Daily digest
What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.
House Passes Deal to Avert Debt Crisis (NYT)
The return of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords provided the final push needed for the House to approve the debt ceiling plan, but both parties feel they conceded too much. One party is right.
US debt deal: how Washington lost the plot (Guardian)
Dean Baker points out that while policymakers have become obsessed with debt, they haven’t noticed the economy slumped over in the corner, gathering flies.
What the debt ceiling deal means for the unemployed (WaPo)
Since Democrats failed to work any stimulus into the deal, extended unemployment benefits are set to run out at the end of the year. And with five unemployed people for every job opening, there’s really only one option left: gladiator fights.
Tea Party’s War on America (NYT)
Joe Nocera writes that the debt ceiling debate amounts to economic terrorism, and the results may be just as destructive to the country’s stability and security.
What Presidency? (Naked Capitalism)
Roosevelt Institute Fellow Matt Stoller argues that simply blaming Republicans for tying the President’s hands lets Obama off too easy, since he has also proven to be pretty bad at all the parts of his job that they have nothing to do with.
Doing Debt Ceiling Battle The FDR Way (CAF)
Sam Pizzigati notes that FDR managed to get the debt ceiling raised even while fighting for a salary cap that would shift the costs of war away from the poor. He was a multi-tasker that way.
Feds’ free birth control rule drawing fire (CBS)
As Senior Fellow Ellen Chesler points out, contraception is vital not only to women’s health but to issues like education and employment. But critics fear that if insurance companies are forced to cover it, it’s a slippery slope to women wanting to vote or take off their hats in public.
A Tax Policy With San Francisco Roots (NYT)
Senior Fellow Joseph Stiglitz is helping to breathe new life into an old idea: instead of playing complicated games with income taxes, why not tax the value of land, which can’t be stashed in a secret account in the Caymans?
Focus Turns Back to Fed on Economy (NYT)
Since Congress is busy actively weakening the recovery, any further stimulus measures may be in the Federal Reserve’s hands. For now, most Fed members seem to think the timing isn’t right, while others would rather crawl across broken glass.
Low Bank Capital Is Next Fiscal Crisis (Bloomberg)
Simon Johnson warns that all the current deficit projections Washington can’t stop talking about will be rendered moot if banks are allowed to build up insane amounts of leverage and turn the economy into a smoking crater again.
Wall Street Continues to Spend Big on Lobbying (NYT)
A year after the passage of Dodd-Frank, everyone from Goldman Sachs to the Federation of Bosnia-Herzogovina is still trying to persuade regulators that the rule of banks trumps the rule of law.
Goldman’s lost shine (WaPo)
In the wake of the financial crash, Goldman Sachs has gone from the gold standard of Wall Street to its arch villain. And prioritizing their own profits at the expense of their clients’ isn’t exactly helping their image.
Our Unbalanced Democracy (NYT)
Instead of off-loading more and more responsibility onto the President to avoid congressional gridlock, Jacob Hacker and Oona Hathaway write that we could use a government that actually works as designed.
Three Arrested On Wall Street For Public Nudity And Disturbance Of The Peace (Business Insider)
Around thirty people stripped naked on Wall Street yesterday to protest the financial sector’s lack of transparency, but since it was a Monday morning in New York City, most observers just wrote it off as business as usual.
Short URL: http://aworldofprogress.com/readingroom/?p=500
Posted by New Deal 2.0
on Aug 2 2011. Filed under New Deal 2.0, the reading room.
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