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: Not Just Goldman Sachs
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "Greg Smith's revelations aren't really news at all, and the moral decline he describes at Goldman has been replicated throughout our corporate culture. Behavior at Wall Street firms like Goldman may have been more overtly criminal, but the shift from respect for the customer to the desire to rip customers off is pervasive and insidious ... It's true that Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein's a particularly egregious example of the culture of predation. But there isn't an executive on Wall Street whose company hasn't done things he should be ashamed about – and shunned for ... we need a movement to clean up our entire corporate culture. And along with it, we need to restore our nation's respect for the laws and regulations that protect us from bandits, rascals, and thieves - and for the people who enforce those laws."
Calls For Reform After Goldman Oped
Goldman Sachs oped reinforces needs for Volcker Rule, Dems tell Bloomberg.
The Guardian's Larry Elliot argues Smith's revelations demands a broader legislative response: " if the competition does not happen naturally through market forces (and there is no hint that it will), then a much tougher regulatory regime is needed – so that the corporate finance and trading arms of investment banks are split into different firms. That would limit the opportunity for conflict of interest and would cut the cost of finance to business. Above all, it would tackle what has become a colossal conspiracy by the super-rich against the general public."
Clients should be treated like clients, says FT's Frank Partnoy: "The tough question for the future is whether less sophisticated institutions should be entitled to more protection. In other words, should they be treated as true clients? The Dodd-Frank Act requires that regulators answer this question by adopting business conduct standards for derivatives dealers who deal with so-called “special entities”, including the municipalities and pension plans that are most likely to be on the wrong end of an eye-ripping ... There is an opportunity for regulators, and perhaps even Wall Street, to act human and tell us that the word 'client' has real meaning."
Opposition Rises To Loosening Regs in "JOBS Act"
Senate Dems try to strengthen House "JOBS Act." Politico: "...Democratic lawmakers warned that the House bill would loosen financial oversight so much that it would weaken safeguards for consumers and investors, even potentially triggering another economic crisis or Enron-style scandal ... The substitute version pushed by Levin and fellow Democratic Sens. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana will better protect consumers and investors, the senators argue – but it’s almost certain that it’ll fail to get the 60 votes needed to pass."
NYT's Floyd Norris argues Goldman oped should make us rethink loosening regs in JOBS Act: "Do you remember the scandals of the dot-com era? Then Wall Street firms got business by promising companies that they would write positive research reports if the company would only hire them to underwrite an initial public offering of stock ... In the aftermath, the brokers were forced by the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the New York attorney general, to mend their ways. No longer would analysts be allowed to go on such I.P.O. sales calls. This bill would end that rule for all but the biggest new offerings ... [One] suggested the bill be renamed the 'Jump-start Our Bilking of Suckers Act.'"
House leaders suggests stopgap transportation jobs legislation to avoid construction shutdown at end of month. Politico: "The House will not take up the Senate’s transportation bill and its own version won’t hit the floor until mid-April at the earliest ... The general game plan over the next few weeks, as laid out by aides: continue rallying and gauging support for [an alternative, conservative] five-year bill when members return to town next week. An extension of the current law, slated to expire April 1, would hit the floor sometime during the March 26 week."
Obama-Biden Frames The Choice
VP Biden frames the 2012 race in OH campaign speech. LAT: "...a choice between 'promoting the private sector' and 'protecting the privileged sector.' 'We are a fair shot, and a fair shake. They're about no rules, no risks and no accountability,' Biden said."
Romney adds education reform section to his website. ThinkProgress' Stephanie Frenel dissects: "The fact that Romney is just releasing his platform on education now is troubling, considering how long he’s been on the campaign trail and how many primaries have already taken place. But more troubling is the clear lack of detail or depth to his plan, despite his adding high caliber advisers to his education team last week."
Women Of Senate Defend Violence Against Women Act
Women senators fight to renew Violence Against Women Act. McClatchy: "Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state, who led the effort to preserve contraceptive coverage, expressed disappointment that, she said, women again are trying to defend gains won over the last 50 years. 'Every single minute, 24 people across America are victims of violence by an intimate partner — more than 12 million every year. Forty-five percent of the women killed in this country die at the hands of their partner. .... This one shouldn't be about politics,' Murray said ... Republicans are split over the issue, with Crapo and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski among those siding with Democrats."
Republican Senate leader blames Democrats for talking about Republican opposition reports HuffPost.
GOP Out Of Gas On Gas Prices
NYT's Paul Krugman mocks GOP on gas prices: "...Republicans are telling us that gasoline would be cheap and jobs plentiful if only we would stop protecting the environment and let energy companies do whatever they want ... the truth is that we’re already having a hydrocarbon boom, with U.S. oil and gas production rising and U.S. fuel imports dropping. If there were any truth to drill-here-drill-now, this boom should have yielded substantially lower gasoline prices and lots of new jobs. Predictably, however, it has done neither."
Robert Reich argues the real reason for high gas prices is speculation: "...a relatively few players with very deep pockets are placing huge bets on oil -- and you're paying ... Funny, but I don't hear Republicans rail against Wall Street speculators. Could this have anything to do with the fact that hedge funds and money managers are bankrolling the GOP as never before?"
