Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security.
MORNING MESSAGE: After JPMorgan Chase, Break Up The Banks
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "Even if we assume that JPM's current problems can be contained, we should realize that every loss of this kind has the potential to turn into a chain reaction. Each could become a cascading failure that threatens JPM or another megabank -- and which therefore threatens the entire financial system. The megabanks pose an existential threat to our economy." CLICK HERE to tell Congress, pass the SAFE Banking Act.
JPMorgan Chase Scandal Deepens
Key JP Morgan Chase official previously fired for risky bets. Bloomberg: "Irvin Goldman, who oversaw risks in the JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) unit that suffered more than $2 billion in trading losses, was fired by another Wall Street firm in 2007 for money-losing bets that prompted a regulatory sanction at the firm, Cantor Fitzgerald LP..."
Paul Krugman explains JP Morgan to Mitt Romney, slowly: "[Said Romney,] 'This was a loss to shareholders and owners of JPMorgan and that’s the way America works.' ... [But] when banks take on too much risk they put the whole economy in jeopardy — unless they can count on being bailed out ... how is it possible that Mr. Romney doesn’t understand all of this?"
Will G8 Lead To Global Stimulus?
G8 signals "emerging consensus" on growth over austerity. AP: "'There's now an emerging consensus that more must be done to promote growth and job creation right now,' Obama proclaimed ... Yet there were no bold prescriptions at hand. Instead, leaders seemed intent on trying to inspire confidence by agreeing on a broad strategy no matter their differences. With all of them facing their own difficult political realities, they built some sovereign wiggle room into their pledge to take all necessary steps, saying 'the right measures are not the same for each of us.'"
Robert Kuttner gives the G8 a mixed review: "The good news: Austerity is finally on the defensive ... The bad news: The shift is mainly at the level of rhetoric and token policy changes. Nobody in the political mainstream is seriously proposing the kind of radical reform that would allow growth to occur ... the prospects for broader European recovery are still very bleak until the politics get a lot more radical."
Ryan Goes Orwellian
"We’re not even really cutting spending," says House Budget Chair Paul Ryan of the Republican budget, on NBC's Meet the Press.
"Paul Ryan Claims Romney Budget, Which Adds $10 Trillion To Debt, Will ‘Prevent A Debt Crisis’" reports ThinkProgress.
Supreme Court May Reconsider Citizens United
Montana pressuring Supreme Court to reconsider and reverse Citizens United. W. Post: "The Montana Supreme Court acknowledged a conflict when it voted 5 to 2 to uphold the state law, created by voters in 1912 to combat the power of the so-called Copper Kings who controlled state politics ... Those urging the court to grant a full hearing of the Montana case take aim at the most important finding of Citizens United. That was the declaration in Justice Anthony M. Kennedy’s majority opinion that 'we now conclude that independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption.' 'That cannot be so,' the new bipartisan team of Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) told the court."
Super PACs shift power away from candidates to donor. NYT: "Once wedded to the careers and aims of individual candidates, [political operatives] are now driven by the agendas of the big donors who finance outside spending ... there are no cranky candidates, no scheduling conflicts, no bitter strategy debates with rival advisers. There are only wealthy donors and the consultants vying to oblige them ... Super PACs offer advantages to the donors as well. Because they can give unlimited amounts to outside groups, they can have substantial influence without the hard work of raising money for a candidate..."
