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: The Minimum Wage Is So Low, It's Immoral
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "Sen. Tom Harkin and Rep. George Miller have a new minimum-wage proposal that's worth fighting for. Here's why: Most low-wage workers work for large corporations, not Mom-and-Pop businesses … Think of a minimum wage increase as an instant economic stimulus funded by the runaway profits of the major corporations."
2011 Poverty Rate Expected To Jump
2011 poverty data to be released shortly before Election Day. AP: "The Associated Press surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks and academics, both nonpartisan and those with known liberal or conservative leanings, and found a broad consensus: The official poverty rate will rise from 15.1 percent in 2010, climbing as high as 15.7 percent."
House GOP flinches on farm bill with deep food stamp cuts. AP: "Senate-passed bills to cut farm subsidies and food stamps and overhaul the financially teetering Postal Service have been put on hold by House Republican leaders wary of igniting internal party fights or risking voters' ire three months before the election … The farm bill puts fiscal conservatives from rural districts in a position of having to vote against federal subsidies for farmers and could force Democrats to vote for cuts to the federal food stamp program. The postal bill might require lawmakers to decide on shutting post offices or terminating Saturday service."
"Caterpillar is trying to pioneer new territory, seeking steep concessions from its workers even when business is booming," reports NYT: "Robert Bruno, a labor relations professor at the University of Illinois, said Caterpillar was trying to drive compensation down to a new floor. 'Caterpillar sees this as "the new normal," while this union local feels you have to draw a line in the sand to hold on,' he said."
Libor Arrests Expected
Libor arrests may happen soon. Reuters: "U.S. prosecutors and European regulators are close to arresting individual traders and charging them with colluding to manipulate global benchmark interest rates … Federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C., have recently contacted lawyers representing some of the individuals under suspicion to notify them that criminal charges and arrests could be imminent…"
Geithner should recuse himself, says NYT edit board: "Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner defended his actions in 2008 … But to hear him tell it, the issue was a plumbing problem, not a potentially criminal and certainly improper pattern of rate rigging … Mr. Geithner should recuse himself from any investigations into the rate rigging…"
Libor proves self-regulation doesn't work in finance. New Yorker's James Surowiecki: "Rigging LIBOR was shockingly easy. The estimates aren’t audited. They’re not compared with market prices. And LIBOR is put together by a trade group, without any real supervision from government regulators … LIBOR was supposedly a great example of self-regulation, evidence that the market could look after itself better than regulators could. But, if recent history has taught us anything, it’s that self-regulation doesn’t work in finance, and that worries about reputation are a weak deterrent to corporate malfeasance."
We should still nationalize the banks, argues Gar Alperovitz in NYT oped: "With high-paid lobbyists contesting every proposed regulation, it is increasingly clear that big banks can never be effectively controlled as private businesses. If an enterprise (or five of them) is so large and so concentrated that competition and regulation are impossible, the most market-friendly step is to nationalize its functions."
We should break up HSBC, argues Bloomberg's Simon Johnson: "Investigators … have established a decade-long pattern of behavior in which HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, provided money-laundering services to drug traffickers in Mexico and criminals around the world. The bank also broke U.S. laws restricting transactions with Iran ,,, large banks are increasingly difficult to analyze, making it hard to know whether they are good or bad investments. At this point, HSBC is so out of control that breaking it up would be good for shareholders."
"Bailout" author Neil Barofsky says Dodd-Frank isn't enough: "My fear about the inadequacy of Dodd-Frank has only gotten worse over the past year. The top banks are 23 percent larger than they were before the crisis … The risk in our banking system is remarkably concentrated in these banks, which now control 52 percent of all industry assets, up from 17 percent four decades ago."
Dodd defends, in Politico oped: "Its work is under way with the creation of consumer-friendly mortgage forms and credit card agreements that force lenders to give borrowers a clear and accurate description of their loan terms … We also established requirements for banks to maintain higher capital levels to better absorb unexpected losses. Those running financial institutions are required to be far more knowledgeable about their firm’s everyday dealings. Regulatory agencies must now communicate in real time with one another and watch for problems ahead. Dodd-Frank also prohibits the Federal Reserve from bailing out failing firms and brings more accountability to the $600 trillion derivatives market."
Breakfast Sides
Romney profits from scandal-marred health care company. Salon.com's Art Levine: "Our investigation found previously unreported allegations of abuse and neglect in at least 10 CRC residential drug and teen care facilities across the country, including three I visited undercover in Utah and California. With rare exceptions, such incidents have largely escaped notice because the programs are, thanks to lax state regulations, largely unaccountable … in the six years since Bain Capital acquired the company, there have been at least five more seemingly preventable deaths of patients at CRC’s residential programs."
The national drought is climate change, notes NYT's Paul Krugman: "Joseph Romm, the influential climate blogger, has coined the term 'Dust-Bowlification' for the prospect of extended periods of extreme drought in formerly productive agricultural areas. He has been arguing for some time that this phenomenon, with its disastrous effects on food security, is likely to be the leading edge of damage from climate change … For large-scale damage from climate change is no longer a disaster waiting to happen. It’s happening now."
The "fiscal cliff" should not be an incentive to pass Simpson-Bowles, writes HuffPost's Robert Kuttner: "The Cliff is universally regarded as an impending disaster because it would create a sharp fiscal contraction, at a time when the recovery is weak to non-existent … The latest Bowles-Simpson deal would… cut spending and raise taxes, which in turn would, uh, create a sharp fiscal contraction at a time when the recovery is weak to non-existent."
