How Inkling is banking on better books

Peter Beinart's been taking some criticism for publishing his essay on Israel in the New York Review of Books, which is apparently an anti-Israel publication because it occasionally publishes left-wing Jews. Beinart scoffs at this, and so do I.

Here come's the next bank surprise. This bank, which is still trading in the US/Ireland and is still accepting deposits and making loans, appears to have some pretty fishy underpinnings.

John M. Mason submits: According to the latest statistics of the Federal Reserve on the banking system, the banking system, as a whole, continues to shrink. Over the last 12 months, the total assets of all commercial banks in the United States banking system shrank by $560 billion, or by about 5%. In the three months ending in January 2010, total bank assets dropped about $170 billion, with about $40 billion of the drop coming in January itself.

Ever since Elizabeth Warren went from financial regulatory crusader to Senator from Massachusetts, Wall Street's been wondering what she would do with her new power. Then she got appointed to Senate Banking Committee, and that was a serious clue.

By Mike Konczal You want to know how I can tell that the interchange reform in the Senate bill was a surprise story? Because the last-minute lobbying campaign against it is so obviously a thrown-together, half-baked effort by the biggest banks.