CREEPY/COOL abandoned Soviet war monuments in the former Yugoslavia.

WHERE THE JOBS WERE LOST.  I’m not sure we have a good theory as to why low-wage workers bore the brunt of unemployment.  But I think we need one.

JONATHAN COHN compares RomneyCare to the killing of Bin Laden.  My husband explains why this is not a comparison that makes RomneyCare look good.

TEN MISTAKES THAT RESTAURANT OWNERS MAKE.  This guy is talking his book–he sells financial consulting services and software–but from my experience with small businesses, these are real problems that people need to think about–especially restauranteurs, who tend to be in love with food, not accounting.

GM BAILOUT: STILL NOT A GOOD IDEA.  No, seriously.  I mean it.

NERDIEST correction ever.  I dated a medievalist in college, who frequently commented that I looked like an elf.  When I protested that at 6’2, I was hardly elf material, he looked at me with weary contempt.  “Real elves,” he told me, “are tall.”

THE MYTH OF MOTHER LOVE Stephanie Coontz argues that housewives didn’t get much respect in the fifties, either.

LAST WEEK, I blogged about whether we should redistribute grades the way we redistribute income. Over at The Economist, Matt Steinglass argues that we already do.

LET’S NOT GET TOO EXCITED about GM profits.  It’s certainly better than making losses–but the government is still going to lose a great deal of money on the deal.

DO REAL ESTATE BUYERS NEED AN AGENT?  These days, more people seem to be doing without.  When we bought our house, we knew exactly where we wanted to live, and I ran the comps we used.  But it was still useful to have someone to negotiate the paperwork.

Over at my place, I discuss the looming problem in public pensions.  Frankly, at this point it’s not so much looming, as raising a giant foot to stomp us all flat.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:  Today’s Google logo, in honor of Pac-Man’s 30th anniversary, is actually a playable game of Pac-Man.

You didn’t want to do any work today anyway.

Maybe the ancient creatures of the Cambrian lived on longer than we thought.

With markets unsteady, this seems like a good time to recommend Benjamin Roth’s The Great Depression:  A Diary.  Those who don’t know history are doomed . . .

By the way, anyone who wants to email me can do so at meganmcardle -at- theatlantic.com

A tax hike even conservatives should love?  I’m in favor, and I live in one of those high-tax jurisdictions.  But then I love tax simplification so much that I’m in favor of doing it even without marginal rate tradeoffs–if you do the tax simplification, the marginal rate decreases will probably follow.

In the Floyd Landis case, the isotopes don’t lie.

The stock market’s down more than 2% this morning, while foreign bourses are at six month lows.  Time to start worrying?

My fiance notes that the Bay State is trying to shift money from hospitals that make money to those that don’t.  Eureka! Profits are the problem with the market.  Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?

THE HEALTH INSURERS’ FAUSTIAN BARGAIN  I’d say it’s more like our Faustian bargain; we bought a pig in a poke, and now that pig is looking pretty sickly.

TWO HEARTS BEAT AS ONE  Matt Yglesias explores the difficulties of Korean unification.

HEAVY WONKING ON FINANCIAL REFORM  It’s dense, but this is the best post I’ve read on FinReg so far.

SURPRISE!  Massachusetts insurers bleed red ink as the state struggles to control cost growth.

DR. BOLI INVITES YOU TO test your own IQ.  But I guarantee you are not smarter than Dr. Boli.

ELIZABETH WARREN PRODUCES ANOTHER MISLEADING BANKRUPTCY STUDY, along with her friends at Physicians for a National Health Program.  Quel surprise.