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: Krugman: Ending The Depression Is Simple
OurFuture.org's Isaiah Poole: "Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has a simple answer for what's wrong with the economy. Never mind the arguments about structural economic problems that have disadvantaged the middle class and have put America at a global competitive disadvantage. 'There is not enough demand in this economy,' Krugman said at a talk at the Economic Policy Institute Wednesday. 'This is a problem that is not in fact hard to fix, if it were not for the politics and the intellectual confusion,' he said ... 'We've conducted what is pretty damn close to a controlled experiment' in what happens to an economy when conservative austerity policies are imposed during a recession, Krugman pointed out. That experiment is in the euro zone, 'and the results are in ... Austerity has been contractionary with a vengeance.'"
Austerity Bites Europe
Euro unemployment at record high. NYT: "Unemployment in the 17 countries that belong to the euro zone rose to 10.9 percent in March ... In March 2011, the rate was 9.9 percent ... Greece and France will hold national elections on Sunday, when citizens are expected to register their discontent at the decline in living standards and public services that has been a consequence of government budget-cutting."
Local election in Britain may rebuke national austerity program. NYT: "Possibly the most closely watched vote was in London where the Conservative mayor, Boris Johnson, a flamboyant member of Mr. Cameron’s Conservatives, campaigned for a second four-year term against his Labour opposition predecessor, Ken Livingstone, 67, in a contest that has blended testy exchanges over personal income tax levels, rival claims over housing and public transport..."
Increase in productivity is what is undermining employment, argues Joe Stiglitz: "It seems strange, in the midst of the Great Recession, when one out of six Americans who would like to get a full-time job is unable to get one, to see stores replacing low-wage cashier clerks with machines. The innovation may be impressive, profits may even be increased, but the broader economic and social consequences cannot be ignored ... markets have to be tamed and tempered, and that has to be done repeatedly to make sure that they work to the benefit of most citizens ... protesters are asking for so little: for a chance to use their skills, for the right to decent work at decent pay, for a fairer economy and society. Their requests are not revolutionary but evolutionary."
Delays Hamper Wall Street Reform
Fed governor warns that banking reforms are "losing steam," reports W. Post: "A report released this week by the law firm Davis Polk said that regulators have missed 67 percent of deadlines for new rules imposed by 2010’s Dodd-Frank legislation, a rewrite of the rules governing the financial sector. Among the major new regulations that has been delayed is the Volcker Rule..."
But "Progress Is Seen in Advancing a Final Volcker Rule" reports NYT: "...some officials expected to complete it by September and possibly as early as this summer, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, cautioned that regulators have not set a firm date for completing the rule ... Some opponents of the Volcker Rule urged regulators to tear up the draft and start from scratch. That tactic, which even gained support among some high-level regulators, was seen by some as a ploy to delay the rule-writing process until after the 2012 election, which might end the Democratic control of the Senate and the White House."
Visa faces antitrust probe of debit card policies, reports Bloomberg.
DeMarco Hurting Taxpayers
Rep. Elijah Cummings slams FHFA's DeMarco for wasting taxpayer dollars by resisting principal reductions. The Hill: "'That's Mr. DeMarco's mandate,' Cummings said during a housing summit in Washington sponsored by the National Association of Real Estate Brokers. 'That is what Congress directed him to do. If principal reduction will save the taxpayers money, he should be doing it now.'"
"Foreclosure Victims Aim To Take Over County Courthouses" in Florida, reports HuffPost: "Lisa Epstein, a foreclosure victim-turned-activist, has launched a bid to unseat the local Palm Beach County Clerk in Florida ... She is joined by at least two other anti-foreclosure fraud activists in Florida making runs ... It started at Occupy Palm Beach."
Breakfast Sides
Geithner calls for further Chinese currency appreciation. Bloomberg: "'A stronger, more market-determined' currency would 'reinforce China’s reform objectives of moving to higher value- added production, reforming the financial system and encouraging domestic demand,' Geithner said today at U.S.-China talks in Beijing. 'Future economic growth will require another fundamental shift in economic policy' akin to that of more than 30 years ago, he said."
Implementation delay for new food safety rules. W. Post: "In recent letters to the administration, nearly half a dozen groups expressed frustration with the OMB ... OMB officials say the duration of this review is not unusual given the complexity of the regulations ... Some experts who are tracking the issue say that the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs — run by legal scholar Cass Sunstein — has raised questions about the FDA’s analysis of the provisions’ costs and benefits. Rena Steinzor, president of the Center for Progressive Reform, said OIRA routinely second-guesses regulators and delays regulation."
NYT edit board calls for comprehensive student loan reform: "... the money the [Senate] bill would raise in a decade would pay for only one year’s subsidy of student loans ... There is no better long-term solution to the nation’s economic troubles than increased access to higher education. It cannot be achieved with short-term extensions."
