• Considering the issue of sustainably of Social Security and Medicare:  how greedy are those (us) Baby Boomers?
• Addressing a common misconception on the auto bailout:  share prices go up and down with lots of things—but absent the bailouts there wouldn’t be a GM share price.
• Principal reduction and the FHFA:  Their own findings support principal reduction to help underwater homeowners, yet FHFA head Ed DeMarco continues to stonewall.
• Catching up on the fiscal cliff:  I consider the fiscal cliff a disaster — but I consider the full can kick that Rs are pushing for an even worse disaster, with dire long-term consequences.
• The July jobs report:  delivering some first impressions and delving into a bit more detail about payroll change vs. unemployment rate.
• Wading into the world of defense:  yes, automatic cuts ala sequestration are nuts, but what’s the lay of the land here?
• Analyzing the continued weakness in the job market:  a negative feedback loop may be to blame, between weak job growth, weak paychecks, weak consumer spending, weak demand, weak job growth—and you’re back at the start.

Music: Channeling Mozart at the piano on this week’s Friday Musical Interlude.