Daily digest – Rebalancing the guns and butter

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

No longer the land of opportunity (WaPo)
Harold Meyerson writes that while conservatives insist the U.S. is the one true merit-based society, it’s those despicable socialists in Europe who are really supporting economic mobility.

Panetta to Offer Strategy for Cutting Military Budget (NYT)
The Secretary of Defense will lay out his plan for reducing the size and cost of U.S. military operations with the understanding that we’ll only be able to fight one war at a time, distressing hawks who will be forced to pick their favorite and stick to it.

Bring Back Boring Banks (NYT)
Amar Bhide argues that the government should fully guarantee all bank accounts and then lay down the law about what banks can and can’t do. So what, just because we float them some money, we control them? Only banks operate like that.

What will give U.S. bankers ulcers in 2012 (WaPo)
Suzy Khimm predicts that Wall Street’s three biggest fears this year will be a euro zone meltdown, regulatory overreach, and Washington gridlock. Everyone else will probably maintain a fourth category: what Wall Street is up to.

Fed to Publish a Forecast of Rate Moves, Guiding Investors (NYT)
The Fed plans to start releasing long-term policy forecasts to allay fears about interest rate hikes. Now we get to see whether they’re as bad at figuring out what’s going on in their own heads as they are at assessing the economy.

Montana Tests Supreme Court Political-Spending Ruling (WSJ)
The Montana Supreme Court has voted to uphold a state law that bans corporate spending to support or oppose political candidates and parties, rejecting the Citizens United majority’s reasoning that buying politicians is as American as apple pie.

Men grab most new jobs, even in retailing (USA Today)
The womancession is still in full swing as men claim two thirds of the private sector jobs that are being created, with the barren job market forcing many to settle for retail work that no man — or indeed any human being — should be subjected to.

Climate change – our real bequest to future generations (Guardian)
Dean Baker notes that while deficit hawks rattle on for no good reason about the unbearable debt our grandchildren will inherit, policymakers seem curiously unconcerned about the planet Earth becoming an uninhabitable hellscape.

7 Places the 99% Will Fight Back Hard in 2012 (AlterNet)
Where will the Occupy movement wind up in the year ahead as it expands its efforts to highlight rising inequality and exploitation? Sadly, as Sarah Jaffe points out, they’re certainly not lacking for targets of opportunity.

As Winter Arrives, Occupy Protesters Shift Movement To Saving The 99 Percent’s Homes (Think Progress)
While some predicted the Occupy movement might die off once winter came, protesters are instead advocating some new wild-eyed liberal propositions, like the idea that banks should stop kicking people out of their houses and into the cold.

Short URL: http://aworldofprogress.com/readingroom/?p=1677

Posted by New Deal 2.0 on Jan 4 2012. 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