Daily digest – Cave man
What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.
House GOP agrees to 2-month extension of payroll tax cut (WaPo)
Though House Republicans insisted a short-term deal would betray their principles, the suggestion that they “do the right thing for the American people” was apparently novel enough that they decided to give it a whirl.
The problem with Obama’s payroll tax cut politics (Salon)
Democrats also secured an extension of unemployment benefits, but Josh Bivens worries their emphasis on payroll tax savings buys into the conservative frame that the solution to all problems is to cut taxes, and if that fails, try cutting taxes again.
The Post-Truth Campaign (NYT)
Paul Krugman predicts 2012’s election coverage will strike that non-partisan balance between covering GOP efforts to smear Barack Obama as a socialist dictator and highlighting every time Obama forgets a statistic or incorrectly conjugates a verb.
Fed May Signal Low Rates Into 2014 (WSJ)
As the Fed develops a new communications strategy, it plans to forecast policy over broader ranges instead of targeting specific end dates. In other words, don’t worry: there are no new ideas coming, and there won’t be for the foreseeable future.
The watchdogs that didn’t bark (Reuters)
While federal prosecutors appear to have had trouble finding any financial fraud cases that were worth rousing themselves from their slumber over the last four years, they might find it’s more difficult not to trip over them if they start taking a look around.
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No One Is Above the Law (NYT)
Simon Johnson argues that the reluctance to hold Wall Street accountable stems from the fact that everyone in a real position of power is on the banks’ payroll and that the banks have rigged the economy to explode if anyone looks at them funny.
Retailers Are Slashing Prices Ahead of Holiday (NYT)
In what can only be a sign that the green shoots of recovery are flourishing even in the dead of winter, many stores are spending what is ordinarily a month-long national celebration of consumerism begging people to please buy something.
Revolution through Banking? (The Nation)
The Occupy movement is beginning to develop a plan for what banks would look like if they were democratic institutions that provided a public good rather than some sort of avant garde performance art on the theme of unchecked greed.
It’s a Wonderful Lie (TAP)
Feeling insecure about their PR, Bank of America and JP Morgan have launched new ad campaigns to show they’re actually your best buddies and are always doing nice things for The Troops when they’re not busy helping old ladies across the street.
Rich People Lack Empathy, Study Finds (HuffPo)
If it ever seems like the 1% have no idea where the 99% are coming from or what they’re feeling, research suggests that’s because they genuinely don’t. I mean, do you think a lot about a fly’s feelings before you swat it? Exactly.
Short URL: http://aworldofprogress.com/readingroom/?p=1661
Posted by New Deal 2.0
on Dec 23 2011. Filed under New Deal 2.0, the reading room.
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