Stocks Down Over 4% in Global Sell-Off  —  Stocks around the world fell sharply Thursday on intensifying investor fears about a slowdown in global economic growth and worries about Europe's ongoing debt crisis, which is centered now on Italy and Spain.  —  Stock market indexes in the United States …

DEBT DEAL DOESN'T RESCUE OBAMA FROM FLORIDA CRASH, QUINNIPIAC UNIVERSITY POLL FINDS; ROMNEY CLOSES GAP IN 2012 PRESIDENTIAL RACE  —  The national debt ceiling deal does not rescue President Barack Obama's crashing job approval rating in Florida as he gets a negative 44 …

Wrong And Right  —  Bruce Bartlett and others send me to this eloquent David Frum piece, which concludes: … The knee-jerk response of commenters is “But the Obama stimulus failed, deficits, yada yada.  Also, Krugman has a beard.”  Or something like that.

Inside the Huntsman ‘drama’  —  A blistering internal feud in the Jon Huntsman presidential campaign is erupting into public view, with dueling camps trading charges and an exodus of campaign officials.  —  And now, a longtime family friend tells POLITICO that Huntsman's wife and father fret …

Romney signs marriage pledge  —  Former Gov. Mitt Romney has joined Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Sen. Rick Santorum in signing a pledge to oppose same-sex marriage on a number of specific fronts.  —  The three candidates signed the pledge advanced by the National Organization for Marriage …

Happy birthday?  —  How much don't we know about Barack Obama as he nears the end of his third year of White House occupation?  —  Well, he claims today is his 50th birthday.  —  Yet, incredibly, it is still only an unsubstantiated claim - and, perhaps, more suspect than ever.

Obama's big drags  —  The politics of the debt fight were a drag for President Barack Obama, yanking his popularity to new lows.  Here's an even bigger drag: Obama emerges from the months-long fracas weaker - and facing much deeper and more durable political obstacles - than his own advisers ever imagined.

Even Marked Up, Luxury Goods Fly Off Shelves  —  Nordstrom has a waiting list for a Chanel sequined tweed coat with a $9,010 price.  Neiman Marcus has sold out in almost every size of Christian Louboutin “Bianca” platform pumps, at $775 a pair.  Mercedes-Benz said it sold more cars last month …

Rates of Wrath  —  Not good news in stock markets — but you really have to look at the bond markets to get the full awfulness of the situation.  —  The US 10-year bond rate is now down to 2.5%.  So much for those bond vigilantes.  What this rate is saying is that markets are pricing …

Satirical mints poking fun at Obama pulled from UT bookstore  —  Web Search powered by YAHOO! SEARCH  —  PHOTO BY SAUL YOUNG, COPYRIGHT © 2011 // BUY THIS PHOTO  —  Boxes of breath mints, like this one pictured at Vice Chancellor for Communication Margie Nichols' office on Wednesday …

Pressured by White House, Treasury Secretary Is Expected to Stay at Post  —  WASHINGTON — Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary and dean of President Obama's economic team, is expected to stay through the president's term after intense White House pressure, according to officials familiar with the discussions.

Presidential Power  —  I apologize in advance for indulging in a wonky process post yet again today ("more boy talk," as Twitter follower Stella calls it), but I want to repeat a point that I haven't made for a while.  It got kicked off by this tweet from Dave Roberts:  —  My answer: No, he just has the easiest job.

U.S. incomes fell sharply in 2009  —  (Reuters) - U.S. incomes plummeted again in 2009, with total income down 15.2 percent in real terms since 2007, new tax data showed on Wednesday.  —  The data showed an alarming drop in the number of taxpayers reporting any earnings from a job …

Pelosi: Republicans Aren't Interested In Deficit Reduction, They Are Interested In Destroying Government  —  In an interview with ThinkProgress and other online reporters this morning, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) flatly asserted that Republicans were not interested in deficit reduction.

O'Care truth sinks in  —  The first ideological tentacles of ObamaCare began snaking their way into the pocketbooks of private insurers and the consciences of religious Americans when, on Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services issued new guidelines requiring insurers …

Reid announces deal to end FAA furloughs  —  The Senate will pass the House's bill to fund the Federal Aviation Administration through September to end the week-and-a-half-long partial shutdown of the agency, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced Thursday.

Gov. Christie Defends Appointing Muslim Judge: ‘This Sharia Law Business Is Crap’  —  At this juncture, it may be more efficient to highlight which interactions between New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and the media are not newsworthy.  The Republican's appointment of Muslim-American Sohail Mohammed …

Report: Obama Administration Added $9.5 Billion in Red Tape in July  —  Conservatives take aim at job-killing regulations  —  Many House and Senate conservatives are reviving their battle against federal regulations, claiming that the president hasn't stopped issuing job-killing rules during the debt ceiling fight.

Sen. John Kerry plans re-election run for 2014, calls secretary of state ambitions ‘rumors’  —  BOSTON — John Kerry says he is planning to run for a sixth term in the U.S. Senate and has begun fundraising for his 2014 campaign.  —  When asked, Kerry told reporters in Boston on Thursday, “this is the job I want.

Democratic Insiders View Romney as Obama's Main Threat  —  With the economy sputtering, Democratic political operatives view former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as the main Republican threat to President Obama's reelection, according to this week's National Journal Political Insiders Poll.