Thieves in the Temple.

Around the table: stories about financial and governmental parasites.

America's Last Conservative, Paul Craig Roberts, explains "Why Michael Hudson is the World's Best Economist." (That would make Mr. Roberts second-best, though he says early that Mr. Hudson might be "the only economist in the world.") Anyway, I can second Mr. Roberts's claim, having spent many hours with Mr. Hudson's 2012 book The Bubble and Beyond; I'll move on to last year's Killing the Host (i.e., the financial sector as one giant parasite on the economy) soon. Mr. Roberts's column serves as an admirable introduction to Mr. Hudson's thought. And always remember there's another term for "countries...servic(ing) huge debts simply by lowering domestic wages in order to pay creditors" -- income redistribution.

And now we learn that Michigan state environmental officials ignored scientists' warnings about Flint's water quality, with the state's highest environmental official admitting that his office was "combative and dismissive" toward scientists' warnings. The EPA certainly deserves blame, too, for failing to air their concerns to Michigan in a timely manner, but let's not forget how this all really started: with a financial crisis leading to a government installing unelected "emergency managers" and giving them broad powers to override democratic processes in order to "save money." That's the kind of bold thinking George W. Bush was always known for, you know.

Retail analysts inform us that Amazon's shipping service isn't as good as it used to be for its non-Prime customers. You'd think Amazon would ensure its service is just as good even to those who aren't in their special club, because the best service would entice more folks to join that special club for other reasons (like streaming!) -- but Amazon doesn't have to do that, because Amazon is a damn monopoly. This is, by the way, the kind of thing that would happen on the internet all the time without strong net neutrality regulations.

On the eve of Super Bowl 50, Lindsay Gibbs discusses the strange (i.e,, racist) attitude the "liberal" media has toward Panthers QB Cam Newton, while also treating us to a lengthy history of the first black starting QB in pro football history, former Broncos QB Marlin "the Magician" Briscoe. The "liberal" media hates on Cam Newton for all the reasons the article gives, plus one more: he doesn't apologize for the fact that he can run the crap out of the ball if the situation calls for it. I always felt a little heartsick when I heard Donovan McNabb disrespect his own running ability, and I feel a little heartsick when I read about former Bills QB James Harris hiding his foot speed from his coaches out of fear they'd move him to another position.

Finally, you'll be heartened to learn that Paul Ryan has warned other Republicans that "we can’t fall into the progressives’ trap of acting like angry reactionaries." No truth to the rumor he then said, "we have to be pleasant reactionaries," though that is basically the Republican plan. Always suspect a guy who talks about "ideas" all the time -- particularly if all his ideas are bad.

Around the table: a startling prediction from a former NFL wide receiver, and other stories.

Oxfam says that the top one percent of the world's population now has more wealth than the other 99% combined. So if they're the "job creators," why do they have more than everyone else? If they were really "creating jobs," rather than redistributing our wealth upward to themselves via their casino economy games, the wealth would actually be "trickling down." But if something's trickling down, it sure ain't wealth.

Dean Baker tells us the economy is not about to go into freefall just because the stock market has gone down more than 10 percent over the last few weeks. The stock market, after all, is not much of an "indicator" of anything -- not even, apparently, of the skill level of its biggest actors, who were taken aback by the bursting of the Chinese stock bubble. In other news, "the remedy for weak demand is more demand," but don't expect action from Congress, since that would require spending.

Disgusted as we should be with the Michigan government's stupidity and venality in its handling of Flint's water, we should not excuse the EPA for suspecting Flint's water was polluted as early as nine months ago and then failing to act. Best I can tell, the EPA notified the state's environmental department, which wanted to do, you know, more testing -- but the EPA's regional administrator doesn't come off as very concerned in emails, frankly. Her head should roll, maybe?

Of course, it could be worse: Sen. Marco Rubio, running for the Republican Presidential nomination, claims ignorance on the whole Flint matter. I'd be less annoyed about that, except that it took him 30 words to say "I don't know," and then 46 more words to say "I don't know" again -- when the correct answer to any question about Flint's drinking water is "no government should enable the pollution of good folks' drinking water." Isn't this guy supposed to be the future or something?

Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel restarts his campaign funding apparatus, in advance of a (possible) Senate run in 2018. Mr. Mandel says this move "gives Ohioans an opportunity to support my style of leadership" while "not forc(ing) me to make a decision anytime soon on what I'm going to do next," which leads one to suspect that his "style of leadership" is not to lead. Mr. Mandel lost the 2012 Senate race by only six points, but it would've been a lot closer if not for the presence of right-wing "independent" Scott Rupert in the race; in a non-Presidential election year, a genuinely good man, Sherrod Brown, might well lose, and to someone who shouldn't even be elected dog-catcher.

Finally, former Pittsburgh Steelers wideout Antwan Randle El says if he had to do it over again, he'd play baseball instead of football. Mr. Randle El might have trouble getting down stairs and remembering things, but his analysis of pro football's problems -- "(t)he kids are getting bigger and faster, so the concussions, the severe spinal cord injuries, are only going to get worse...Football players are in a car wreck every week" -- is spot on. When he says pro football might be gone in a quarter century, he might be right.

Action: preserving Mt. Gariwang, and paycheck fairness.

The 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and despite the Olympic Committee's stated wish that the 2018 Olympics be a "green Olympics," South Korea is, as we speak, cutting down a Mt. Gariwang forest that's home to centuries-old trees and several rare and threatened species, including the flying squirrel -- all so they can build Olympic-caliber ski slopes. Mt. Gariwang was a federally-protected reserve as recently as 2012, but South Korea revoked that protection in the hopes of winning the Olympic bid; the provincial Gangwon government says they'll replant the trees when it's all over, but that'll cost more money, and that counts on Gangwon's government being willing to uproot the ski slopes (some of which will be paved). So Avaaz helps you tell the South Korean government and the International Olympic Committee to stop destroying the Mt. Gariwang forest from development. Folks who talk about the "economic gains" a region sees when it hosts the Olympics should remember that most of those "gains" go to people at the top, and that that once you've built a massive Olympic infrastructure and the Olympics are over, the tourism boom is pretty much over.

Meanwhile, the Department of Labor late last week issued a rule banning federal contractors from retaliating against workers who talk about their pay with their co-workers. This is often the only way workers getting shafted over by sexist pay practices ever find out about it, and corporations that aren't federal contractors can do what they like -- unless we tell Congress to pass H.R. 1619/S. 862, the Paycheck Fairness Act, which the National Women's Law Center helps you do. I worked at a company with one of those don't-talk-about-your-pay rules back in the day, and no one could reasonably explain to me why the bosses had that rule. The explanation they were avoiding: that they don't want to get sued over paying someone less than someone else. If it seems to you that the best way to do that is to pay people fairly, you're not alone, and if someone tells you that the Paycheck Fairness Act "prohibits" people being paid according to their value, remind them that the bill allows differences in pay based on "bona fide factors" including experience, training, and education. That argument may not sway everyone, because haters gonna hate, but right is right and duty is duty.

Around the table: with special guest star Zombie Jacques Plante.

PR Watch reports on how well Wisconsin Gov. Walker's brainchild, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, has done on Mr. Walker's stated goal of creating 250,000 jobs in the state. Long story short: not good -- the WEDC has created a little over 5,000 jobs in FY 2012 and 2013, but in its reports to the state legislature it trots out five-digit numbers that count expected jobs in addition to actual jobs created or retained. In other news, I expect a million dollars to appear in my bank account sometime this week. Should I budget based on that? I suppose Mr. Walker would say I should.

Dean Baker notices that the "liberal" media seems very, very concerned with coal miners losing their jobs due to the EPA's proposed carbon emissions limits, and wonders why, when the "liberal" media doesn't care about jobs lost to trade deficits. Of course we all know the answer -- because the "liberal" media's corporate paymasters stand to lose money from the EPA limits and gain money from "free" trade -- but still, it's nice to have the hypocrisy noted.

Oregon U.S. Senate candidate Monica Wehby (R) actually tries to tell folks that the harassment charges her ex-husband and ex-boyfriend filed against her suggest that she'll fight hard for Oregon voters. Of course there's a difference between being a fighter for people and a fighter of people, but why would we expect modern-day Republicans to recognize that?

ProPublica explains how the "hyperspecialization" in youth sports ruins both the sports and the kids playing them. Basically, when you demand that kids be just like adults and be the best they can be at one sport for eight or nine months a year, instead of letting them be kids and try different things (which also helps them master different things more quickly), you get a lot of injuries, not to mention burned-out kids. And I wish Zombie Jacques Plante was around to tell young goalies that the butterfly style only gets you an early hip replacement.

Finally, Oklahoma state House candidate says "we would totally be in the right" to stone homosexuals to death, saying it "was done in the old testament under a law that came directly from God." And he said all this on Facebook, where nothing can ever be unsaid. Anyway, Leviticus 20 prescribes the death penalty for all sorts of things in addition to homosexuality -- cursing your parents, adultery, sleeping with your stepmother or daughter-in-law, sleeping with both your wife and her mother, bestiality -- so you have to wonder, as usual, why homosexuality seems to bother him the most.