NYT’s economics reporter, who had written many pieces on subprime mortgages and the “liar loans”, told a vivid personal story of how he foolishly got into a mortgage he couldn’t afford and ruined his personal finance.

My Personal Credit Crisis

(added on May 19, 2009): Now you can listen to the same story from On Point with Tom Ashbrook.

Talking about tax increase is taboo in America. But the current sharp rise of budget deficits and government spending will, sooner or later, make tax increase inevitable. My sense is that not only the top earners will see a tax hike, but the tax increase will be much broader than what Obama Administration had promised.

(graph courtesy of Big Picture)