//Json index for use with feed widgets. Define a unique object name for each blog using the variable jsonObjName. spFeed = { "channel": { "title": "Marketplace Scratch Pad", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/?refid=0", "description": "News and views on the day's business and financial happenings.", "published": "Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:37:07 -0800", "language": "en", "items": [{ "title": "The Wolves and the Sheep", "description": "\I read an article in the New York Times which points out the difficult task the SEC faces in trying to stay ahead of Wall Street. It reads like David vs Goliath. Or an Aesop’s Fable.\<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/post_12.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:37:07 -0800", "comments": 0 },{ "title": "A gift horse for health reform?", "description": "\Just when you thought health care reform was dead in Congress, along comes Anthem Blue Cross. The insurance company and its parent, Wellpoint, are planning to raise rates as much as 39% for California customers.\<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/a_gift_horse_for_health_reform.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:50:21 -0800", "comments": 4 },{ "title": "Flying cheap, tired and untrained", "description": "\If you’ve ever flown a “puddle-jumper,” you might want to catch the Frontline documentary, \Flying Cheap\<\/a\>, tonight on PBS. Correspondent Miles O’Brien, a pilot himself, looks at the cheap ways and frightening lack of experience at some regional airlines.\<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/flying_cheap_tired_and_untrain.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Tue, 09 Feb 2010 09:31:57 -0800", "comments": 0 },{ "title": "Morning Reading", "description": "\Good morning. A few things to start the day: Maybe the US \needs\<\/em\> to lose its AAA credit rating, California needs to learn that Social Security numbers are private, and some chuckles from stand-up economist-comedians.\<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/morning_reading_215.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:55:28 -0800", "comments": 2 },{ "title": "Mad banker scientists", "description": "\The R&D departments at the big banks are still experimenting in their laboratories. The latest idea for financial “innovation” comes from Citigroup. It is working on the first derivatives that would pay out in the event of another financial crisis.\<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/mad_banker_scientists.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:29:52 -0800", "comments": 2 },{ "title": "The economy is so bad...", "description": "\Perhaps we can contribute to the growing collection of one-liners about the economy. You don’t even need to use your imagination. I’ve come up with a couple “the economy is so bad” jokes just from today’s news. \<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/the_economy_is_so_bad.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:12:04 -0800", "comments": 3 },{ "title": "The inflation bomb and Charles Darwin", "description": "\Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will tell Congress this week how the Fed plans to diffuse the $1 trillion bomb ticking away inside the banks. Did I mention that the Fed assembled this bomb in the first place?\<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/the_inflation_bomb_and_charles.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:16:36 -0800", "comments": 9 },{ "title": "Morning Reading", "description": "\Good morning. Hope you had a good weekend. Here a a few items to get the week started, including both sinners and SAINTS:\<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/morning_reading_214.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:55:41 -0800", "comments": 1 },{ "title": "Have something to say to Citi?", "description": "\This week, Citigroup \added one more blog to the universe\<\/a\>. It includes video interviews with Citi executives in charge of things like risk, mortgages and credit cards. CEO Vikram Pandit even delivers his own message, and something akin to an apology:\<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/have_something_to_say_to_citi.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:32:46 -0800", "comments": 3 },{ "title": "Misreading the job numbers", "description": "\The consensus over January’s employment report seems to be “cautious optimism.” It’s “a cause for hope, but not celebration” is how the president put it. That’s an understatement. The unemployment rate fell below 10%, but it would have been better news if the unemployment rate had \risen\<\/em\>.\<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/misreading_the_job_numbers.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:44:01 -0800", "comments": 8 },{ "title": "Pay as you go broke", "description": "\Both the House and the Senate have passed new “pay as you go” rules. PAYGO requires any new spending measures to be offset by cuts elsewhere or by tax increases. At the same time, the House has voted to raise the debt ceiling almost $2 trillion to $14.3 trillion. That’s about $46,000 worth of debt per American. \<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/pay_as_you_go_broke.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:27:05 -0800", "comments": 5 },{ "title": "Morning Reading", "description": "\Happy Friday. This morning, the latest job numbers are out. Plus, the mystery men of the financial crisis and debating the ruling on campaign ads…\<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/morning_reading_213.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:58:07 -0800", "comments": 2 },{ "title": "Making life better and people happy", "description": "\There were two food and beverage innovations announced today that are supposed to spread joy across the world. One of them might prevent drunk Brits from killing each other. The other could keep hungry Americans from screaming while eating their french fries.\<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/making_life_better_and_people.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Thu, 04 Feb 2010 14:03:45 -0800", "comments": 4 },{ "title": "It\'s the principal of the thing", "description": "\The housing market has an enormous elephant in the room, and no one seems to be able to move it. If homeowners start walking away from their mortgages en masse, there’s little doubt the housing market will collapse and take the economy with it.\<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/its_the_principal_of_the_thing.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:01:36 -0800", "comments": 24 }, { "title": "Be very, very afraid", "description": "\Do not be fooled, my friend. That is not a fiscal conservative you see below. I know it looks just like one. But it’s not. It’s a man dressed in a bad B-movie costume. And he’s playing the role of… a US Senate candidate from California. Oh, the horror! The horror!\<\/p\>\n\n\\\\\"Devil-Sheep.jpg\"\<\/a\>\<\/span\>\<\/p\>\n", "link": "http://www.publicradio.org/columns/marketplace/scratchpad/2010/02/be_very_very_afraid.html?refid=0", "pubDate": "Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:51:25 -0800", "comments": 5 }] } }