Main Street

Interesting Things Around the Internet

• Republican Congressman Paul Ryan continues to plug his budget plans. Taste the awesome: It’ll lose money while raising taxes on 90% of people.
• Oh, goody.
  

  When the Mayans envisioned the world coming to an end in 2012 — at least in the Hollywood telling — they didn’t count junk bonds among the perils that would lead to worldwide disaster.

  Maybe they should have, because 2012 also is the beginning of a three-year period in which more than $700 billion in risky, high-yield corporate debt begins to come due, an extraordinary surge that some analysts fear could overload the debt markets.

• Which foods have gotten cheaper over the past 30 years? Which foods have gotten more expensive?
• Are you using too much detergent to do your laundry?
• Heh:
  

  It’s amazing what happens when it looks like you have the votes to pass a bill. Suddenly your enemies are your best friends!

  Republicans of all stripes are coming out of the woodwork to give Democrats free advice on how to vote on health reform. Most of that advice says vote no, of course.

  John Nichols at The Nation makes a similar point: That advice is not exactly well-intentioned.