Economic News Round-Up

Let's start in Europe, where the history comes from...

CNN Money—European leaders hash out crisis deal:

A majority of European leaders agreed early Friday on a new deal to try to resolve the continent's debt crisis, but some countries including Britain refused to back a broader treaty change.

The 17 members of the eurozone, which share the embattled single currency, reached a deal for a new intergovernmental treaty to deepen the integration of national budgets.

Six other EU nations supported the deal. "We're doing everything we can to save the euro," President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said at a news conference in Brussels following a marathon summit meeting of EU leaders.

As a result of the news, stocks are up. For now. The rollercoaster continues in the Eurozone.

Iain and I were talking about the European crisis for a long time last night, and we were both lamenting the push for austerity in Europe, which will be just as ineffectual as it will be in the US, because it's not an economic solution; it's a deflection of accountability. Austerity is just a fancy name for the strategy of making poor people pay for wealthy people's mistakes.

Speaking of which...

The Hill—Dems' payroll tax cut extension goes down again in Senate: "Senate Republicans blocked the latest installment of President Obama's jobs plan—a bill to extend the payroll tax cut—for the second week in a row on Thursday. The bill, titled the Middle Class Tax Cut Act, was shot down 50-48. It would have cut the payroll tax paid by employees to 3.1 percent from the current 4.2 percent while funding itself by imposing a surtax on millionaires."

Paul Krugman in the New York Times—All the GOP's Gekkos:

Almost a quarter of a century has passed since the release of the movie "Wall Street," and the film seems more relevant than ever. The self-righteous screeds of financial tycoons denouncing President Obama all read like variations on Gordon Gekko's famous "greed is good" speech, while the complaints of Occupy Wall Street sound just like what Gekko says in private: "I create nothing. I own," he declares at one point; at another, he asks his protégé, "Now you're not naïve enough to think we're living in a democracy, are you, buddy?"

...[T]he current orthodoxy among Republicans is that we mustn't even criticize the wealthy, let alone demand that they pay higher taxes, because they're "job creators." Yet the fact is that quite a few of today's wealthy got that way by destroying jobs rather than creating them.

The Hill—GOP seeks to cut unemployment benefits: "GOP leaders hope to build momentum for an end-of-year tax package with sweeping reforms to federal unemployment benefits. The Republican proposal is expected to reduce the total number of weeks unemployed workers are eligible for aid by as much as 40 weeks and tighten rules for eligibility."

Digby—Next step in our Randian dystopia: stigmatize the unemployed: "[J]ust as you can tell if someone looks like an '"illegal' you can tell if someone's likely to be a drug user. They're just looking for the 'bad people' who are stealing the money from hard working taxpayers."

And in Occupy news...

Greg Sargent: Winning the Argument.

CNN: Midnight deadline passes for Occupy Boston protesters to clear out.

WSJ: NYU to Offer Classes on Occupy Wall Street.

As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to leave links to anything you're reading and/or writing in comments.

Economic News Round-Up

Here's some of what I've been reading this morning [trigger warning for child abuse]...

The Hill—Senate Passes $662B Defense Bill After Deal on Detainee Language:

The Senate passed a $662 billion Defense bill Thursday evening after a long fight over how the U.S. military detains terror suspects.

The bill passed overwhelmingly 93-7, following an agreement reached late Thursday afternoon to add compromise language on the detention of U.S. citizens and terror suspects on U.S. soil.

Now the Defense bill goes to conference committee with the House, which had its own language on detaining terror suspects that must be reconciled with the Senate version.

It is not clear whether the change will satisfy the White House, which has threatened to veto the Defense bill over the detainee provisions.

The Obama administration expressed its opposition to the use of military detention within the United States, but also had concerns over the legislation tying the hands of federal law enforcement by mandating military custody and prosecution of al Qaeda members. The administration also opposes restrictions on transferring Guantanamo detainees.

For more on the detainee legislation, see Glenn Greenwald, whose piece underscores why this is an economic issue: War is big business for US corporations, especially as war is increasingly subcontracted to profit-making enterprises. Forever war is forever money, for them.

CNBC—Economy Creates 120,000 Jobs, Rate Tumbles to 8.6%: "Job creation remained weak in the U.S. during November, with just 120,000 new positions created, though the unemployment rate slid to 8.6 percent, a government report showed Friday. The rate fell from the previous month's 9.0 percent, a move which in part reflected a drop in those looking for jobs. The participation rate dropped to 64 percent, from 64.2 percent in October. The actual employment level increased by 278,000. The total amount of those without a job fell to 13.3 million." Emphasis mine. It's not good news when the unemployment rate drops only because people are giving up.

New York Times—For Jobless, Little Hope of Restoring Better Days: "Even though the Labor Department is expected to report on Friday that employers added more than 100,000 jobs in November, a new study...to be released Friday by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, [shows] just 7 percent of those who lost jobs after the financial crisis have returned to or exceeded their previous financial position and maintained their lifestyles. The vast majority say they have diminished lifestyles, and about 15 percent say the reduction in their incomes has been drastic and will probably be permanent."

Texas Tribune—Abuse Reports in Texas Increase as Economy Falters:

More children are living in poverty than ever in Texas. About 1.7 million Texas children — 26 percent of the total population — live below the federal poverty level, according to United States census data released this week. Experts speculate that a key factor in the increase in reports of child abuse and neglect is the struggling economy; the number of reported cases of abuse has gone up 6 percent in Texas since 2008, before the recession.

In Travis County, the number of new cases opened with Child Protective Services rose 36 percent from 2008 to 2011.

"In an economic downturn, when you're losing your job, it pushes you over the edge in terms of the resources you have both internally and externally to care for your kid," said Jane Burstain, a senior policy analyst at the Center for Public Policy Priorities, a liberal research group.

...Child Protective Services, like most state agencies, was hit with severe cuts during the 2011 legislative session.

Child abuse prevention financing was slashed by 44 percent. And because the Legislative Budget Board did not increase financing for caseload growth or to support family services or relative caregivers, the agency will continue to operate on a budget designed in 2009. Shelters and facilities that care for children and provide services like domestic violence prevention and protective parenting classes are struggling to find ways to serve more families with far fewer dollars.

Texas is, of course, not the only state in which this is happening.

CNN—Fannie Mae, Banks Halt Foreclosures for the Holidays: "Happy holidays struggling homeowners! Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and several large mortgage lenders have pledged not to foreclose on delinquent borrowers during the [holiday] season. For homeowners with loans through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the moratorium will run from Dec. 19 to Jan. 2. During this time, legal and administrative proceedings for evictions may continue, but families will be allowed to stay in their homes, Fannie said in a statement. 'No family should have to give up their home during this holiday season,' said Terry Edwards, an executive vice president for Fannie Mae." Awwwwwwwww. God bless us, every one!

Nick Hanauer at Bloomberg—Raise Taxes on Rich to Reward True Job Creators: "It is unquestionably true that without entrepreneurs and investors, you can't have a dynamic and growing capitalist economy. But it's equally true that without consumers, you can't have entrepreneurs and investors. And the more we have happy customers with lots of disposable income, the better our businesses will do. That's why our current policies are so upside down. When the American middle class defends a tax system in which the lion's share of benefits accrues to the richest, all in the name of job creation, all that happens is that the rich get richer. And that's what has been happening in the U.S. for the last 30 years." This is just a great piece. A definite must-read.

Paul Krugman at the New York Times—Killing the Euro: "Can the euro be saved? Not long ago we were told that the worst possible outcome was a Greek default. Now a much wider disaster seems all too likely. even optimists now see Europe as headed for recession, while pessimists warn that the euro may become the epicenter of another global financial crisis. How did things go so wrong? The answer you hear all the time is that the euro crisis was caused by fiscal irresponsibility. Turn on your TV and you're very likely to find some pundit declaring that if America doesn't slash spending we'll end up like Greece. Greeeeeece! But the truth is nearly the opposite." Spoiler Alert! Austerity is disastrous. Whooooooooooops!

As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to leave links to anything you're reading and/or writing in comments.

Austerity in the UK: The new civil service

In case you haven't heard about it (and even if you have), British civil servants are planning a major one-day strike for tomorrow. They're protesting the conservative government's proposed austerity measures. More specifically, public employees are indignant about substantial increases in the contributions they must make to their pensions, and an increase in the retirement age. In order to save the UK government from a manufactured crisis, its employees will be working later in life for less pay. Where have I heard that before?

The Guardian has been providing tons of coverage from multiple perspectives. This includes quotes from workers, and analyses of why teachers will be striking.

By a moderate coincidence, a few days ago I got my annual statement from the New York State Teachers' Retirement System (TRS). Gold-plated it was not. New York State is constantly reducing the value and harshening the terms of its public employees' pension. (At the moment, NYS classifies its employees into one of five tiers based on their first date of service. The later one starts, the higher the tier and the less generous the pension.)

New York State employees are also looking at a pay freeze for multiple years (just like UK public employees), and required unpaid furloughs.

Anyhow, I thought I'd take this opportunity to express solidarity with workers in Britain while simultaneously beginning to explore why I chose to leave the public sector.

For me, my pay and benefits weren't as much of an issue as the lack of respect they represented. Don't get me wrong, there's all sorts of disrespect in the private sector. However, I think there's a fundamentally different dynamic to the abuse public employees deal with.

Let's say you're an employee in the private sector. If you refuse to work long hours, don't have the resources you need to do your job, are doing the work of multiple people, have incompetent coworkers or supervisors, you could cost your employer money, which could lead to you losing your job. Likewise, your boss might (also) be an asshole and/or cheap, and fire you for whatever. If you don't have a union, you're pretty much out of luck. If you do have a union, you still may be out of a job.

If you get fired or laid off under such circumstances, a lot of folks will conclude that your boss is an asshole. To hell with hir. What an isolated and unfortunately awful person.

Let's say you teach. You will most certainly be working long hours, doing the work of several people. It's pretty much a given that you won't have the resources available to do your job well.

These working circumstances fly in the face of a culture that claims that universal education is an important, fundamental right.

Some of your students will drop out or perform badly on standardized tests, or be unhappy with the education they received. This may be because the system sets up teachers and students to fail. It may be because some of your students do not have adequate food, shelter, and medical care, and are somewhat distracted from their studies.

It won't matter. Someone, somewhere will notice you or your institution, and you and/or your institution will be faced with pressure to "step up your game" or else. Every. Single. Night. you'll hear politicians and pundits talk about how lazy, inept, and overpaid you and your colleagues are. A lot of your neighbors, the same people who depend on your hard work, will agree with the pundits and they'll elect politicians that will continue to attack you.

And why, do you ask, would politicians attack teachers? Because teaching is one of the most important professions in the world. A lack of educated workers is what keeps the economy in shambles. The lack of quality education causes poverty, crime, and otherwise destroys our bootstraps.

In this line of reasoning, the key to social mobility (or the lack thereof) is education, not reckless speculators and wealthy tax scofflaws. After all, in this narrative the rich got where they are by virtue of their intelligence and education, not by virtue having vast amounts of privilege.

Teaching is important. Its something I enjoy immensely, and consider myself reasonably good at. In my job search, I applied for a lot of positions teaching and/or writing in public and private, for-profit and non-profit settings. They all paid a lot less than the job I'm ending up with, because I'll be working in a position that society agrees involves technical skills.

Thus, teaching is the most important job in the world yet anyone can do it. (See also: writing) Despite this, just about everyone who tries it fails miserably, because they are bad, lazy, incompetent people, which explains why teachers don't get paid squat.

Mixed messages, anyone?

Without going into the specifics of my job, my mental health has declined precipitously during the three-and-a-half years I've taught for the State University of New York. I'm not alone. When I started, my colleagues warned me this would happen. Apparently my profession breaks up families and destroys lives.

I couldn't take it anymore. My family couldn't take it anymore. I'm taking my Ativan (among other things) that I take for my multiple daily panic attacks and going home. I love teaching, but I grudgingly engage in occasional acts of self-care.

Here's one last thing. Three quarters of my teachers' union (which covers K-12 and SUNY teachers) are women. I suspect that many other sectors of the government workforce are heavily female (provision of health care and social services, for instance).

Throughout Europe, Canada, and the US, governments have also been at the forefront of hiring workers based on merit. I don't care what lies people have told you, modern governments tend to hire qualified candidates, even if they're not temporarily able-bodied, straight, cis, white, Protestant guys who are related to their supervisor. It's an open secret that the civil service is one of the places you go to get work when other people are too bigoted to hire you.

That the composition of the civil service doesn't mirror that of corporate boardrooms or government cabinets is not immaterial. In numerous times and places, meaningful public sector employment and the services that public employees provide have been important in aiding upward social mobility. Despite their talk, most of what has come to be termed "the 1%" isn't interested in social mobility or in paying taxes to support it.

The double talk, aggression, and hatred aimed at public employees from our bosses (ostensibly, our neighbors) takes a huge daily toll on us. This is why I standard in solidarity with the workers in Britain.

Economic News Round-Up

The password is: Unemployment.

LA Times—On the US: "Despite the nation's 9% jobless rate, Republicans have grown increasingly uneasy with providing additional unemployment benefits beyond the 26 weeks most states offer. More than 2 million jobless Americans will exhaust those benefits in the early weeks of the new year. The federal government has been supplementing the states to provide up to 99 weeks of benefits. Congress will need to devise a way to pay for the estimated $55-billion cost of the extra aid that will draw GOP support without alienating Democrats."

Belfast Telegraph—On the UK: "The UK's economy will slip back into recession in the coming months, a bleak forecast from the OECD revealed. The economic think-tank said the UK's GDP will shrink in the final quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012—the first time it has predicted a double-dip recession for the UK. ... The OECD also said unemployment, which currently stands at 8.3%—its highest since 1996—will rise to 9% in 2013 as jobs figures take a worse hit than in the recession following the banking crisis."

ABC Melbourne—On Australia: "A study looking at youth employment has found young people make up almost a quarter of Australia's long-term unemployed. ... Since 2008, the percentage of young Australians without a job for a year or longer has almost doubled."

AP—On Japan: "Government figures released Tuesday showed the unemployment rate adjusted for seasonal variations had jumped to 4.5 percent from 4.1 percent in September. Other recent indicators show slowdowns in exports and industrial production in the face of a strong yen and a sputtering global economy."

China Daily—On France: "The number of jobless people in France grew by 1.2 percent in October from a month earlier, as sluggish economic activities slowed job creation in the eurozone's second largest economy, official figures showed on Monday. According to labor ministry figures, France registered 34,400 more jobless people last month, which pulled up the country's total number of jobseekers to more than 2.814 million in France's mainland."

Asia One News—On Thailand: "The Office of the National Economics and Social Development Board (NESDB) said yesterday that Thailand had 260,000 people out of work in the third quarter of this year and the flood had significantly affected workers' quality of life. The unemployment rate was expected to increase to 700,000-920,000 people, with household debts also rising."

NASDAQ—On Italy: "Italy's economy will contract by 0.5% in 2012, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Monday in a new set of forecasts, sharply slashing projections of 1.1% growth made in May. ... Italy's new government needs to 'fully implement' emergency fiscal measures it inherited from its predecessor and 'undertake important structural reforms to spur growth,' doing so even as unemployment rises, the OECD said."

Bloomberg—On Spain: "Spain's economy is struggling to recover from a three-year slump as households spend less to pay off one of the largest private-debt burdens in the euro region. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development cut its 2012 growth forecast for Spain to 0.3 percent from 1.6 percent yesterday, and said it sees unemployment peaking at 22.9 percent next year."

The Globe and Mail—On Greece: "In October, Greece's million-strong unemployed outnumbered the county’s 750,000 public sector workers as the country edged to the close of its fourth year of recession."

Not good. Meanwhile, the Eurozone crisis remains a primary global concern...

The Guardian's live coverage is here.

CBS News—EU leaders seek Hail Mary for the euro: "The 17 finance ministers of the countries that use the euro converged on EU headquarters Tuesday in a desperate bid to save their currency—and to protect Europe, the United States, Asia and the rest of the global economy from a debt-induced financial [disaster]. ... Even countries outside the eurozone were ratcheting up pressure on the ministers to find a solution. President Barack Obama, meeting with top EU officials on Monday, said a European failure to resolve its debt crisis would complicate his own efforts to create jobs in the U.S. And even Poland, historically wary of German dominance beyond its borders, appealed for help. 'I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is,' Radek Sikorski said in Berlin. 'I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear German inactivity. You have become Europe's indispensable nation.'"

ABC News—Obama says US 'stands ready to do our part' for Eurozone crisis: "As the European debt crisis continues to escalate, President Obama urged European Union leaders today to act quickly to resolve the eurozone crisis... 'This is of huge importance to our own economy. If Europe is contracting or if Europe is having difficulties, then it's much more difficult for us to create good jobs here at home,' [the president said]. While Obama did not say what kind of assistance the U.S. would be willing to provide, earlier today the White House ruled out any financial contributions from U.S. taxpayers. 'We do not in any way believe that additional resources are required from the United States or from American taxpayers,' White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters. 'This is a European issue, that Europe has the resources and capacity to deal with it and that they need to act decisively and conclusively to resolve this problem,' Carney said."

So, basically, we're going to "help" by lecturing other countries to get their shit together while failing to get our shit together. Awesome. Austerity for everyone!

Reuters—Euro zone crisis biggest threat to global economy—OECD: "The euro zone's debt crisis has become the biggest threat to the global economy and a break up of the currency zone can no longer be ruled out, the OECD said on Monday, slashing its forecasts and urging the ECB to play a bigger role in defusing the crisis. ... A worst case scenario of continued inaction in the euro zone and the failure of U.S. lawmakers to agree a spending-reduction plan would usher in a devastating downturn for the world economy, the Paris-based OECD said."

Speaking of the Congressional Supercommittee, they have yet to do fuck-all, naturally. And Republican Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, is leading the charge on making it All President Obama's Fault, despite the fact that Republicans accuse him of railroading Congress when it suits their narrative, and now accuse him of, essentially, not railroading Congress. (As if Congressional Republicans could be railroaded, anyway.) Good fucking god, this country's national discourse is infuriating.

In other random economic news...

IndieBay: Interview with Scott Olsen about his injury from the police attack on Occupy Oakland (video).

Bloomberg: Moody's considers bank debt downgrade in 15 European nations.

Wall Street Journal: Facebook targets huge IPO.

CNN Money: American Airlines files for bankruptcy.

Bloomberg: How Paulson gave hedge funds advance word. And related to that: Paul Krugman's "Mission not accomplished."

New York Times: In gloomy economic times, Santas learn to help by curbing expectations.

As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to leave links to anything you're reading and/or writing in comments.

Occupy Everywhere & Economic News Round-Up

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) supporters witness an arrest of one of their fellow at Zuccotti Park decorated with Christmas lights, in New York, November 21, 2011. OWS said 32,500 gathered last week to mark the anti-capitalist movement's two-month anniversary at Foley Square in lower Manhattan before many marched across the Brooklyn Bridge. [Getty Images]

Here's some of what I've been reading this morning...

Tina Dupuy has an interesting piece in The Atlantic about the gender disparity at Occupy encampments. See also Echidne's take on Dupuy's piece.

Gallup finds that US support for the Occupy Movement remains unchanged from a month ago at about 25% in favor, about 20% opposed, and about 55% conflicted or indifferent. Respondents, however, are now slightly more critical of "the way the protests are being conducted."

In Supercommittee Failure news...

Greg Sargent plainly (and correctly) states that "both sides" are not equally to blame for the breakdown in negotiations: "This is the primary difference in a nutshell: The Dem offer involved both sides making roughly equivalent concessions; the GOP offer didn't. The main GOP concession—the additional revenues—would have come in exchange for Dems giving ground on two major fronts: On cuts to entitlements, and on making the Bush tax cuts permanent. Putting aside whether the supercommittee failure matters at all, it's plainly true that one side was willing to concede far more than the other to make a deal possible. And anyone who pretends otherwise is just part of the problem."

And because our political system is irrevocably broken, both parties will look to exploit that failure for political gain: "[W]ith the [Bush tax cuts] due to expire at the end of 2012 and their fate left unresolved by the supercommittee, both parties are already positioning themselves to exploit the issue for maximum electoral advantage. President Obama, who campaigned on repealing the breaks for the wealthy, angered his base last year when he agreed to extend all the tax cuts beyond their original expiration, at the end of 2010. This time, the president has vowed to veto any effort to extend the tax breaks on upper-income Americans. ... Republicans vying to challenge Obama argue the tax cuts should be made permanent, not just for the wealthy but for middle-income Americans as well. And GOP strategists say the White House's position makes the president vulnerable to charges that he would impose what many Republicans are already calling the 'biggest tax increase in American history' if reelected."

Aside from political gamespersonship, what now? "Failure by the committee, evenly split between six Democrats and six Republicans from the House and Senate, sets in motion an alternative timetable for $1.2 trillion in spending reductions starting in January 2013. Leaders on both sides of the aisle are unhappy with the nature of the fallback plan, which cuts evenly from domestic and defense programs." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tries to hang the president with the responsibility for preventing the cuts: "Now it falls on the president to ensure that the defense cuts he insisted upon do not undermine national security." President Obama hangs the responsibility on Congress: "The only way these spending cuts will not take place is if Congress gets back to work and agrees on a balanced plan to reduce the deficit by at least $1.2 trillion. That's exactly what they need to do. That's the job they promised to do. And they've still got a year to figure it out."

The only thing that Democrats and Republicans can agree on anymore is that it's not their fault and it's definitely the OTHER party's responsibility to fix everything.

In related news, trying to prove he is NOT BORING and can be, in fact, just as loathsomely incendiary and irresponsible as all the best Republicans, Mitt Romney [trigger warning for violent rhetoric] described the automatic defense spending cuts initiated by the supercommittee's failure would be "like holding a gun to your own head."

In other US domestic economic news...

Reuters: Third-quarter growth revised down to 2.0 percent.

Forbes: The Top 0.1% of the nation earn half of all capital gains.

CNN Money: Next congressional battle: Payroll taxes.

Reuters: MF Global trustee doubles estimates of shortfall: Says shortfall could be about $1.2 billion.

CNN Money: Gingrich: CBO a 'reactionary socialist institution'.

And in Eurozone news, The Guardian's live coverage is here. Also: The head of the Financial Services Authority, Adair Turner, warns that "the global economy is at risk of a deflationary spiral as the private sector and governments seek to pay off their debts at the same time." Huzzah for austerity!

United States of Austerity

So this is also going on:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Just as 55 million Social Security recipients are about to get their first benefit increase in three years, Congress is looking at reducing future raises by adopting a new measure of inflation that also would increase taxes for most families - the biggest impact falling on those with low incomes.

If adopted across the government, the inflation measure would have widespread ramifications. Future increases in veterans' benefits and pensions for federal workers and military personnel would be smaller. And over time, fewer people would qualify for Medicaid, Head Start, food stamps, school lunch programs and home heating assistance than under the current measure.

Taxes would go up by $60 billion over the next decade because annual adjustments to the tax brackets would be smaller, resulting in more people jumping into higher tax brackets because their wages rose faster than the new inflation measure. Annual increases in the standard deduction and personal exemptions would become smaller.

Despite fierce opposition from seniors groups, the proposal is gaining momentum in part because it would let policymakers gradually cut benefits and increase taxes in a way that might not be readily apparent to most Americans. Changes at first would be small - the Social Security increase would be cut by just a few dollars in the first year.

[...]

The proposal to adopt a new Consumer Price Index was floated by the Obama administration during deficit reduction talks in the summer. Now, it is one of the few options supported by both Democratic and Republican members of a joint supercommittee in Congress working to reduce government borrowing.

The committee of six Democrats and six Republicans is struggling to come up with a plan to reduce government red ink by at least $1.2 trillion over the next decade. Changing the inflation index alone would put them a sixth of the way there.

"I think the thought process behind this is, slip this in, people won't understand it," said Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

[...]

In all, adopting the chained CPI would reduce Social Security benefits by $112 billion over the next decade. Federal civilian and military pensions would be $24 billion lower, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

If adopted across the government, fewer people would be eligible for many anti-poverty programs because the poverty level also would increase at a lower rate each year. That would result in fewer people living below the official poverty line, despite having the same income.

The tax increases would hit low-income families the hardest, while high-income taxpayers would see smaller changes. The wealthiest taxpayers already pay taxes at the highest marginal rate, currently 35 percent.

For example, by 2021, taxpayers making between $10,000 and $20,000 would see a 14.5 percent increase in their federal taxes with a chained CPI, according to an analysis by the Joint Committee on Taxation. Taxpayers making more than $1 million would get a tax increase of 0.1 percent.

Who are some of the taxpayers making $1 million a year (or more)?

The number of Americans who are millionaires is pretty low — about 1 percent of the population. Members of Congress who are millionaires? Nearly 50 percent.

That's according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tracks money in politics.

Of the 435 members of the House, "244 current members of Congress are millionaires — that's about 46 percent and that includes 138 Republicans and 106 Democrats," says Center for Responsive Politics spokesman Michael Beck.

Beckel is talking about net worth, the total amount of money and assets lawmakers have, according to their own financial disclosure forms. In fact, there are probably many more millionaires in Congress, since lawmakers don't have to include the value of their family home and other details.

Sorry apple pie, you are being replaced by bootstrap pie.

Quote of the Day

"The latest consequence of extreme austerity is in Highland Park, Michigan, which has not only turned off all of its streetlights, but also ripped out the light poles—a telling sign that its darkening of the streets is permanent. With an unemployment rate at 22 percent and a city debt of $58 million, Highland Park could no longer afford to pay the electric bills."—Rebecca Leber, at Think Progress.

Well, maybe the citizens of Highland Park can just light some bootstraps on fire.

Three Birds. One Show.

1. Europe: Yeeeeeaaaaah, not so much. (Well...)
2. The United States: SUPERCONGRESS!
3. NBC: The Playboy Club (Whoops!)

Europe and the US clearly need to try something different, and NBC's desperate for a brand new show that's basically just a slightly repackaged version of an existing show.

I give you Wank Swap, the new reality show where European and American leaders trade places to weigh in on important issues of economic policy.

Because I once had forty-five minutes of free time and something resembling Photoshop, I've been able to track down some stills from the first season:


[French President Nicolas Sarkozy struggles to give the tiniest infinitesimal fuck about a county fair in US Representative John Boehner's southwestern Ohio Congressional district.]


[US Senator Mitch McConnell beats a hasty retreat through the Frankfurt airport after disrupting a European Central Bank meeting to suggest that Belgium could really "lighten up".]


[US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner saves London from a dalek, or vice versa.]


[In season one's most shocking episode, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi serves as New Jersey's governor for four months. His cover is blown during an impromptu concert with the floating head and torso of White House Council for Community Solutions member Jon Bon-Jovi.]


[In a very special episode, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes a guest appearance, cooking dinner for The Beaver the son of ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet. Portugal is doomed to a thousand years of hyperinflation.]

I'm not saying that this show is a good idea. I just think it's a lot better than anything anyone's tried so far.