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Tonight, critical legislation that would shine a light on the dark money dominating our democracy was defeated on the Senate floor. To be clear, it received a majority of votes, but failed to overcome a filibuster from Senator McConnell.

After years of scandals and abuses, it's hard to be surprised by the criminal behavior of major banks. Typically, though, exposes of bank wrongdoing have focused on their financial shenanigans.

But yesterday, thanks to the dogged work of Senate investigators, we learned that the criminality of some banks goes much deeper, with these institutions servicing drug traffickers and terrorist-linked entities, and circumventing U.S. laws governing ties with rogue states like Iran, Sudan, and North Korea.

All to boost the bottom line.

At a campaign stop in Ohio yesterday, President Obama said the following:

WASHINGTON, DC – Last night, the DISCLOSE Act which would shine a light on the dark money dominating our democracy was defeated on the Senate floor. Although it received a majority of votes it failed to overcome a filibuster from Senator McConnell. 

True or false: A sizeable slice of congressional Republicans would vote for revenue increases, if packaged the right way.

How to value the economic role that natural resources play and incorporate some of these external costs so that not only are we aware of the impacts, we can begin to start incorporate them into pricing. 

The Supreme Court issued a little-noticed decision in a Maryland case that gave the green light to states to eliminate the repugnant practice of “prison-based gerrymandering.”

Yesterday, Wells Fargo was slapped with $175 million fine for systematically steering minority homeowners into higher interest loans -- and, indeed, providing financial incentives for brokers to stick borrowers with the highest rates they could. Abhorrent behavior.

An essential element of the American Dream is ensuring that each generation has greater opportunities than the last. What, then, do we make of a generation that can earn more than their parents, but still can't seem to climb the economic ladder?