Daily digest – To boldly go somewhere, maybe

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

Will Obama go bold on jobs plan? (Politico)
Progressives are urging the president to lay out a grand vision in his upcoming jobs speech, but some administration insiders feel that if they just get a good running start on compromise, there’s no way Republicans can pull the football away this time.

A Few Fed Policy Makers Favored Stronger Move (Bloomberg)
Minutes from the latest FOMC meeting show that some Fed members support more aggressive action to stimulate the economy and create jobs. They will remain anonymous to avoid the shame this would bring to themselves and their families.

Ben Bernanke’s Dream World (Project Syndicate)
Brad DeLong argues that the only thing currently fueling the kind of robust economic growth the Fed chairman is projecting is his own wishful thinking.

One Way to Speed the Recovery? Help Households, Not Banks. (TNR)
Mark Thoma writes that while the government has been busy doting on ailing financial behemoths, no one’s more in need of some TLC than homeowners who are struggling to avoid foreclosure and keep food on the table.

The Case Against a Payroll Tax Cut (NYT)
Bruce Bartlett makes the case that a $110 billion public works project would provide more stimulus than another $110 billion tax cut, especially since many workers may fear that money is coming straight out of their retirement benefits.

An opportunity we can’t afford to miss (WaPo)
Ezra Klein writes that with negative yields on Treasury debt, investors around the world are essentially giving the government free money to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. Will Congress put it to use or try to stuff it under the mattress?

What Steve Jobs could do for the U.S. working class (WaPo)
Harold Meyerson doesn’t think Steve Jobs should be elevated to the pantheon of great American innovators just yet. Sure, Jobs has given America lots of cool toys to play with, but Henry Ford gave America… well, jobs.

More Legal Woes for BofA: Homeowners Opposes $8.5 Billion Settlement; Different Trustee Sues Over Reps and Warranties (Naked Capitalism)
Bank of America’s settlement on Countrywide’s mortgage bonds faces yet another hurdle as homeowners object to a provision that would speed up foreclosures and U.S. Bancorp asks BofA to buy back mortgages with shoddy documentation.

Debt super committee vexes even lobbyists (Reuters)
The Super Committee members have been so caught up with work lately that they hardly have time to meet with their favorite industry lobbyists. Maybe a few million more in the campaign coffers will help rekindle that old spark.

Labor Board’s Exiting Leader Responds to Critics (NYT)
It’s definitely time for Wilma Liebman to leave her post at the NLRB. She’s so out of touch that she doesn’t even get why someone upholding the law and helping to protect workers’ rights is now the exact definition of a “socialist goon.”

The decade’s biggest scam (Salon)
Glenn Greenwald writes that the last ten years of security policy have been geared toward keeping everyone so scared that they won’t stop to worry about how their money is being wasted on cushy government contracts and domestic surveillance.

Expertise And Economic Intervention (Think Progress)
According to some conservative pundits, a proper economic policy debate can only take place when the participants have no idea what they’re talking about. At least they’re holding up their end of the bargain.

Short URL: http://aworldofprogress.com/readingroom/?p=864

Posted by New Deal 2.0 on Aug 31 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