It appears that there is an option C for Greece: it can use the euro even if it is ejected from the Euro-zone. The scheme is known as Eurozation: having Euro as the offecial currency without having a stake in The European Central Bank. It may happen when the ECB cease providing Euros to the Greeks, if they reject the austerity plan.   dmsltdblog puts it:

The European and North American credit markets would certainly close, and Greece would have to live within its tax base means. But it could still retain the Euro. In other words become Montenegro. The Greek people would get what they voted for, the Euro and no bailout austerity.

The Greeks can still borrow Euros from outside sources, and they will not be constrained by ECB’s conditions. Countries like Montenegro, Kosovo, and Andora have taken this path. This option avoid the problem of transaction and exchange costs with European banks, and it may stop the cash scare that is caused by the prospect of re-adopting the Drachma. 

This option will also means a complete loss of monetary sovereignty, but i still think it is worth discussing.    

(Source: dictumdedicto.wordpress.com)

The report, entitled Gauging the Benefits, Costs, and Sustainability of US Stimulus, which is published today, states that President Obama’s fiscal stimulus policy has contributed to preventing a longer and deeper recession.

(Source: newstatesman.com)

Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, two political scientists, one liberal and one conseravative, have posted the follwing in the Washington Post:

Republicans often dismiss nonpartisan analyses of the nature of problems and the impact of policies when those assessments don’t fit their ideology.

…

This attitude filters down far deeper than the party leadership. Rank-and-file GOP voters endorse the strategy that the party’s elites have adopted, eschewing compromise to solve problems and insisting on principle, even if it leads to gridlock.

…

If our democracy is to regain its health and vitality, the culture and ideological center of the Republican Party must change

It’s a very good read, and you hardly see something like it in mainstream media

(Source: Washington Post)

Rick Perlstein explains why:

in the 1960s, it was the certainty that Americans would never consent to give up their big-government perks. And yet, somehow, alongside the ordinary tacking of American political preference between Democrats and Republicans, conservatism continues to thrive. That’s because power begets power: Democrats can be counted on to compromise with conservative nuttiness, and the media can be counted on to normalize it. And it’s because there will always be millions of Americans who are terrified of social progress and of dispossession from whatever slight purchase on psychological security they’ve been able to maintain in a frightening world. And because there will always be powerful economic actors for whom exploiting such fear, uncertainty and doubt pays (and pays, and pays).

So, if you are calculating that people no Republican president will be elected because e is too nutty, you should rethink after reading a bit of American history.

(Source: Rolling Stone)

If you ever thought that the guy driving a late-model Mercedes is more of a jerk than the one behind the wheel of a battered Honda, you’d be right. Even after controlling for factors like traffic density and the driver’s gender and perceived age (younger men tend to drive faster and often rudely), drivers of the newest, most high-status cars were much more likely to cut other drivers off.

(Source: TIME)