Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security.
Corporations Try To Buy The Election...
Flood of corporate cash into campaigns. W. Post: "Interest groups are spending five times as much on the 2010 congressional elections as they did on the last midterms, and they are more secretive than ever about where that money is coming from ... The bulk of the money is being spent by conservatives, who have swamped their Democratic-aligned competition by a 7 to 1 ratio in recent weeks ... The Supreme Court cleared the way for unlimited spending by corporations, unions and other interest groups on election ads in its 5 to 4 decision this year..."
Mother Jones ranks "Capitol Hill's Top 75 Corporate Sponsors": 1. AT&T, 2. National Association of Realtors, 3. Goldman Sachs...
KY senate candidate Rand Paul announces support or raising the Social Security retirement age, reports AP...
... and Paul said of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, "I'm not seeing it as a cost to government." Wonk Room's Pat Garofalo: "...since Paul agrees with McConnell that tax cuts are either free or worth busting the budget to enact, maybe he also agrees with McConnell’s pronouncement that cutting taxes for the rich is deficit spending which Republicans wholeheartedly support?"
...With The Profits They Don't Use For Jobs
Corporate profits keep going up, despite weak job growth. WSJ: "U.S. companies are rebounding quickly from the recession and posting near-historic profits, the result of aggressively re-tooling their operations to cope with lower revenue and an uncertain outlook ... companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index posted second-quarter profits of $189 billion, up 38% from a year earlier..."
Companies are borrowing money at cheap rates ... and sitting on it. NYT: "Companies like Microsoft are raising billions of dollars by issuing bonds at ultra-low interest rates, but few of them are actually spending the money on new factories, equipment or jobs. Instead, they are stockpiling the cash until the economy improves ... Corporations keep saving, waiting for the economy to perk up — but the economy is unlikely to perk up if corporations keep saving."
Currency Manipulation, Everyone's Doing It!
More nations playing by China's currency rules. NYT: "Japan and Brazil have taken measures recently to devalue their currencies, or at least prevent them from appreciating further against the Chinese currency ... the rest of the world is beginning to mimic the technique China has perfected: manipulating currencies for national advantage, while resisting political pressure from trading partners."
Dean Baker suggests NYT piece partial to China: "It also raises the prospect that a higher valued yuan would seriously damage China's economy. It would have been helpful to note the importance of China's exports to the U.S. to its economy. China's good exports to the U.S. are approximately equal to 6 percent of its GDP. Even a sharp rise in the yuan is unlikely to reduce its exports by more than one-third (2 percent of GDP) over a 2-year period. ... China's exports to the United States fell by 17.4 percent from the third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2009. China was able to offset the loss of export demand from the United States and elsewhere with a massive stimulus package. As a result, its economy grew by more than 9.0 percent in 2009."
Robert Kuttner urges WH to confront China: "For once, Congress did the right thing. The administration should follow. If China wants the benefits of an open trading system, it should start playing by the rules."
Robert Reich argues against focusing on currency: "It's no big accomplishment to create jobs by getting poorer ... The goal isn't just more jobs. It's more jobs that pay enough to improve our living standards."
Fred Bergsten proposes "countervailing currency intervention" to dealing with currency manipulation, in FT oped: "When China or Japan buy dollars to keep their currency substantially undervalued, the US should sell an equivalent amount of dollars to push back. The IMF should authorise such intervention when necessary, to discipline countries that are violating their obligations by engaging in deliberate undervaluation."
Happy Birthday TARP
Recently departed Assistant Treasury Sec. Herbert Allison defends TARP on its 2nd anniversary: "Many people think that TARP cost $700 billion. But Treasury is now confident that the lifetime cost to taxpayers will be less than $50 billion. Repayments have continued to exceed expectations. Three-fourths of the TARP funds provided to banks have already been returned. And the exit strategy AIG announced last week puts taxpayers in a considerably stronger position to recoup our investment in that company. Many people think that TARP funds only went to Wall Street. But more than 450 small and community banks participated in TARP, which helped them deliver credit to local small businesses and families."
Dean Baker retorts: "We gave the banks trillions of dollars worth of loans and loan guarantees through the TARP, the Fed and the FDIC at way below market rates at the time. It is true that most of this money was paid back, so the government got back what it lent, but that does not mean there was no cost to the taxpayer ... Wall Street executives are still pocketing tens of millions a year and the banks are again making record profits. Had the market been allowed to work its magic, this wealth and income would have been available for the rest of society."
Former Obama "auto czar" defends TARP in FT oped:: "Without Tarp, General Motors and Chrysler would also have been at the mercy of Congress, whose dithering ways would have resulted in at least one of them running out of money, shutting down and liquidating."
NYT checks in on growing foreclosure fraud scandal: "The implications are not yet clear for borrowers who have been evicted from their homes as a result of improper filings. But legal experts say that courts may impose sanctions on lenders or their representatives or may force banks to pay borrowers’ legal costs in these cases. Judges may dismiss the foreclosures altogether, barring lenders from refiling and awarding the home to the borrower. That would create a loss for the lender or investor holding the note underlying the property. Almost certainly, lawyers say, lawsuits on behalf of borrowers will multiply."
Calculated Risk cautions on overstating implications: "Sanctions and awarding the defendants legal costs are likely ... but it is very unlikely in a foreclosure case that a judge will dismiss the bank's complaint with prejudice. The facts of these cases are 1) the borrower had a mortgage, and 2) the borrower is seriously delinquent (with the exception of a few cases with outright errors). Those facts are not in dispute. Just something to remember when reading these stories."
Banks shift from pushing credit cards on students, to shady debit cards. W. Post: "These cards, however, are not subject to the sweeping reforms that took effect this year and sought to curtail similar relationships between colleges and credit card issuers. Meanwhile, students complain that the loan cards are riddled with high fees, and they have organized protests at several campuses."
Who Killed The Climate Bill?
New Yorker investigates why climate bill failed to pass this year, points finger at President, WH staff, Sen. Maj. Leader Reid: "...the Administration had grown wary of cutting the kind of deals that the senators needed to pass cap-and-trade. The long and brutal health-care fight had caused a rift in the White House over legislative strategy. One camp, led by Phil Schiliro, Obama’s top congressional liaison, was composed of former congressional aides who argued that Obama needed to insert himself in the legislative process if he was going to pass the ambitious agenda that he had campaigned on. The other group, led by David Axelrod, believed that being closely associated with the messiness of congressional horse-trading was destroying Obama’s reputation ... Schiliro’s side won the debate over how the White House should approach health care, but in 2010, when the Senate took up cap-and-trade, Axelrod’s side was ascendant."
Climate Progress' Joe Romm piles on: "It may well be that there was no route to 60 votes in this political climate even if Obama had been a cross between Lyndon Johnson and Winston Churchill, but there certainly was no route to 60 votes without Obama using all of the political and rhetorical powers of the White House."
The Intersection's Chris Mooney cautions: "Harsh. I’m not sure I think it’s fair..."
NYT reminds that EPA is moving head on cutting carbon, as nations gather for climate talks in China: "...international negotiators have hardly given up. This week, U.N. climate talks are taking place in Tianjin, China, which could help prepare for climate discussions in Cancun, Mexico, at the end of the year. Another round of negotiations is scheduled for South Africa next year ... One of the notable global holdouts, the United States, is quietly poised to act ... The [EPA] due to start regulating greenhouse gas emissions."
Dems Embrace Health Reform On The Trail
More Dems are running for re-election on their health care vote. W. Post's E. J. Dionne: "Why the sudden willingness to run on health care? The key reason is that the law didn't begin to take effect until Sept. 23, and the first elements to kick in are very popular."
The internal GOP debate: should we shut down the government again? W. Post on the GOP strategy to defund health care reform: "...interviews with Republican members of Congress, staff members and conservative lobbyists suggest that their opinions vary about the likelihood of their prevailing in such a showdown. Several predicted a standoff similar to the 1995 federal government shutdown that resulted when President Bill Clinton and the majority-Republican Congress could not agree on a budget. But some said privately that they are not eager to try a repeat."
AP runs hit piece on health reform's interim high-risk pools: "... the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan started this summer isn't living up to expectations. Enrollment lags in many parts of the country ... Federal officials won't provide enrollment figures, saying several large states have yet to get going ... said Jay Angoff, director of a new insurance oversight office at the Department of Health and Human Services. 'We think this is getting off to a good and orderly start.' Angoff said he's confident more people will sign up, and he pointed out the program was set up in near-record time."
America Marched
The Nation's Laura Stampler reports from the One Nation march: "...when Ed Schultz, the host of MSNBC’s 'The Ed Show,' took the stage before what the event organizers estimate to have been 175,000 people and shouted, 'Are you America?', he was answered with a resounding 'Yes!' ...When asked why they were there, 10-year-old Lawrence Leiva summed it up best. 'We’re here to help, to get high paying jobs, better education and to fix up the immigration system,' Lawrence said. 'It’s all about the young kids—we want a better future.' Lawrence and his family took 3 trains to get to the rally from Harlem. The hunger for fundamental change rumbled throughout the Mall. 'We need America to deal with the issue of jobs,' said Rev. Al Sharpton, receiving perhaps the loudest cheers of the afternoon. 'We bailed out the banks. We bailed out the insurance companies. And now it is time to bail out the American people.'"
