Daily Digest - July 5: Founding Follies

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The Euro's Latest Reprieve (Project Syndicate)

Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Joseph Stiglitz writes that the latest summit of European leaders has delayed the eurozone's demise a little while longer, but they're still focused on trying to repaint the living room of a house built on quicksand.

The Founders' true spirit (WaPo)

E.J. Dionne argues that we'd honor the spirit of the Constitution more by embracing an experimental, FDR-like "try something" approach to policymaking than by treating the original text as divine wisdom dictated by 18th century farmer-prophets.

How Radical Economics Led to U.S. Independence (Bloomberg)

William Hogeland notes that in 1776, the Founders had to deal with their very own Occupy the Continental Congress, a movement of Philadelphia radicals and working men who somehow failed to be inspired by cries of "Freedom... for rich dudes!"

A court of, by and for the 1% (WaPo)

Katrina vanden Heuvel writes that while it's nice that the Supreme Court decided not to overturn the Affordable Care Act on the grounds that it annoyed them, we shouldn't forget how they've empowered Super PACs to keep waging war against it.

Patriotism (Robert Reich)

Reich argues that the Court's decisions on health care and Arizona's immigration law reflect two different ideas of what it means to love America: working to improve it for the common good, or keeping others out so we can ruin it all by ourselves.

The Supreme Court Rules, Markets Yawn (WSJ)

Austan Goolsbee notes that the crickets chirping on Wall Street in response to the Court's health care ruling provide a stark contrast to conservatives' dire warnings that any attempt at regulation will kill the economy and maybe even your puppy.

Big Foreclosure Compensation, But Only for the Right Wrongs (ProPublica)

Paul Kiel reports that regulators have produced a framework for foreclosure abuse compensation with 13 different categories and payouts ranging from $125,000 ("whoops, we foreclosed on a trial modification") to $15,000 ("eh, we ignored them completely").

Why is Nobody Freaking Out About the LIBOR Banking Scandal? (Rolling Stone)

Matt Taibbi notes that while LIBOR is a huge scandal overseas, with the head of Barclays resigning and the bank shown to be in cahoots with senior regulators, the U.S. media mainly seem bemused that British politicians are even doing anything about it.

Poor Land in Jail as Companies Add Huge Fees for Probation (NYT)

Ethan Bronner writes that financially strapped communities across the country are allowing for-profit companies to take over their probation system, charging even minor offenders high fees for the privilege of not being unconstitutionally imprisoned.

The Dog That Voted and Other Election Fraud Yarns (MoJo)

Kevin Drum writes that unlike, say, the War on Poverty or the War on Drugs, the GOP's War on Voter Fraud has been an unqualified success, mostly because the thing it's trying to fight never existed and is just an excuse to keep Democrats from voting.

With additional research by Danielle Bella Ellison.