Fractured GOP May Mean Shutdown
Politico's Ben White and MJ Lee argue shutdown could really happen this time: "The House GOP is hopelessly fractured on spending strategy. Senate Republicans who might otherwise broker a deal face primary challenges that make compromise potentially deadly. Other Senate Republicans are jockeying for 2016. And congressional Democrats have no appetite for any bargain — grand or otherwise — that cuts entitlement spending."
McConnell seeks unified hard-line from Senate GOP. Politico: "The GOP leader sees a winning political message heading into the fall before the 2014 midterms. Showing himself as the leader of a conference bent on spending cuts as he runs for reelection in conservative Kentucky won’t hurt either ... [But Democrats] believe six to 10 Republicans can be wooed to support levels higher than the $967 billion in discretionary spending that GOP leadership prefers, especially if a spending bill is tailored to some of their interests and replaces some or all of the sequester."
Postal Service losses declining, but Saturday delivery still threatened, reports W. Post: "The development might help push a divided Congress to reach a deal on overhauling the Postal Service, some say ... the agency credited the better numbers to increased efficiency, a decrease in workers’ compensation, and growth in shipping and package services ... Last week, two top senators introduced bipartisan postal legislation that would restructure the pre-funding requirement, allow for a gradual end to Saturday mail delivery, and make curbside delivery or cluster boxes mandatory for businesses and new homes, with limited exceptions."
Questions For The Next Fed Chief
Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have "Four Questions for Fed Chair Candidates": "Do you believe that the Fed's top priority should be to fulfill its full employment mandate? ... would you work to break up 'too-big-to-fail' financial institutions ... Do you believe that the deregulation of Wall Street, including the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act and exempting derivatives from regulation, significantly contributed to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression? ... What would you do to divert the $2 trillion in excess reserves that financial institutions have parked at the Fed into more productive purposes, such as helping small- and medium-sized businesses create jobs?"
Criminal charges may be imminent for JPMorgan Chase. Bloomberg: "he U.S. may announce charges as early as this week against former London-basedJPMorgan Chase & Co. employees related to allegations they tried to conceal losses last year ... Those facing U.S. charges include Javier Martin-Artajo, a former executive who oversaw the trading strategy, and Julien Grout, a trader who worked for him ... Prosecutors also are weighing penalties for the bank, including a fine and a reprimand ... While the SEC may target some people involved in the trades, top executives probably won’t face claims that they lied to or misled the public ..."
Blaming Workers For Wall Street
Scapegoating Detroit's public workers lets Wall Street off the hook, says HuffPost's Robert Kuttner: "As we saw in the Wisconsin assault on collective bargaining for public employees and most recently in the San Francisco area BART strike, all public workers are losing public sympathy because wages, pension and health benefits have declined even faster in the private sector, leaving regular people to conclude that government employees have it too good. In fact, a study by pension expert Alicia Munnell finds that average state and local employee pensions are well below level needed to maintain living standards in retirement. Wall Street must be chortling, as ordinary workers blame civil servants rather than ... a banker-dominated system that undermines decent living standards for public and private workers alike."
"Detroit’s demise is not simply an inevitable outcome of the market," argues Joseph Stiglitz in NYT oped: "...Detroit’s most serious problems are confined to the city limits. Elsewhere in the metropolitan area, there is ample economic activity ... our country is becoming vastly more economically segregated, which can be even more pernicious than being racially segregated. Detroit is the example par excellence ... the rich thus ensure that they don’t have to pay any share of the local public goods and services of their less well-off neighbors ... The result is a separate, poorer inner city with a dearth of resources, made even worse because the industrial plants that had provided the core of the tax base are shut down."
USTR seeks to export more cars to Japan, smooth consideration of Pacific trade deal. Politico: "Japan joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks less than a month ago is a welcome development but one that also brings with it a number of major obstacles. Lawmakers representing automotive industry states are demanding concessions from Japan, and they have leverage: The Obama administration needs Congress to approve 'fast-track' authority guaranteeing that TPP would get a vote without amendments, and it also needs the deal to ultimately win approval. The administration has a short window of opportunity before campaigning revs up for the 2014 election, making it a near-impossible environment to get such a massive trade deal done."
