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: Romney's Bully Economy
OurFuture.org's Terrance Heath: "Social activist 'Mother' Mary Jones, borrowing from humorist Finley Peter Dunne, once said of her work, 'My business is to comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.' The Bully Economy, in which politics and policy are inform by today's conservative ethos, flips this script — the already comfortable are further comforted, and the already afflicted are further afflicted ... nothing better represents the Bully Economy conservatives would like to make America's reality than the Republican budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan and embraced by Mitt Romney ... The Bully Economy reflects their ethos, their values, and their desire for an America where economic might makes right for those who who control wealth and power..."
Romney Experienced At Creating Low-Wage Jobs
When Romney wasn't laying off people, he was creating low-wage jobs. HuffPost's Dave Jamieson: "...even in giving Romney roughly 100,000 jobs, most of those positions appear to come from the growth of office-supplier Staples (89,000 jobs), sporting goods retailer Sports Authority (15,000) and pizza chain Domino's (7,900). Given that many jobs in retail and fast food don't provide a true living wage, they aren’t exactly fodder for 'American Dream' campaign ads about middle-class jobs."
Banks backing Romney. Boston Globe: "The top five donor groups in Romney’s campaign are individuals and political action committees associated with large financial institutions, led by Wall Street giants Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase ... the securities and investment industry has given nearly $20 million to Restore Our Future, the independent super PAC associated with Romney..."
Romney suggests he will retire to Florida because it doesn't have income tax reports NYT.
Another election. Another Florida voter roll purge. NYT: "The state was found to be using a flawed process to pinpoint noncitizens on the voter rolls by relying on an outdated driver’s license database. Some of the people on an initial list of 2,700 possible noncitizens sent to county election supervisors were either naturalized citizens or were born in the United States ... The state’s attempt to scrub registration rolls of illegal voters had come under fire because of the timing — less than seven months before a presidential election — and because the state itself could not guarantee the accuracy of its rolls."
Time Ticking On Europe
If Europe wants to save the Euro, it needs to quit austerity, and fast, says NYT's Paul Krugman: "Italy and, in particular, Spain must be offered hope — an economic environment in which they have some reasonable prospect of emerging from austerity and depression. Realistically, the only way to provide such an environment would be for the central bank to drop its obsession with price stability, to accept and indeed encourage several years of 3 percent or 4 percent inflation in Europe (and more than that in Germany)."
But Europe may be OK with Greece leaving the euro. NYT: "What once seemed unthinkable is being reduced to a budget line. Economists at a German bank recently estimated that a Greek exit would cost the German government about 100 billion euros ($127 billion), or about 3 percent of the nation’s annual economic output ... But Kenneth S. Rogoff, a professor at Harvard and former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, said Europe had made progress but still was not adequately prepared to control the fallout."
Jeff Madrick is hopeful Greek elections will force Germany to shift: "...the recent elections in Greece may actually create a blueprint for such a solution and force Germany to come to its senses. It has long benefitted from purchases of its goods in Greece and the other periphery nations, exploiting a low-valued euro. It is time to give some of that back. And in the process, once a plan for true growth is in place, Greece will have to manage itself well, end patronage, spend cautiously, pay its taxes, and stand tall as part of the EU."
Senate finally confirms President Obama's Fed nominees. Bloomberg: "The Senate voted 70-24 to confirm the nomination of Jeremy Stein, a Harvard University professor and 74-21 to confirm Jerome Powell, an attorney and private equity investor who was a Treasury undersecretary for President George H.W. Bush ... The addition of Powell and Stein to the Federal Open Market Committee probably won’t shift policy, said Lewis Alexander, chief U.S. economist at Nomura Securities International Inc. ..."
Pressure Rising On Dimon
Geithner appears to suggest that Jamie Dimon should resign from the NY Fed, says Simon Johnson: "If Mr. Dimon resigns, that is a major humiliation and recognition – at the highest levels of government – that even the country’s best connected banker has overstepped his limits. This would be a major victory for democracy and a step towards reopening the debate on financial reform, including introducing more restrictions on what global megabanks can do."
Dimon to testify to Congress in the coming weeks reports Politico.
Congressional Democrats press SEC on lenient bank settlements. W. Post: "Democrats said they were worried that such settlements could send the wrong message, allowing corporations to treat SEC enforcement actions as just another cost of doing business ... Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) said Democrats sought the hearing to pressure the SEC not to use its legal discretion to settle cases ... It was so unusual for Garrett to rise to the agency’s defense that the committee chairman took note of it ... 'He’s in such a supportive mood of the SEC that you ought to ask him for more money,' [Rep. Spencer] Bachus said."
Tariffs Proposed For Chinese Solar
Commerce Dept recommends tariffs on Chinese solar panels. USA Today: "The preliminary ruling by the U.S. Department of Commerce seeks tariffs ranging from 31% to 250% on solar products imported from China. A final decision is expected later this year ... Commerce's ruling 'is a bellwether decision,' Steve Ostrenga, chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based Helios Solar Works, said in a statement. 'It underscores the importance of domestic manufacturing to the U.S. economy and will help determine whether the country will be a global competitor in clean technologies or outsource them China.'"
