IS THIS THE END OF AMERICA? “U.S. law-making is riddled with slapdash, incompetence and gamesmanship.” Yes, they’re drastically underperforming even my low expectations this year.

Related thoughts from Henry Blodget. “The frantic passage of the Populist Rage Tax was a new low in the US government’s response to this crisis. It shows just how likely we are to doom ourselves to a decade or more of misery–by choking our markets, closing our borders, turning our banks into tools of social policy, and wrecking what’s left of our economy.”

Plus, bad tax policy.