Debt

I owe props to Daniel Gross, whose articles on Slate I’ve been reading while I spill last night’s leftovers onto my keyboard. I’ve been learning about recent Geenspan and Bush nonsense and how Bush owes what little credibility he has to Greenspan, while Greenspan owes his credibility to his interest-rate-related power to soften economic pain. That power will be sorely tested if the general consensus grows that we really are in a housing bubble that’s going to collapse any day now.

Then there’s one by Michelle Leder about really depressing high-interest short-term debt, a.k.a. “payday loans,” with a link to one about the legal grey areas surrounding loan sharking and usury.

Non-debt-related is one on gas prices and their effect on convenience stores, with a link to The National Association of Convenience Stores Fact Sheet on Gasoline Theft.

(Jackpot! Not only a trade magazine, but a trade magazine’s report on a weird crime whose frequency is affected by international relations! Obviously designed just to tickle my bizarre-data fetish.)