September 2

What you need to know to navigate today’s most critical debates.

Obama was too cautious in fearful times (FT)
Martin Wolf reflects on Barack Obama’s missed opportunity to take bold action and steer the economy toward a robust recovery.

Stimulus Averted Depression, Romer Says (NYTimes)
Departing White House economic adviser Christina Romer used her farewell speech to call for more spending to alleviate unemployment.

Impediments to Rapid Recovery from Financial Crisis Are More Political Than Economic (Think Progress)
Matthew Yglesias disagrees with the suggestion that slow growth in the wake of a financial crisis is inevitable, as does one of the economists suggesting it.

Banks Playing ‘Foreclosure Roulette’ With Delinquent Homeowners (HuffPo)
Banks don’t really want to foreclose, and they certainly don’t want borrowers to stop making payments, so they’ve devised a sadistic way to split the difference.

Theoclassical Law and Economics Makes the Law an Ass (Naked Capitalism)
ND20 contributor Bill Black examines the growing trend of corporations buying their very own judges. (And see here for Bill’s latest on Wall Street cover-ups.)

Making hard choices on the budget (WaPo)
Ezra Klein finds Megan McArdle being disingenuous on the Internet. And so it goes…

Deficit Commission: If You Won’t Fire Simpson, Hands Off Social Security (HuffPo)
Roger Hickey thinks President Obama should heed public opinion and instruct the deficit commission to take Social Security cuts off the table.

FCC Seeks More Input on Wireless Internet Rules (NYTimes)
Citing the complexity of the issues at stake, the FCC is holding off on implementing any new rules to protect net neutrality.

What Created the Populist Explosion and How Democrats Can Avoid the Shrapnel in November (AlterNet)
Drew Westen recounts the progressive disappointments of the past two years and argues that Democrats must present a new narrative to the American people.

Democrats unlikely to repeal tax cuts for the rich (McClatchy)
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats continue to practice being in the minority.

The Cyclical, Structural Unemployment Problem (Washington Independent)
Is America’s jobs crisis cyclical or structural? Annie Lowrey digs into the unemployment data and concludes that it depends which sector and which region of the country you’re talking about.

New Job Means Lower Wages for Many (NYTimes)
Being lucky enough to find work in a depressed job market still doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be able to make ends meet.

No holiday for labor unions (WaPo)
Katrina vanden Heuvel writes that instead of attacking unions for their relatively generous wages and benefits, we should demand a better deal for everyone.

The Real Say on Pay (NYTimes)
Opponents of a finreg provision that requires disclosure of executive pay-gaps are being deliberately obtuse about the purpose of the law.

The 10 Highest-Paid CEOs Who Laid Off The Most Workers (HuffPo)
The Institute for Policy Studies presents a rogues gallery of job-cutters.