After the sixteen day USGOV #shutstorm, teetering on the edge of federal default, it turns out that just as we have neared such defaults in the past few years, this time Senators Harry Reid (NV) and Mitch McConnell (KY) the majority and minority party leaders, struck a deal that the House of Representatives quickly passed. With disaster averted a few months more, for the last five or six days since the temporary breakthrough, the news in the US has mostly retreated to their corners and talked about what it all might mean to their respective sub-groups. The Ohio river series of locks and dams will get a major upgrade. The Republican party is beside itself in several interesting, unflattering ways. The Democrat party is crowing about it's false victory, proudly trying to preen like the grown-ups in this yet, at the same time, looking like boneheads with the sputtering start to Enrolling the ACA. That's the new health care insurance program that began signing people up three weeks ago. Technical problems have delayed potential enrollees. The Dems want to act like grown-ups but can't do the kids homework. At least the Dems aren't the ones trying to deny people health care, since the Republican party has no real alternative plan.
Alan Greenspan on Jon Stewart says at last what many have been saying for a long time: the banks that wrecked the economy need to maintain higher capital and asset requirements. I've been saying it for years. I stumbled on this basic notion of how banks operate, and why it's so crucially important for the credit markets and the economy as a whole on planetmoney, 2008 or so, as the storied-old banking instirutions came crashing down one after the other. Part two of the piece with Greenspan last night wherein Stewart makes a case for separating finance/investment tax rates from work tax rates, is here. Greenspan used to be called 'the oracle' and markets jumped at his verbose comments. So I'm hoping his tour this week of the talkshows (he was on NPR yesterday) might make a dent in the beltway media conversation.
Alexis Goldstein explains some of why this $13bn settlement between USGOV and JPMorgan Chase Bank is a whitewash, despite being the largest settlement ever. For reference, the BP Oil criminal settlement a couple years ago was for $4.5bn.
Massive 7.2 earthquake in Phillipines caused much damage, including many old churches in Bohol and more than 380,000 displaced, it will take a long time to recover.
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