Daily digest – The Fed’s inaction plan

What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.

Fed Lowers Its Forecast for Growth, but Takes No Steps (NYT)
Ben Bernanke’s take-away from this week’s FOMC meeting is that the economy is worse than expected, unemployment is still too high, and inflation is no obstacle to further action. In other words, steady as she goes.

For The First Time Since 2007, Federal Reserve Official Dissents From Central Bank Policy From The Left (Think Progress)
Chicago Fed President Charles Evans chose to go out on a limb and argue that if the Fed knows its current policies aren’t doing enough to stimulate the economy, it might want to consider a plan that would actually accomplish something.

Oakland’s Port Shuts Down as Protesters March on Waterfront (NYT)
Occupy Oakland’s call for a general strike didn’t shut down the city, but one of the nation’s largest ports was effectively blockaded. So a bunch of supposedly lazy, disorganized hippies had a more productive day than the central bank of the U.S.

How the rich created the Social Security “crisis” (Salon)
Gene Lyons writes that a decade of baseless and self-contradictory propaganda has aimed to convince Americans that Social Security is a scam because the government has not set aside a mattress for each individual worker and stuffed it with cash.

Obama on Banking: The Worst Deal They Could Cut (Crooks and Liars)
Mike Lux notes that while President Obama has adopted a more populist tone to tap into public anger, pushing for a lopsided settlement in the nationwide foreclosure probe effectively puts Tim Geithner in charge of his reelection campaign.

President Obama rips Boehner for ignoring jobs legislation in favor of ‘In God we Trust’ (WaPo)
The president points out that while House Republicans still haven’t passed a comprehensive jobs bill, they did set aside time this week to poke at atheists and confirm that the little motto written on the back of our money is still accurate.

Creditors can huff but they need debtors (FT)
Martin Wolf observes that creditor nations like China, Germany, and Japan are really in no position to lecture other countries about the folly of going into debt unless they discover alien life or parallel universes that they’d like to start trading with instead.

Biggest Public Firms Paid Little U.S. Tax, Study Says (NYT)
A new study finds that 280 of the biggest companies in America paid only half their actual tax rate over the last three years thanks to shelters and loopholes built into the tax code. Of course, Obama’s still a tyrant for making them pay the other half.

Progressives on Supercommittee Marginalized Amidst Deficit Theater (The Nation)
The 12-member Super Committee has now spawned a sub-committee of six to hammer out a deal. Next comes the Super Triumvirate, then someone assumes emergency powers and declares himself Deficit Emperor for life.

How the Supercommittee Could Kill New Farmers Markets (MoJo)
Congress is racing to slap together a farm bill to meet the Super Committee’s deadline. Naturally, they’re keeping the policies that benefit their donors and scrapping the extraneous stuff, like providing people with healthy food to eat.

Short URL: http://aworldofprogress.com/readingroom/?p=1368

Posted by New Deal 2.0 on Nov 3 2011. Filed under New Deal 2.0, the reading room. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry