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BREAKING: 290,000 new jobs in April. Unemployment at 9.9%

BREAKING: New April jobs report from Labor Dept. "Nonfarm payroll employment rose by 290,000 in April, the unemployment rate edged up to 9.9 percent, and the labor force increased sharply ... the number of unemployed persons was 15.3 million ... The number of long-term unemployed ... continued to trend up over the month, reaching 6.7 million ... involuntary part-time workers ... was about unchanged at 9.2 million ..."

Bank Size Limit Killed, Fed Audit Compromise Reached

Brown-Kaufman amendment to limit bank size fails in late-night vote. HuffPost: "A move to break up major Wall Street banks failed Thursday night by a vote of 61 to 33. Three Republicans, Richard Shelby of Alabama, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and John Ensign of Nevada, voted with 30 Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, in support of the provision ... 'This is certainly a defeat for those who are concerned about the dangers of financial concentration in this country,' Kaufman said in a statement..."

Amendment to weaken consumer protection fails, as two GOPers break ranks. McClatchy: "Under the bill, the consumer protection agency would be housed at the Federal Reserve and would operate independently. Republicans instead wanted it placed inside the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which would approve any consumer-agency rules, which then would be enforced by bank regulators. Democrats said that would severely limit the consumer agency's clout."

Fed audit compromise amendment expected to pass. TPMDC: "The latest evidence of this populist surge is that the Senate is now expected to adopt an amendment, authored by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), that will require an audit of all of the Fed's emergency lending activities, starting in late 2007."

Compromise allows for a one-time audit. NYT: "The proposal would require the federal Government Accountability Office to conduct a 'one-time audit of all loans and other financial assistance provided during the period beginning on Dec. 1, 2007 and ending on the date of enactment of this Act' ... The audit ... would scrutinize an alphabet soup of programs that injected liquidity into the markets, ranging from commercial paper to money market funds ... the accountability office will not question whether the loans should have been made but will focus on operational integrity and accounting practices ... The audit, however, would explore 'whether the credit facility inappropriately favors one or more specific participants over other institutions eligible to utilize the facility' and 'whether there were conflicts of interest with respect to the manner in which such facility was established or operated.'"

"Dodd and the administration offered support for the modified amendment." reports W. Post.

Compromise rejected by FDL's Jane Hamsher & Scarecrow: "...we’ll get an accounting of how much looting occurred [but] not necessarily learn how the looting occurred or who designed it or covered it up."

Rep. Ron Paul also drops support: "Bernie Sanders has sold out and sided with Chris Dodd to gut Audit the Fed in the Senate. His 'compromise' is what the Administration and banking interests want: they’ll allow the TARP and TALF to be audited, but no transparency of the FOMC, discount window operations or agreement with foreign central banks."

Senate bill weaker on investment bank conflict-of-interest than House. W. Post: "On Thursday, SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro called for broker-dealers and investment advisers to meet the same standards ... The regulatory overhaul bill that has already passed the House would require broker-dealers who serve the public to meet the higher fiduciary standard. But after originally including a similar provision, the Senate legislation no longer does after lobbying by the financial industry."

NYC Mayor trying to block Sen. Webb amendment to tax bailed out execs. Politico quotes Webb response: “It’s ironic that the very people who caused this economic meltdown now believe they should receive billions in bonus payments that were made possible only because our taxpayers were required to save the economy from their errors in judgment."

Climate Bill Roll-Out Back On

Sen. Graham supportive but skeptical of climate bill following oil spill, in ClimateWire interview: "I think we need to have a time-out here. Find out what happened with the oil spill ... Next year, the EPA begins to regulate carbon. So the issue never goes away ... safe drilling is part of this vision I have. But I understand you've got to prove to people that it can be done safely after the accident ... I could see myself being the 60th vote for an energy-independent, job creation, clean air bill. It's pretty clear that I found it's something I can be for. The question is, can you get 59 other people for it?"

Top WH climate aide says oil spill may spark Senate action on climate, with drilling still in the mix. Bloomberg: "'This accident, this tragedy, is actually heightening people’s interest in energy in this country and in wanting a different energy plan,' [Carol] Browner [said.] ... Domestic oil production must be part of a new-energy economy, Browner said ... Browner said she gives climate-change legislation a better than 50 percent chance of passing Congress this year."

Sens. Kerry and Lieberman tweaking oil drilling provisions in climate bill. The Hill: "He said the bill retains a plan to promote development by providing states with drilling in newly-opened areas off their shores a share of the leasing and royalty revenue. But it also gives states the ability to block leasing within 75 miles of their shores ..." The two meet with biz execs today.

Virginia drilling plans shelved by Interior, for now. Greenwire: "'The Department of the Interior is temporarily postponing public meetings on potential offshore activities so that information from the ongoing review of OCS safety issues that the president has directed can be appropriately considered in those meetings,' Interior spokeswoman Julie Rodriguez said."

Grist's Alan Durning challenges interpretation of CBO report on climate bill and green jobs: "... the models are, by their authors’ admission, all loose and imprecise. Each of them makes a long list of counterfactual assumptions about the economy and politics ... they pile simplifying but false assumptions one atop the other ... here’s the good news. Despite the almost preposterously anti-clean-energy assumptions baked into the models CBO studied, they still basically show that the U.S. economy will hardly lose any jobs at all on net."

With the climate bill stalled in the Senate, leaders need to get started leading. Grist's Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins: "That doesn't just mean getting any bill passed, but legislation that aggressively deals with the environmental and economic crises before us. It means passing a bill that protects our air and oceans, fosters unprecedented job growth in our communities, and, above all, a bill that is in the interests of the people, not of special interests."

In NYT oped, Bruce Usher urges strong clean energy climate protection bill to keep us competitive with China: "First, institute national feed-in tariffs or a renewable portfolio standard -- two ways to require that utilities buy clean energy... Second, establish a price on carbon via either a tax or a cap-and-trade program to encourage low-carbon technologies ... By giving China more time to develop its capacity while neglecting our own, America is not just losing the clean-tech race, it’s forfeiting it."

$10B liability cap for oil spill still may not be high enough for BP. The Hill: "...House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Thursday left open the possibility that BP's liability could exceed that, even with a new liability cap in place, if the results of the spill that began on April 20 are viewed as multiple incidents ... [Rep. Paul] Hodes said he was 'certainly amenable to discussing the number' and possibly revising it upward, especially as the consequences of the spill become more evident. "

"Cash for Caulkers" clears House. CNN: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., estimates that the legislation will create nearly 168,000 jobs in construction, manufacturing, and retail. The House vote of 246-161 went through with support from the Democrats and overwhelming rejection from the Republicans ... The Senate is expected to take up the legislation this summer and determine how to pay for the program, which is likely to be controversial."

Big spike in carbon emissions by energy-hungry China. NYT: "...the country’s surging demand for power from oil and coal has led to the largest six-month increase in the tonnage of human generated greenhouse gases ever by a single country ... Premier Wen Jiabao promised tougher policies to enforce energy conservation, including a ban on government approval of any new projects by companies that failed to eliminate inefficient capacity..."

Cape Wind approval spurring more offshore wind projects. Stateline: "From Maine to North Carolina, efforts to plant enormous wind turbines on the ocean floor got a boost ... many of the proposed projects would be located in federal waters ... which means they would need federal agencies ... to sign off on the plans. State governments and utility companies see the Cape Cod decision, which has been hotly debated since 2001, as a sign that Washington will not stand in their way. It’s also given them hope that future decisions will not take as long to reach."

Scientists are lashing out at "McCarthy-like" threats against climate change research. NYT's Andrew Revkin: : "The journal Science has published a letter signed by 255 members of the National Academy of Sciences, including 11 Nobel laureates, that pushes back sharply ... [They] specifically criticize some politicians for what the letter calls 'McCarthy-like threats of criminal prosecution against our colleagues on the basis of innuendo and guilt by association.' It doesn’t name names, but a clear target is Senator James M. Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican. Another candidate could be Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II..."

Greece Is Not U.S.

Naked Capitalism's Marshall Auerback warns against deficit hysteria following Greece crisis: "Why do we have huge budget deficits across the globe? It’s not because our officials have all suddenly become Soviet-style apparatchiks. It is largely because the slower global economy has led to lower revenues ... and higher spending on the social safety net. Gutting this social safety net because we extrapolate the wrong lessons from the euro zone’s particular (and self-imposed) predicament constitutes the height of economic ignorance. It also reflects a transparently political agenda, which the US would be ill advised to embrace. The rescue packages, the IMF intervention and all the talk about orderly defaults cannot overcome the EMU’s fundamental design flaw. Let neo-liberalism die with the euro."

Krugman lays out the remaining options for Greece and Europe: "First, Greek workers could redeem themselves through suffering, accepting large wage cuts that make Greece competitive enough to add jobs again. Second, the European Central Bank could engage in much more expansionary policy, among other things buying lots of government debt, and accepting — indeed welcoming — the resulting inflation; this would make adjustment in Greece and other troubled euro-zone nations much easier. Or third, Berlin could become to Athens what Washington is to Sacramento — that is, fiscally stronger European governments could offer their weaker neighbors enough aid to make the crisis bearable ... What remains seems unthinkable: Greece leaving the euro."

"Greek deal lets banks off the hook" says FT's Arvind Subramanian: "...the burden of adjustment is now being spread to include European ($105bn) and international ($40bn) taxpayers ... But there will still be no contribution from European banks that hold large amounts of Greek debt ... heads the banks win, tails much poorer taxpayers thousands of miles away pick up the tab."

President Obama wants line-item veto to cut spending reports NYT.

Breakfast Sides

Chris Bowers says 2010 is shaping up to be the year of progressives, not the tea party: "These results suggest that there is a larger pool Democrats who are disgruntled at the incumbents in their own party than previously imagined. In fact, this pool of disgruntled Democrats might well be larger than the much more publicized tea party."

US companies in China don't care about currency, only China's industrial policy. W. Post: "This includes China's attempts to use regulations to block Western firms from selling their products to Chinese government agencies, new Chinese standards in telecommunications and other areas that would stop the country's firms from buying Western goods, and new rules that force Western companies to give up technological secrets in exchange for a piece of China's market."

Nearly 40 million Americans are now on food stamps. DailyKos' Meteor Blades: "...a record 39.7 million Americans were using them to put meals on the table, 13% of the population. ... Though not without its problems, the program remains one of the government's greatest successes, a key remaining part of a shredded social safety net. Even with the soaring use of food stamps because of the recession, most recipients are not jobless but rather low-wage workers. Without that backstop, many more of them and their children would be going hungry in America."

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