WE HEAR that Portfolio is pushing its staff writers into contracts. As it stands, writers at the magazine are considered full-time and get appropriate benefits. That would change if they became independent contractors who regularly write for the magazine. [Boy would it ever!–day ed] Rumor has it that senior writers Sheelah Kolhatkar and Kevin Gray have already been talked to and the magazine is trying to get rid of office space. Jesse Eisinger probably won't get screwed because he's a real financial writer and also subject to Joanne Lipman's adoration. Update: a tipster writes in with more details, after the jump.

GOOFUS (Matthew Cooper) begins his article on Obama's economic plan by admitting that it's not really any different from Hillary Clinton's, thereby undermining his whole story from the start. "So when I sat down to write about Obamanomics, it struck me to look at the delivery, not the script," he says, launching into a pointless and unverifiable riff about his own thoughts on Obama for the rest of the article, instead of coming up with a better idea. GALLANT (Jesse Eisinger) writes a thoughtful, well argued explanatory piece on the flaws of the municipal-bond insurance market. Turns out it's all a big scam! Even if you're not an insurance fan, this piece is a great primer. Let's all be more like Gallant, shall we?