MORNING MESSAGE: 147 People
OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "Anthropologist Robin Dunbar tried to find out how many people the typical person 'really knows.' ... Dunbar concluded that the optimum number for a network of human acquaintances was 147.5 ... Economist Simon Johnson mentioned Dunbar’s Number last week in a column about incoming Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and the new SEC chair, Mary Jo White. 'The issue is not so much their track record ... it is much more about whom they know ... If most financial experts you know work at, for example, Citigroup, then you are more likely to see the financial world through their eyes' ... when the next crisis comes, '147 people' will react to it exactly the same way they reacted to the last one. ... You can’t blame us, they’ll say. Nobody could’ve seen this coming. How do we know that? Because we asked everybody we know."
Sequester Nation
As Obama signs CR and locks in sequester cuts, "his economic goals are at risk" says W. Post: "Obama has repeatedly championed a set of government investments that he argues would expand the economy and strengthen the middle class, including bolstering early-childhood education, spending more on research and development, and upgrading the nation’s roads and railways ... Obama is set to sign a government funding measure that leaves in place the across-the-board cuts known as sequestration — a policy that undermines many of the goals he laid out during the 2012 campaign."
"Federal Defenders Face Deep Issues, Warn Of Delays" because of sequester reports AP.
"Sequester threatens college research funding" reports St. Louis Dispatch.
"Sequester could impact special education, low-income students" reports Texas Tribune.
"Sequester threatens CA prison officer safety" reports KABC-TV in Los Angeles.
"Sequester hits those in need on Wind River Indian Reservation" reports Casper Star-Tribune.
EU, Cyprus Forge Last-Minute Deal
EU and Cyprus strike bailout deal. NYT: "The deal would scrap the highly controversial idea of a tax on bank deposits, although it would still require forced losses for depositors and bondholders ... The head of the finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem of the Netherlands, said the agreement could 'be implemented without delay' without a new vote by the Cypriot Parliament ... Under the agreement, Laiki Bank, one of Cyprus’s largest, would be wound down and senior bondholders would take losses. Depositors in the bank with accounts holding more than 100,000 euros would also be heavily penalized ... the Bank of Cyprus will take on some of Laiki’s liabilities in the form of emergency liquidity .. Depositors in the Bank of Cyprus are likely to face forced losses rather than any form of tax."
Cyprus debacle should make nations rethink letting capital flow unfettered between borders, says NYT's Paul Krugman: "...unrestricted movement of capital is looking more and more like a failed experiment ... for more than three decades after World War II financial crises of the kind we’ve lately become so familiar with hardly ever happened ... the best predictor of crisis is large inflows of foreign money ... There may well, however, be a process of erosion, as governments intervene to limit both the pace at which money comes in and the rate at which it goes out."
Forget Cyprus, worry about Slovenia. W. Post's Dylan Matthews: "[Slovenia] had a pretty bad week, with long-term bond yields spiking to 5.4 percent Friday morning amid fears that the country would need a bailout. That’s not crisis-level — Cyprus’ yields are around 7 percent, for comparison — but it’s certainly in the 'Danger Zone.'"
