Glass-Steagall Bill Puts Hillary On Spot
Sen. Warren re-introduces Glass-Steagall restoration, squeezing Hillary. The Hill: "It gives her challengers an issue showing daylight between themselves and Clinton ... Robert Borosage, co-director of the liberal Campaign For America's Future, praised Sanders and O'Malley for supporting Glass-Steagall. 'We don't know where Hillary stands. Understandably she's reluctant to choose between her donors and the activists base of the party.'"
Martin O'Malley proposes debt-free college plan. W. Post: "[He] will call on states to freeze tuition rates at public colleges and universities ... students and parents would be able to refinance their debt at lower interest rates ... repayment terms for student borrowers (would be based) on their income upon graduation."
Marco Rubio offers student loan reform. NYT: "...he would put into effect an income-based payment system to allow graduates earning lower salaries to repay creditors on a timetable that he said would cause 'less strain.' ... Mr. Rubio would also allow students to team with investors who would cover the students’ tuition in exchange for a percentage of their earnings for a few years after graduation."
Major Fair Housing Rules Unveiled
HUD to announce sweeping housing desegregation plan. W. Post: "The new rules, a top demand of civil-rights groups, will require cities and towns all over the country to scrutinize their housing patterns for racial bias and to publicly report, every three to five years, the results ... the new reports will make it harder to conceal when communities consistently flout the law. And in the most flagrant cases, HUD holds out the possibility of withholding a portion of the billions of dollars of federal funding it hands out each year."
Pilot project uses voucher incentives to help families leave public housing. NYT: "...an experiment in housing policy the federal government began in Dallas in 2011 and is now proposing to expand to most other large metropolitan areas. Families in Dallas who qualify for housing subsidies are offered more money if they move to more expensive neighborhoods ... the government has also cut subsidies for those who do not go."
Sunday Deadline For Greece
Europe gives Greece a Sunday deadline. Bloomberg: "European leaders talked openly about a Greek exit from the euro ahead of a weekend summit ... The European Union set a Sunday deadline to reach a deal with Greece on a rescue in exchange for austerity measures and economic reforms, while the country formally requested a new three-year bailout."
Germany fails to learn from history, argues NYT's Eduardo Porter: "...a vintage photo resurfaced on the Internet. It shows Hermann Josef Abs, head of the Federal Republic of Germany’s delegation in London on Feb. 27, 1953, signing the agreement that effectively cut the country’s debts to its foreign creditors in half ... the main creditor demanding that Greeks be made to pay for past profligacy benefited not so long ago from more lenient terms than it is now prepared to offer."
"Will Europe’s leaders come to their senses about Greece?" asks W. Post's Katrina vanden Heuvel: "...longer term, although this is surely too much to hope, Germany and France should lead the launch of a new European wide program of public investment, giving the indebted countries a chance to repay their debts and rebalance their economies in the context of growth, not stagnation or worse."
United Kingdom proposes austerity budget. Bloomberg: "[Chancellor of the Exchequer George] Osborne’s aim is to turn a budget deficit of almost 5 percent of gross domestic product into a surplus by 2018-19 by slashing 25 billion pounds from welfare and government departments in an intensification of the austerity drive he began in 2010 ... Osborne has already said he’ll raise the threshold for paying inheritance tax to 1 million pounds in 2017, funding the move by restricting pension tax relief for people earning more than 150,000 pounds a year."
Breakfast Sides
Final TPP talks set to begin in Hawaii on July 28. WSJ: "Officials from the U.S. and Japan are set to meet Thursday to close gaps on auto and agriculture trade. An understanding between the two biggest economies in the group would help pave the way for a 12-nation agreement..."
IMF warns Fed about raising rates too soon. WSJ: "The IMF, which cut its growth forecast for the U.S. last month, said the Fed could be forced to reverse course next year if the central bank proves overly optimistic about the health of the American economy. IMF staff argue that, barring upside surprises, there is still too much uncertainty around inflation, employment and wage prospects for the Fed to pull the trigger in coming months."
Lobbyists seek to shape EPA climate regs. The Hill: "Regulators and White House officials have hosted at least eight meetings with groups in the last three weeks, ahead of an expected August release of rules at the centerpiece of the president’s climate change agenda."
Obamacare cuts birth control costs. NYT: "Out-of-pocket spending on most major birth control methods fell sharply in the months after the Affordable Care Act began requiring insurance plans to cover contraception at no cost to women ... savings from the pill alone were about $1.4 billion in 2013."
