Dems Defend Obamacare
Dem unity on health care. McClatchy: "Top congressional Democrats on Sunday stood by President Obama and the flawed rollout of the government's health-care website, expressing confidence the problems would be fixed and the issue would not drag down the party in next year's mid-term elections."
Obama enrollment may replicate path of successful Massachusetts rollout. Bloomberg: "If enrollment in the online marketplaces repeats the pattern set in the Massachusetts exchange that was the model for Obamacare, the young people vital to the plan’s financial stability are paying little attention to the federal website’s mishaps as they wait for the March 31 deadline to sign up. When Massachusetts started its health-insurance exchange in 2007, younger and healthier people were the most likely to procrastinate until the final weeks to obtain coverage. By November of that year, the last month to sign up to avoid a penalty, the portion of enrollees age 35 or younger had more than doubled to 36 percent from February..."
Jobless On Verge Of Another Kick In Teeth
"Extension of Benefits for Jobless Is Set to End" reports NYT: "Unless Congress acts, during the last week of December an estimated 1.3 million people will lose access to an emergency program providing them with additional weeks of jobless benefits. A further 850,000 will be denied benefits in the first quarter of 2014."
Paul Krugman notes Larry Summers is warning of a permanent slump: "We have, [Summers] suggested, an economy whose normal condition is one of inadequate demand — of at least mild depression — and which only gets anywhere close to full employment when it is being buoyed by bubbles ... Why might this be happening? One answer could be slowing population growth ... Another important factor may be persistent trade deficits, which emerged in the 1980s and since then have fluctuated but never gone away ... if our economy has a persistent tendency toward depression [then] virtue is vice and prudence is folly ... attempts to save more (including attempts to reduce budget deficits) make everyone worse off — for a long time."
But US economy at least better than everywhere else, reports Bloomberg: "...financial conditions in the U.S. are healthier than before Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed in 2008, even as growth falters in Asia and Europe. The U.S. now has the strongest economy among industrialized nations, which would be its highest rank since 2000 ... While the Fed’s decision to push borrowing costs to historical lows in December 2008 helped developing economies recover more quickly as the U.S. housing bust crippled Americans’ ability to spend, investors are now showing greater conviction that the nation will underpin growth globally ... Buoyed by the Fed’s purchases of assets in the debt markets, the U.S. has financed spending with record demand for Treasuries in the past four years and companies are on pace to obtain more bonds and loans than ever this year."
Breakfast Sides
Yet another filibuster expected today, Dems patience tested. Politico: "...Republicans [are] set on Monday to block Robert Wilkins’s nomination to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ... Liberal Democrats who have always wanted to change the Senate rules to block filibustering on Obama’s nominees are more amped up than ever about what they describe as Republicans’ 'unprecedented obstruction.' ... Reid seems likely to force Republicans to vote again on all three judicial nominees at some point later this year or early next, Democratic aides said. And if the results are the same, the chamber could again be paralyzed by a debate over its age-old rules ..."
Volcker Rule may be near finish, reports NYT: "The push to reshape financial oversight hinges on negotiations in the coming weeks over the so-called Volcker Rule, a regulation that strikes at the heart of Wall Street risk-taking. The rule, which bans banks from trading for their own gain, has become synonymous with the Dodd-Frank overhaul law ... Some regulators are pushing to close potential loopholes, saying the rule will prevent future trading blowups at big banks, a concern that gained traction whenJPMorgan Chase sustained a $6 billion trading loss in London. Yet some officials at other agencies, including the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission, have at times worried that the rule might inhibit banks from activities that are considered important for their health and the functioning of markets ... [Treasury Sec] Lew, according to officials, recently told Wall Street executives at a private meeting that the rule would be tougher than banks once thought."
