The New York Times makes a Jesse Eisinger column out of that Dallas Fed report on "too big to fail" and banking regulation that was covered here back on March 22. Mr. Einsinger cavils:

the rebel regional Fed presidents have been skeptical about the Fed's aggressive and successful monetary policy and overly worried about inflation and the vulnerability of the dollar.

The Fed's monetary policy is so "successful" that the housing market bottom is still "elusive," the unemployment rate is still 8.3%, and the value of a dollar as measured in ounces of gold has fallen by about half over the past three years.

Amity Shlaes has a column on Bloomberg View about the similarities between President Obama and Franklin Delano Roosevelt: "the loser wins...the triumph of hope over experience."

A good example of how the press can distort, or at least offer sharply different views of the same situation, can be found by comparing my column from this week on Paul Ryan's budget with a Bloomberg News treatment of the same topic.

The Bloomberg News treatment focuses on the plan's supposed austerity:

Thomas Sowell looks at the 1942 Supreme Court case Wickard v. Filbrurn, which stretched the commerce clause of the Constitution: "Once it was established that the federal government could regulate not only interstate commerce itself, but anything with any potential effect on interstate commerce, the Tenth Amendment's limitations on the powers of the federal government virtually disappeared."

There's a new twist in the story of the investment in Maine's largest newspaper by money manager Donald Sussman, the husband of Maine Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree. When the deal was first announced, it was described as a loan of "$3 million to $4 million" in exchange for one board seat and 5% of equity. The Portland Press Herald reports on its own new owner:

Sussman had planned to lend the company $3.3 million, acquire a 5 percent equity stake in the company and gain a seat on the board of directors. The financial structure changed, however, during final negotiations.

Institutional investors, including out-of-state pension funds, asked for important changes to the original package announced in February. Sussman's financial contribution still adds up to the same amount of money, $3.3 million. But instead of a loan, the money is being used for a straight purchase of private stock. The result is that Maine Values will have a 75 percent ownership stake in the company, rather than 5 percent.

The story of the New York Times' negotiation with its Newspaper Guild bargaining unit just keeps getting better and better for those of us who appreciate the contradictions and ironies of a business trying to run itself profitably while also issuing left-wing editorials. Here, via Jim Romenesko, is a section from a memo to Times employees from the senior vice president, operations and labor of the New York Times Newspaper Group, Terry Hayes:

the most important thing we can do is to eliminate the expense, risk and volatility of the defined-benefit pension plans many of our employees have enjoyed over the years. In doing this, we are acting no differently than most other employers in America — as The Times itself reported a few weeks ago, only 14 percent of employees throughout the country still have defined-benefit pension plans. They are great for employees, but they are, sadly, unaffordable.

Thanks to all those who have responded to our quarterly drive by becoming paying members of the FutureOfCapitalism community. For those still on the fence, here are ten reasons to become a paying member or subscriber today.

1. You need to reallocate all the money you saved by canceling your New York Times subscription after Paul Krugman wrote that September 11 "has become an occasion for shame."

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4. At the entry level of just $49 a year, it's less than 14 cents a day, which is an unbelievable bargain for what is being provided.

Answers to some frequently asked questions about the quarterly drive for paid subscriptions and memberships, which has been going on here this week:

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A. If it is, we sent you a renewal notice by email. If you didn't get the email, your subscription still has some time on it. Of course, if you like what's happening here, one way to say so would be to renew early or to purchase a second or third subscription.

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Q. Why do you ask for my email address or mailing address?

Bloomberg View editorials like this one on ObamaCare may help Mayor Bloomberg's chances for the vice presidency by aligning him with President Obama on the constitutionality and substance of Mr. Obama's signature domestic policy initiative, ObamaCare. But that doesn't mean there's much merit, if any, to the arguments in the editorials.

The Bloomberg editorial, under the headline, "All Americans Lose If Health Care Law Is Overturned," frets, "Without the law, insurance companies...could stop paying the full cost of preventive services such as mammograms, flu shots and well-child visits."

Libertarian law professor Richard Epstein's latest column is headlined "ObamaCare: An Unconstitutional Misadventure."

Jim Romenesko has a report from inside the New York Times' negotiations with the Newspaper Guild, the union that represents its reporters and non-management editors. The details are interesting for what insight they offer into where Times reporters might be coming from on issues like health care, pension reform, and labor regulation:

Management backed off its initial demand that the jointly run Guild-Times health plan be eliminated and that Guild employees be covered instead under the nonunion employees' medical plan, which is inferior in many ways to current Guild coverage. However, The Times offered only a paltry additional contribution to the medical fund – one that amounts to about two-tenths of 1 percent of payroll, far short of what is needed to keep the fund healthy without more potential wage diversions from employees.

The budget proposed by the Republican chairman of the House budget committee, Paul Ryan, is the subject of my column this week:

Mr. Ryan boasts that his budget "cuts spending by $5 trillion relative to President's Budget." That's like bragging that your dinner has fewer calories and less cholesterol than the quadruple bypass burger at Heart Attack Grill. It's Washington-style "baseline budgeting" spin, and as Messrs. Ryan and Romney both on some level probably know, Americans are tired of it.

Please check it out at Reason (here) or at the New York Sun (here).

Andrew Ross Sorkin, one of the journalists selected by Warren Buffett to screen questions for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, has a New York Times column today defending Mr. Buffett from the charge of hypocrisy in the case where Berkshire subsidiary NetJets is in court trying to avoid paying more than $300 million in taxes that the government says it owes. Mr. Sorkin calls the case "little-followed," but we've had coverage of it on this site here, here and here. See also this comment.

The top story on the Wall Street Journal Web site this morning is headlined "Home Prices Hit Lows Amid Signs of Bottom." It begins, "Home prices fell to new lows in January, but the rate of decline appears to be easing, offering the latest sign that an elusive bottom in prices could be in sight."

Should you believe it?

Here is a selection of previous Journal coverage on the topic:

February 6, 2009: A Journal article headlined "Report: Some Home Prices to Bottom Out in 2009" begins:

House prices in much of the U.S. will bottom out in this year's fourth quarter, Moody's Economy.com says in a new report.

In some of the hardest hit markets, however, prices won't reach a bottom until 2010 or 2011, the research firm says in a report written by its chief economist, Mark Zandi.

New facts are emerging in the tale of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin. Mr. Zimmerman is the volunteer security patrolman who shot Mr. Martin, a black teenager, to death in Florida. It turns out that Mr. Zimmerman is at least half Hispanic, that Trayvon Martin had been suspended from school three times in connection with a record that reportedly included graffiti and having in his possession an empty marijuana bag and pipe, a screwdriver ("burglary tool") and 12 pieces of women's jewelry, and that before being shot, Martin, with a single punch, reportedly "decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer ... climbed on top of [him] and slammed his head into the sidewalk several times, leaving him bloody and battered."