getting out of dollars and into four different currencies.

It will not surprise that hard upon the heels of  Incurious George's Excellent Mideast Adventure, the suicidal lemming rush of the  Teabaggers and their Repugnant allies is making what was once a reserve currency par excellence something of a faded glory.