From the Pew report "Beyond California: States in Peril."

Getting ink this afternoon is the red ink flooding not only California but your state, too. "Beyond California: States in Peril," a new report from the sharp Pew Center steams through the dire straits in much more dramatic fashion than a similar report of states' last rites from the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (see "Recession's Over? States in Deep Trouble; Even More Jobs Will Be Lost").

The Pew report lists the top 10 troubled states: California, Arizona, Rhode Island, Michigan, Oregon, Nevada, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois, and Wisconsin. New York is close behind. Stories on this from CNN, Daily Finance, and the Detroit Free Press.

Capitol Hill and the White House have passed the "stimulus" torch to the states. Too bad for the states that the torch isn't lit.

After strong-arming his way onto the ballot for an illegal third term as mayor (he bludgeoned the City Council into making it legal), Mike Bloomberg did indeed win that third term. But his presidential hopes suffered a big blow.

How's it going to look to the nation for him to eke out a victory over a mediocre hack like Bill Thompson, who featured a shoddy and suspicious record as comptroller?

A tiny turnout almost undid the billionaire mayor, who poured in $90 billion million of his own money to outspend Thompson by a 14-1 ratio. But Bloomberg was able to buy off the major unions and they specifically helped him get out enough voters to the polls. Once again, the working class bails out a billionaire.

CIT CEO Jeff Peek and wife Liz

If people were pissed off about AIG's temporary decline and permanent bonuses, CIT's bankruptcy ought to enrage them.

The giant lender to businesses is heading for a quick in-and-out in bankruptcy court, and when it emerges, taxpayers will be the ones who have gotten the ol' in-out: CIT won't have to repay its $2.33 billion TARP bailout.

CIT's been in deep trouble for way more than a year. Meanwhile, some of its execs have reaped special bonuses. Its H.R. director, Jim Duffy, has received a $450,000 cash bonus for what the company called his "exceptional performance." What did he do? "Mr. Duffy's achievements in 2008 include the design and implementation of a process to reduce our total headcount by 22% ... along with the successful deployment of talent and development programs targeted at retaining CIT's key talent," according to CIT's proxy filing last April. That message to taxpayers was approved by CEO Jeff Peek.

Barack Obama's administration has so far been witless for the prosecution of the goniff investment bankers who crashed Wall Street and has shown no signs of clawing back the wealth that dramatically shifted from households to private equity, hedge funds, foreign bank accounts, and the bailed-out banks themselves.

Read about Obama's clawless — not clueless but inherently clawless — crew in James Lieber's "We've Bailed out the Banks. When Do We Go After the Crooks Behind our Financial Collapse?," the Voice's cover story this week. Long piece, but a quick read.

You might remember Lieber's "What Cooked the World's Economy?" from earlier this year, in which he laid out a groundbreaking, readable analysis of the devilish details.

Obama hasn't exactly surrounded himself with regulators, as Lieber points out.

An argument could be made that the Bush administration's prosecutors were more aggressive against the Wall Street goniffs last year than the current crew. No shit.

The Obama administration's two-pronged attack on Wall Street execs' pay — Czar Kenneth Feinberg's crackdown and the Fed's plan to regulate compensation — is no more than a poke at a pig.

Feinberg's task was difficult, but he wielded more of a loofah than a whip. And the idea of the Fed Reserve Bank's stepping in to regulate compensation at banks is little more than fancied-up self-regulation by the banks. By its nature, the Fed is not much of a regulatory agency except in macroeconomic matters. Just look at the board of the New York Fed: It includes such "regulators" as JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, plus GE CEO Jeff Immelt and Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler. They'll keep those Wall Street execs in check.

Morgan Stanley CFO Colm Kelleher somehow kept a straight face when he told a Dow Jones Newswire reporter, "We always said 2009 was a year of transition, and what you're getting is a validation of that."

Translation from Streetspeak: "Year of transition" means "business as usual" and "validation" means "profits so big I think I'm going to shit myself."

The WSJ story on this matter notes that Morgan Stanley's risk-taking is paying off, just as it already been at Goldman Sachs. Morgan's just now trying to catch up, being slow on the profit uptake during this year's market rally. Nevertheless, as DJN's Gabriella Stern points out:

No wonder Warren Buffett says the U.S. economy has improved "tremendously." Just look at Wells Fargo's record third-quarter profit. Buffett's the bank's biggest shareholder, at 6.5 percent, or more than 300 million shares.

Details of the earnings picture, at 247wallst.com, about what you can reasonably call Buffett's banks. A bigger picture? Buffett as a "lagging indicator" of the bubblicious current market.

It looks as if the Great Recession is now just great and no longer a recession, at least for the some of the giants. JPMorgan Chase reports third-quarter profits of $3.6 billion. The other big banks' 3Q reports will also roll in; hard to imagine they'll be any different.

Chase got $25 billion of TARP taxpayer money. And thanks to more infusions of public money through the Public Private Investment Program (PPIP), the taxpayers will subsidize the removal of toxic assets from the banks while in effect guaranteeing BlackRock and other money-manager firms from losing on the purchase deals.

Sweet.

Even sweeter: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's current closest aides earned millions last year working for Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms, Bloomberg reveals this morning. As New York Fed chief, Geithner was intimately involved in last year's bailout of those big firms.

You might think that a bailout of taxpayers is overdue, that Barack Obama's administration could at least stop subsidizing the big banks and stop guaranteeing the leveraged-buyout firms' purchase of toxic assets and instead help make some of those assets (your mortgages, and so on) less toxic.

Go back to what FDIC Sheila Bair said exactly one year ago in her plea that the government needed to focus on bailing out homeowners instead of the big banks.

Is the tide turning for the public option? (Salon)

"As healthcare reform moves to backroom talks, supporters say its chances may be improving."

---

U.S. Losing Ground on Preventable Deaths: Despite High Medical Spending, Results Trail Other Wealthy Countries (WashPost)

---

Pay Czar Targets Salary Cuts (WSJ)

Ken Feinberg might actually be planning a crackdown. Instead of cash, execs would have to take stock that they couldn't fuck with for several years. "Most intrusive [move] yet into corporate compensation."

---

Obama Weighs Spending to Stem Job Cuts Without Second Stimulus (Bloomberg)

Or at least without something that carries the label "stimulus." More gullible NYT story here.

---

One-Third of Wall Street Workers Expect Bigger Bonus This Year (Bloomberg)

---

U.S. Seeks to Restrict Gift Giving to Bloggers (WSJ)

Cracking down on the shilling of products "for fun and profit." Bloggers supposedly have to reveal freebies or money they get for writing product reviews. Also cracking down on celebrity endorsements.

---

Recession Spells End for Many Family Businesses (WSJ)

The ones that Wal-Mart and fast-food chains hadn't already killed.

---

Google to blight smartphones with big ads (Register U.K.)

---

Prepaid, but Not Prepared for Debit Card Fees (NYT)

Yet another legal scam foisted upon a recession-plagued public.

---

Comedian pitches $100k for Twitter account: Drew Carey eyes @drew for charity (Register U.K.)

If you're willing to pay $100,000 to outbid Drew Carey, then you have too much money. Cancer becomes a Twitter game.

MORE HEADLINES FOLLOW

Public Faces Long Wait to Get New Flu Vaccine (WSJ)

State and local budget cuts, stemming from the Wall Street meltdown, the problem. Meanwhile, Wall Street firms get healthier and healthier.

---

Once Rich, Swindler Marc Dreier Now Sells Piss Poor Excuses (Gawker)

Last night on TV, 60 minutes (well, not the full hour) of self-serving bullshit. Commenter OrneryBabe on Gawker provides the best review of the post-game show: "The only explanation I can think of for his exploits is that he probably has a very small penis."

---

On the Internet, Everyone's a Critic -- But They're Not Very Critical (WSJ)

Smart, shrewd story: "The Web can be a mean-spirited place. But when it comes to online reviews, the Internet is a village where the books are strong, YouTube clips are good-looking and the dog food is above average."

---

Wall Street's Near-Death Experience (Vanity Fair, Andrew Ross Sorkin)

Long excerpt from promising new book on meltdown.

---

Wal-Mart Sharpens Its Pricing Pincers (WSJ)

Doing well during recession, giant chain goes for the kill against its rivals by cutting prices.

---

Roubini Says Stocks Have Risen 'Too Soon, Too Fast' (Bloomberg)

NYU economist who predicted meltdown says consumers "overdebted" and banking system "basically bankrupt" and U.S. "has a long way to go."

---

Inside the Crisis: Larry Summers and the White House economic team (New Yorker, Ryan Lizza)

Good piece, once you get past a typical New Yorker lede sentence: "In early August, Lawrence H. Summers, President Barack Obama's top economic adviser, accompanied Vice-President Joseph Biden aboard Air Force Two on a trip to Detroit."

MORE HEADLINES FOLLOW