After the $2 billion JPMorgan Chase/Jamie Dimon fiasco, it's time to put an end to "too big to fail" banks and support the SAFE (Safe, Accountable, Fair and Efficient) Banking Act by Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Keith Ellison, which will cut these banks down to a size below which their recklessness won't put the entire economy at risk. read more »
Protesting The Austerity Summit
Conservative one-percenter Peter G. Peterson on May 15 hosted a "fiscal summit" to discuss the future of such programs as Social Security and Medicare. We showed up with Sen. Bernie Sanders to say no to growth-killing austerity and yes to jobs and rebuilding the middle class.
Learn more on our Protest the Summit page »
Stop Shackling Students With Debt
TAKE ACTION Today, the average student graduates from college with a diploma and an anchor — $25,000 of debt. In July, if Congress doesn't act, student loan rates will double. But right now Senate conservatives are blocking a bill that would prevent that from happening. Click here to tell your senators: Act now to keep student loan rates from doubling!
Then let's push for a bold agenda for making college affordable. Read our commentary »
Robert Borosage: "Personally, I salute President Obama for speaking out for equality. This was an act of courage, no matter what the calculations." Read more »
Terrance Heath and other progressive writers weigh in.
See their posts »
Latest From Our BloggersOn the menu this morning
Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games.
I can't tell you the number of focus groups I've watched and polls I read where the overwhelming opinion was that federal spending could be cut without any decrease in the quantity and quality of what the government does.
Hell...As I posted about in 2010, even the recommendation from the co-chairs of the Bowles-Simpson commission -- who definitely should have known better -- proposed a reduction in the number of federal employees and the number of consultants but, presumably based on the assumption that the government wouldn't have to stop doing anything it was already doing, didn't suggest any activity be eliminated.
That's why this story in The Washington Post from several days ago caught my eye. The Defense Department has decided that what since the 1950s has been an annual show for the public at Andrews Air Force Base (now officially Joint Base Andrews) in suburban Maryland will now be held every other year. The savings are projected to be $2.1 million a year. read more »
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet The Press” on Sunday, Newark Mayor and Obama bundler Cory Booker said he was “uncomfortable” with the Obama campaign’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s career with Bain Capital.
“It’s a distraction from the real issues,” Booker said, of both attacks on Bain and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. “It’s either gonna be a small campaign about this crap, or it’s gonna be a big campaign about the issues the American public cares about.”
“I’m not about to sit here and indict private equity,” Booker added. “If you look at the totality of Bain Capital’s record, they’ve done a lot to support businesses — to grow businesses. And this to me, I’m very uncomfortable.”
No, attacks on Bain are not the equivalent of attacks on Jeremiah Wright and no, it is not a distraction from the campaign, it is the campaign. Or it should be. read more »
On the menu this morning
When Jamie Dimon revealed that JPMorgan Chase had lost billions through risky and legally questionable trading, he said the losses would be about $2 billion and maybe more. Apparently it is more - a lot more. People in a position to know are saying the real figure is probably in the $5-7 billion range. read more »
Facebook's initial public offering last week 'offered' the world another double dose of windfalls and greed. But Egypt's elections this week may bring an IPO of a different sort, the 'initial public offering' of an antidote to avarice.read more »
From the House Republicans whose leader, Speaker John Boehner, just three days ago claimed that "we can’t go on spending money we don’t have," and "our economy is stuck in large part because it’s stuck with debt," read more »
Which is better for an economy: millions of future jobs and trillions of future dollars, or a few people making a quick buck today by selling out their country? For decades America's 1%-backed conservatives have chosen the latter course, and we can see the results all around us. read more »
Yesterday I posted (twice!) a Think Progress chart proving that the government under president Obama had pursued austerity policies. It was done to refute Mitt Romney's outright lie that the president had spent the country into oblivion, but some of us wondered why the Democrats would think it was such a good thing in any case.
Dday asked the fellow who made the chart for CAP:read more »
On the menu this morning
The recently announced losses by J.P. Morgan Chase are yet another demonstration of the danger of banks and investment houses that are too big to fail. We are urging the Senate to support legislation introduced by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) that would protect American taxpayers by placing sensible size and leverage limits on America’s largest financial institutions. The Safe, Accountable, Fair & Efficient (SAFE) Banking Act of 2012 would hold Wall Street accountable, prevent future bailouts, and protect American homes, jobs, pensions, and businesses.
The Campaign for America’s Future is proud to announce that Robert Borosage has been selected by a distinguished committee of his peers as one of the best economic thinkers in the country – a Top Wonk on the economy.
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