Media

A commission appointed by the Massachusetts legislature is considering the creating a state Partnership Bank to boost the local economy by increasing community development lending. 

WASHINGTON DC-- In the wake of an austerity debt ceiling deal that will cost 1.8 million jobs in 2012 and do nothing to address inequality and the decline of the American middle class, today the Rebuild the Dream Campaign – with the support of partner organization Demos – announced a new Contract for the American Dream.

Read the new Contract for the American Dream

A big reason why financial crimes are so hard to prosecute is that authorities often lack witnesses who can testify in detail about such crimes. That means prosecutors must rely on others forms of evidence -- like documents and emails. But even a pretty damning paper trail just doesn't have the punch of an individual pointing their finger and unloading all the sordid details. Also, without an insider to explain the labryinth of a typical securites fraud, it can be hard for prosecutors to ever even assemble such a trail.

In the wake of the S&P downgrade, the Federal Reserve announced yesterday that it would keep short-term interest rates near zero for two years. This was a departure from the Fed's previous language, which did not offer a specific timeline. These rock-bottom rates can't continue indefinitely, and the Fed has the power to raise them at any time. As well, further downgrades of the U.S. credit rating could work to push interest rates up.

In an op-ed in today's New York Times, Jeffrey Ganns provides the most insightful explanation yet of why S&P downgraded the U.S. credit rating even though there is no evidence that the United States would ever not make good on its debts.

The cascade of budget cuts continues. The National Employment Law Project (NELP) reported last week that several states, including Michigan, South Carolina, and Florida, were cutting unemployment benefits. For over 50 years, there had been a national consensus that state unemployment benefits should last 26 weeks.

WASHINGTON DC-- In the wake of an austerity debt ceiling deal that will cost 1.8 million jobs in 2012 and do nothing to address inequality and the decline of the American middle class, today the Rebuild the Dream Campaign – with the support of partner organization Demos – announced a new Contract for the American Dream. 

Among the many questionable assertions in Drew Westen's Times article yesterday was that Obama's "half-stimulus" was "diluted" with "tax cuts that had already been shown to be inert."

Like many progressives, I have been disappointed by President Obama for not staking out more aggressive negotiating positions and being a more forceful leader overall.