North Korea has reversed themselves on their nuclear program yet again after the US removed the country from their list of state sponsors of terror. However, many Japanese citizens are not happy with the move due to North Korea's abduction of 8 Japanese people approximately 30 years ago.

Liberal economist Paul Krugman has won the Nobel Prize in economics for his analysis of trade patterns. According to the Nobel jury, his analysis brought forth new theories which provide models for globalization and urbanization.

Happy Columbus Day! Hopefully, at least some of our readers get the day off.

This is a new version. I am working on it live. It's not yet finished and I will be finishing it up through Sunday. Please do not hesitate to point out problems or give me suggestions. Also feel free to use the site!

Oh, and the visual style is not set in stone (colors, etc).

ErmfjZ Very good blog.Really looking forward to read more. Really Cool.

Mark Thoma has a a post about the possible corollary between income concentration and bubbles with the idea of one causing the other.

Bubbles – the devastating kind – seem to occur during a period of time when income is becoming increasingly concentrated at the top.

That then raises a question. Do large bubbles cause income to become more concentrated, or does the concentration of income cause the bubbles?

gWEw3F I loved your article post.Really thank you! Keep writing.

Stocks are still down right now with Unemployment claims slightly down, and US govt mulling buying into some of the banks. Massive injections of cash into the overseas banks and markets have pushed their stocks up or even.

Have a nice Thursday!

The Fed lowered the funds rate 50 basis points to 1.5%. This is part of a concentrated global effort to stabilize credit markets. The European Central Bank and the Bank of England followed suit.

ACORN, a voter registration group that targets low-income residents, had its offices raided by the Nevada police on Tuesday. The authorities have noticed a large amount of fraudulent applications coming from ACORN registrars including the entire starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.

Some suggested questions for the townhall forum:

1. For Obama: How does your healthcare plan handle the free rider problem? What specific modernization/efficiency improvements do you see saving costs?
2. For McCain: How do you square your claimed support for alternative energy with your consistent failure to vote to fund it?
3. For Obama: What steps will your administration take to minimize foreclosures? Do you think GSEs like Fannie/Freddie are a mistake?
4. For McCain: Do you still support (partial) privatization of social security, and if so what safeguards would you put in place to limit potential losses?
5. For both: do you agree Americans are ill-served by the negative campaigning taking place? What specific steps will you take to limit it going forward?
Edit: liveblog can be reviewed below the fold, thanks to everyone who participated for a fun debate watch. Factcheck here

Hat tip to Reason Magazine:

The Fed is buying commercial paper in an attempt to inject liquidity into the markets. The second Presidential debate is tonight; we'll have a liveblog, and hopefully coveritlive won't restrict joining this time. The Nobel in physics was awarded for research involving symmetry breaking .

As the campaigning heats up and the charges and accusations and vitriol fly, I'd like to try our best to keep SC an oasis of civility. By all means lets discuss and argue the news of the day, but keep in mind that our fellow posters are here reaching across the partisan divide. Let's not allow the negative campaigning to corrupt our own level of discourse.

(promoted by John)

Crossposted from Source of Title

Leave it to the geniuses in Congress-- they already want to undo the smartest move they've made all year.

As part of The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 , signed into law by President Bush in June, Congress correctly banned all forms of seller-financed downpayment assistance for FHA-insured mortgages:

SEC. 2113. CASH INVESTMENT REQUIREMENT AND PROHIBITION OF SELLER-FUNDED DOWN PAYMENT ASSISTANCE 

•   (A) IN GENERAL- A mortgage insured under this section shall be executed by a mortgagor who shall have paid, in cash or its equivalent, on account of the property an amount equal to not less than 3.5 percent of the appraised value of the property or such larger amount as the Secretary may determine.
• (C) PROHIBITED SOURCES- In no case shall the funds required by subparagraph (A) consist, in whole or in part, of funds provided by any of the following parties before, during, or after closing of the property sale:
  (i) The seller or any other person or entity that financially benefits from the transaction.
  (ii) Any third party or entity that is reimbursed, directly or indirectly, by any of the parties described in clause (i).

This part of the law went into effect October 1st, discontinuing the use of these sham downpayments that have already cost taxpayers $4.6 billion in unexpected losses due to excess defaults on FHA-insured mortgages this year alone, according to HUD Secretary Brian Montgomery.

But to the surprise of approximately nobody, there is already a movement underway in Congress to abolish this common-sense return to a true 3% downpayment requirement for FHA-insured loans.  Representative Al Green (not the R&B singer, but the Democrat from Texas whose largest campaign donor is the National Association of Realtors ) has introduced a bill that would once again make seller-financed downpayment assistance legal for FHA loans.  In a legislative environment where Democrats and Republicans can't agree on the color of the sky, no less than 26 sponsors from both sides of the aisle are eager for the taxpayers to once again back mortgages with fake downpayments.

jovoVw Say, you got a nice article.Much thanks again. Really Great.

Welcome to the mud. Go ahead, wallow around , get comfortable , there's plenty to go around , and more on the way. What a fantastic month we have to look forward to!

Associated Press just slapped down the race card in its latest "analysis" by Douglass K. Daniel.

By claiming that Democrat Barack Obama is "palling around with terrorists" and doesn't see the U.S. like other Americans, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin targeted key goals for a faltering campaign.

And though she may have scored a political hit each time, her attack was unsubstantiated and carried a racially tinged subtext that John McCain himself may come to regret.

Just so you guys know, I am getting SC ready for an upgrade. I will take the opportunity to revamp the look, and jump to a new hosting platform. The version upgrade jump is sufficiently high that you should see some difference in the way the site behaves.

Also I cleaned up the database a bit in preparation so that you might see a bit of a difference in speed as well. Now I am thinking that the actual upgrade will probably happen sometime next weekend, tentatively next Saturday night (10/11). It would be nice to have a nice fresh, and quicker interface before the election.

Edit by Brendan: added table with links to text for easier access to information. This is just my formatting, content and viewpoint is BD's.

Some Palin errors	Some Biden errors
	Hezbollah in Lebanon
McKiernan's name	McKiernan's position
Positions on Iraq	Afghanistan spending
	VP role
	Hamas elections
	Precondition
	Legislation
Obama's tax plan	McCain's tax plan
	Gay marriage
	Anecdote

First, factcheck.org compiled the factual shortcomings of both candidates:

The consensus on the VP debate seems to be that Palin did better than expected but not well enough to top Biden. Here is a factcheck of the candidates.

Wells Fargo (not Citigroup) is buying Wachovia . In sports, the Dodgers beat the Cubs again and will look to sweep the series. (Edit by John: And the Phillies beat the Brewers!)

What's happening today? Got any fun weekend plans?

Chatting will be enabled around 8:30, until then feel free to comment on questions you'd like to see or expectations for the debate. Some obvious questions:

1. For Biden: You strongly criticized Obama's lack of experience during the primaries. What makes you now consider him qualified to lead from day one?
2. For Palin: You've repeatedly stated that you said "thanks but no thanks" to the "Bridge to Nowhere." How do you reconcile that with your earlier support?
3. For Biden: You voted in favor of the Senate bailout bill. What provisions in that bill protect the taxpayer from simply paying for the mistakes of Wall Street?
4. For Palin: Senator McCain opposes drilling in ANWR while you support it. What would you tell him to change his mind?
5. For both: How do you think the US should handle Iran?
6. For both: What do you view as the proper role of the VP?

Edit: liveblog moved below the fold. Thanks to everyone who joined us, and apologies for those who were unable to due to technical difficulties over which we unfortunately had no control.

Hat tip to The Liberty Papers :

September was another month of declining violence in Iraq, both for civilians and military personnel. Below are the pictures, and I'm guessing that Barack Obama would prefer that you don't see them.

Once the progress in Iraq became all too obvious, even to Obama, he credited the success to the increase in troops, the troops themselves, the Sunni Awakening movements, and Muqtada al Sadr, but I haven't heard him say a single word about the actual strategy that helped turn Iraq around. The surge in troop levels was only part of the overall plan.