We’re winding down here at EconomyBeat — just 11 days left. Let’s start a countdown of our top 25 posts with nos. 25 through 23…

• 25. Colorado Springs: City of the future? – Anti-tax haven Colorado Springs finds itself in desperate fiscal straits, touching off schadenfreude and defensiveness on the Web.
• 24. Sub-prime the Musical – college student creates series of podcasts on the causes of the credit crisis and, naturally, adds song parodies to illustrate the concepts.
• 23.Friday photo gallery Nov 20, 2009
  

Last week a New York Times/CBS poll found that Tea Party backers were, among other things, more educated on average than the general public. Some may assert, however, that this may not be the same demographic pool showing up at the group’s rallies, if you take to heart the photos in a Flickr pool called Teabonics, featuring numerous misspellings on Tea Party signs.

Is it fair to judge a political movement based on its followers’ inability to spell? Probably not. But considering that one of the underlying beliefs of Tea Partiers is that they know the truth of what’s going and the rest of the country is asleep, it certainly adds to the sense of spectacle…

Time magazine describes the SEC fraud case against Goldman Sachs this way:

Economists Do It With Models tries to explain this in a little more detail and in layman’s terms:

Hedge fund guy: I think the housing market is going to go to s**t in the next few years. More specifically, I think I know which parts of the housing market are particularly vulnerable. In order to profit off of this information, I would like to short sell a financial product that is tied to the housing market. In other words, I’m going to borrow one of these securities, sell it at the current high price, buy it back once it’s worthless and then give it back to the original owner, keeping the profit for myself. (Update: Technically the short position was achieved via a credit default swap as opposed to a regular short sale. This doesn’t affect the overall analysis, and you can see my comment below for more detail.) Now, there are a few products out there that would be appropriate for this, but it would be totally better if I could design the product myself, since then I could be extra sure that it would tank as much as possible, thus maximizing my profit. Let me call my buddies at Goldman and see what they can do for me.

Goldman Sachs, to hedge fund guy: Sure, we can do that, just tell us what you would like the crappy product to look like. But wait a second…you do realize that it’s hard to short sell something unless other people actually hold the product in their portfolios, right? And who in their right minds would buy something that you, as a smart guy, specifically picked as being the bottom of the housing market barrel? That kind of throws a monkey wrench into your plan…but wait, I think we might have a solution to this problem. So here’s the deal – you’re gonna get a call from another financial firm, and you’re gonna tell them that you are looking to create a product to invest in. Now, this is technically true, so all you’re really doing is leaving out the teeny detail that you are taking a short position rather than betting on an increase in value. No big deal, right? Just tell them what you want in the product and they will make it happen.

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Simon Johnson is a professor of entrepeneurship at MIT. In the video below he speaks about The Doom Cycle, described by the web site New Deal 2.0 as “the current boom-bust-bailout structure of the financial sector that leads to economic crises.” Johnson talks about the system of incentives to take greater and greater risks that has developed since the Reagan Revolution.

From the blog Laid Off in NYC, a post about taking a job out of desperation and then regretting it.

The Silent Soul-Crusher: UNDERemployment

I got a job back in June and since then, kind of fell off the blogging wagon. I thought, hey I’m employed now, it’s all good. Hah! Little did I know that with each day I spent at my new job, my soul would be crushed a little bit more.

At first, I was psyched to be back at work – just to be doing something besides searching endlessly for jobs on the internet. Everyone asked me how my new job was and I said things like “I have a whole new perspective now,” and “I’m just grateful to have any job at all.” Which was true.

But in hindsight, I took my job because I was depressed and desperate, not because it was something I was truly passionate about, or a company I really wanted to work for. And as a result, here I am, underemployed and stuck, eight full months later.

Here are some signs that you (and I) are underemployed:

* Your bosses take you for granted and don’t treat you well (i.e. no holiday bonus, no holiday gift, no holiday card, never say thank you, expect you to go above and beyond your job duties with no compensation).

* You accepted a lower salary than you should have because you were desperate, and now you’re barely breaking even. You may have even accepted a job with no benefits (like me), which was a mistake and is a constant source of stress and worry.

* You feel underpaid and under-appreciated on a daily basis and are working in a position below what you should be/are qualified for.

* You dread the idea of having to start the job search process over again and possibly end up in a position you still don’t like, but you know you don’t want to stay in your current job.

* You sometimes consider going back to school, but have no money to pay for it or means to support yourself while doing so.

* You watch your friends and old coworkers advance in their careers while you remain stagnant in yours, and even feel like you have regressed.

* You are depressed that you can’t get unemployment again if you quit your job and regret not spending more time looking for a job you really wanted.

* You want to feel sorry for yourself but know you shouldn’t, but no one really understands who hasn’t been through the same thing.

So that’s it, that’s my sob story of underemployment. I don’t want to feel sorry for myself, or wallow in my underemployment, but it’s hard. All I can do is try to maintain a somewhat positive attitude while going into my job that I don’t like (verge of hate) every day, and hope that someday soon, I’ll get my big break. I keep hearing that there are “millions” of my fellow underemployed Americans stuck in the same position that I am and that should be comforting, but somehow it just makes the task of trying to find a new job seem even more daunting.

Still, it’s good to know that I’m not the only one. So if you’re out there, fellow underemployed, sound off here. What advice do you have for me or anyone else in our shoes? In the meantime, I’ll keep you updated on my struggle to break free from underemployment (have an interview Friday!).

Another entry from Reddit’s Ask Me Anything feature.

I’ve been fired from 30 different companies and I’m not yet 25

Question: How do you get hired over and over again?

Answer: I used to list only the most recent three and lie about the dates in which I was employed. Now, I site my side IT jobs as a business and that allows me to list many as independent contracts.

Comment: You know some people say, it’s not you, it’s me? Yeah, it’s you.

Answer: Oh definitely. The biggest reason I get the ax is because I’m a huge prick.

Comment: Hey man, at least you’re upfront about it. Props for that.

Comment: Well, that clearly doesn’t solve anything. Being an ahole is pretty disrespectful, regardless of whether he admits to it or not. Also, the fact he’s been fired 30 times and still doesn’t change is almost laughable.

Comment: Now there’s a straight shooter with upper-management written all over him. What if – and believe me this is a hypothetical – but what if you were offered some kind of a stock option equity sharing program. Would that do anything for you?

Answer: I’m thinking not. If it was offered, I’d probably take it, then get pissed when people didn’t do things my way. I would openly express my views and get the ax. I’ve been in similar situations- not upper management and stock options, but having a vested interest.

Question: What do you do to get fired?

Answer: It differs somewhat from job to job, but I can name a few. I was canned for getting caught with my mouth on the shake machine at a certain fast food chain. I got caught making out with an electronics girl at a department store in a back room. I’ve been in several name-calling arguments with managers in front of customers or other employees. A couple have been no call/no shows. Had a customer’s car’s oil pan drain out for a quarter mile down the road. I’ve been accused of being too harsh in emails, too condescending over the phone, and rude in person.

Comment: No offense, but grow up. Jesus.. you’re 25 dude. This isn’t excusable after 16.

Comment: He’s got upper management written all over him.

Read the complete conversation here.

Chart from the World Economic Forum: Global Risk Landscape 2010, showing the likelihood of specific risks (terrorism, infectious disease, food price volatility, etc.) with corresponding severity of economic loss.

Also look at this “Risks Interconnection Map,” which shows “an overview of all risks and their interconnections.” It’s a little hard to understand but looks like someone really knew what they were doing when it comes to Adobe Flash.

Risk Interconnection Map

Just a few more Friday photo galleries left. Here are some new photos mixed in with best-ofs. Click on an image to see it full size.

More photos here

QuestionCopyright.org, is an organization that seeks to “highlight the economic artistic, and social harm caused by distribution monopolies, and to demonstrate how freedom-based distribution is better for artists and audiences.”

To that end, here’s an animated video it released a couple of weeks ago called “Copying Is Not Theft,” spelling out one argument against certain copyright restrictions.

Of course, you should feel free to download, repurpose, and sell this any way you can.

This cartoon from Ted McCagg requires knowledge of one of the more irritating Facebook applications.