Before they were morphed and twisted out of shape by cable news networks, the words 'liberal' and 'progressive' were not overlapping concepts. Traditionally progressives were the reformers who wanted to improve conditions for working people through the established political process. These folks had there golden era during the first two decades of the Twentieth Century lead by a corps of social advocates and muckrakers who took on the horrible conditions of anyone who wasn't rich or a capitalist.
Progressive were at odds from the radicals, anarchists and syndicalists who just wanted to literally blow the whole thing up.
Traditional liberals are those who try to get government out of everyone's lives. They want to say and do what they want without governement interference. The folks would be the ones in opposition to the big state type of government.
John Podesta, who headed the transition for Barack Obama and is renovating the concept of progessivism, wrote a book last year call "The Power of Progress" which outlines the differences.
Using these definitions, Podesta describes the Obama Administration as progressive. So far he doesn't appear to be a Liberal.
Take that Rush Limbaugh!

The economy is still nuts, and here is another example. Late last week, much to everyone's, surprise, some of the nation's biggest banks reported profits of all things. And how was this surprise good news greeted on Wall Street today? Financial stocks are getting hammered. The Dow is down 253 points at this writing.
Apparently, either bank executives have the credility of Fox News anchors or the stock market behaves like a four-year-old after heading a handful of Easter candy. I vote for both.
The news of the uptick in bank earnings ran so counter to the conventional wisdom that all weekend journalists and analysts have been bad mouthing the banks' reports. And one thing you can't do in this crazed time is to run counter to conventional wisdom.
In truth, some financial analysts are reporting that bank profits are coming their securities trading desks, a small isolated sector of their banking business and that those numbers might be legit. That sector is show small signs of life. It also appears that many bankers are trying to run as quickly as they can from federal financial assistance, even if they may need it further down the road. They had their fill of populist outrage in Congress. Would they jigger their financial reports to avoid a government bailout? This could get interesting.

The Market Went Up Today! Why!

 

Today, for no obvious reason, the Dow Jones Industrial Average went up 216 points, or about 2.79%. For months now major financial journalists have been following the stock market as one of their leading indicators of the country's economic health. Yeah, right. Using the stock market as economic metric is  on par as using a 13-year-old girl at a Hannah Montana as the leading indicator of the nation's mental health. When you think about it, they act pretty much the same.

Dumb as I want to be, journalists edition: There is a big news flap today coming out of the G-20 meetings in London. Michelle Obama is being criticized for touching Queen Elizabeth when the two met. Apparently the team of journalists shadowing the Obamas don't know much about economics, the banking crisis or international relations, so the erstwhile political reporters are reverting to what they do best: gotcha journalism.
Remember when George W. Bush supposedly set back Ango-American affairs back 200 years by winking at the queen a couple of years ago.