Posts by Nick Cassella

Daily Clips: May 22, 2017

Daily Clips: May 22, 2017

After Piketty—video and transcript of panel including Paul Krugman Bernie Sanders raises the stakes in tight Montana race Trump’s budget is a joke Medicaid cuts coming in Trump’s budget How Can Democrats Form an Agenda When Trump Looms Over Everything? Monopoly in Australia: what can we learn from the land down under? The decline of established American retailing threatens jobs

Daily Clips: May 19, 2017

Daily Clips: May 19, 2017

In the US, voting is way harder for poor people Humans aren’t built to be in the moment Americans are paying $38 to gather $1 of student debt The share of student debt that’s severely delinquent (at least 90 days late) is more than triple the overall serious delinquency rate on all household debt, according to the New York Fed. It’s time for the government to give everyone a job Delusional and patriarchal American headline of the day: Trump can remake the Middle East China is the future of the sharing economy The Trump administration’s plans to crack down on Wall Street are being called into question

Daily Clips: May 18, 2017

Daily Clips: May 18, 2017

US jobless claims fall New applications for U.S. jobless benefits unexpectedly fell last week and the number of Americans on unemployment rolls tumbled to a 28-1/2-year low, pointing to rapidly shrinking labor market slack. Trump to propose scrapping beleaguered student loan forgiveness program Household debt in USA surpasses its peak reached during the recession in 2008 The best replacement for Obamacare is Medicaid The poor die younger The investigator America needs Even before the stunning events of the past week, Mr. Mueller would have had plenty to work with. But after the president’s abrupt firing of Mr. Comey on May 9 — followed by his apparent admission that he did so with the Russia investigation in mind, followed by reports that he previously pressed Mr. Comey to pledge his loyalty and asked him to drop a related inquiry into Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser — it became clear that the investigation needed to be kept alive at all costs, and as far from Mr. Trump as possible.

Daily Clips: May 17, 2017

Daily Clips: May 17, 2017

Trump is above the law, for now–but not the people More Republicans back independent probe Welcome to the ‘War On Drugs,’ Redux The broken promise of higher education That millions of students have dropped out of college, often unable to pay back their student loans, is more than just a college-completion crisis. It is also an upending of the promise of higher education: to students, that they can educate their way into economic stability, and to citizens, that higher education will spur economic growth and a stronger nation. Instead, voters see students left to go it alone, navigating an unfamiliar and challenging world while forgoing a paycheck, taking on thousands in debt to cover the costs, and often moving back in with their parents to survive. Hannity and Fox News are in full meltdown over Trump’s Comey scandal No more holding that phone while driving under new law in Washington Seattle could be first city to give heroin users ‘safe spaces’

Daily Clips: May 16, 2017

Daily Clips: May 16, 2017

The tech sector is leaving the rest of the US economy in its dust Exclusive: Democrats in U.S. Senate try to slow Republican deregulation New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat, on Tuesday will introduce legislation to kill the Congressional Review Act (CRA), a law Republicans used over the span of three months this year to repeal 14 regulations enacted by former President Barack Obama, also a Democrat, according to documents seen by Reuters. McConnell’s Plea: ‘Less Drama’ From the White House Extreme Gerrymandering Complicates 2018 Congressional Map for Democrats Center for American Progress wonders what went wrong in 2016: We do not yet know the exact reasons for the drop in turnout among young people and black voters. But with President Obama not on the ticket to drive voter enthusiasm, it is quite possible that lingering job and wage pressures in more urban areas with lots of young people, and in areas with large populations of African-Americans, yielded similar, if distinct, economic anxiety in ways that may have depressed voter turnout among base progressives. The combined effect of economic anxiety may have been to drive white noncollege voters toward Trump and to drive down voter engagement and participation among base progressives.

Daily Clips: May 15, 2017

Daily Clips: May 15, 2017

Report: Michigan employers steal $429 million in pay from low-wage workers each year Pramila Jayapal highlighted and interviewed by The Nation For New York’s free-tuition plan, lessons from Tennessee Enrollment is up by a third and federal student loan debt is down in the first state to offer free tuition at its community colleges. Kansas’ economy is a cautionary tale for the rest of the country We need to challenge the myth that the rich are specially-talented wealth creators

Daily Clips: May 12, 2017

Daily Clips: May 12, 2017

To cut taxes on the rich Mitch McConnell is ok w/ Trump cover-up of Russia probe Trump lawyer: Tax returns from past 10 years show no “income of any type from Russian sources,” with few exceptions Why Trumponomics (see trickle down) won’t make America great again The economist who helped write Trump’s tax plan in five Days Quantitative easing, stock buybacks and other stuff So, while stock buybacks and QE aren’t exactly the same they are similar in the sense that their efficacy is contingent on the specific environment and the implementation. There will be times when this is a good idea and times when there’s just better ways to implement policies that try to move the private sector needle in one direction or another. Trickle Downer of the Week: The American CEO The average S&P 500 CEO pulled in $13.1 million last year, a 5.6 percent increase from 2015. Meanwhile, the average employee only made $37,362. Think about that: Your typical head honcho makes nearly as much in one day as his typical employee makes in a year.

Daily Clips: May 10, 2017

Daily Clips: May 10, 2017

Today is a genuinely sad day in American history. The worst part? If you would have told me in 2012 this was how the Republican Party would end up…I would have believed you. They have become an awful group of legislators, so interested in their own power that they have sold out at nearly every key point in the last forty years. Democrats aren’t completely angelic, but the Republican Party stands alone in its utter betrayal of the American people. James Comey’s firing is the moment of truth for the GOP Calls for Independent Investigator, even from (a few) G.O.P. Michael Flynn targeted by grand jury subpoenas, sources confirm Mitch McConnell: Any new Russia investigations would derail current ones Meaning without work? In any case, the end of work will not necessarily mean the end of meaning, because meaning is generated by imagining rather than by working. Work is essential for meaning only according to some ideologies and lifestyles. Eighteenth-century English country squires, present-day ultra-orthodox Jews, and children in all cultures and eras have found a lot of interest and meaning in life even without working. Leftist critique of Kristen Gillibrand If Hillary Clinton’s closeness to Wall Street torpedoed her campaign — and more importantly, made her a poor agent of change — then Gillibrand has the same problem in spades. And the rest of her record isn’t any better. Her unyielding, at-all-costs loyalty to Israel, her expedient shape-shifting, her questionable links to certain political figures — all make Gillibrand a suspect tribune for anti-Trump resistance.  

Daily Clips: May 5, 2017

Daily Clips: May 5, 2017

Apple plans to spend $1 billion to support advanced manufacturing jobs in the U.S. U.S. job growth rebounds sharply, unemployment rate hits 4.4 percent Most U.S. homes are worth less than before the crash GOP can now turn their attention to taxes In ra...

Daily Clips: May 3, 2017

Daily Clips: May 3, 2017

Trump: Crazy Like a Fox, or Just Crazy? Democrats say they need a better economic message. Ohio’s Sherrod Brown thinks he has one. Wall Street lawyer Jay Clayton confirmed as Trump’s SEC Chair We’re finally having the health-care debate we need The Kansas experiment Sam Brownback cut taxes dramatically in Kansas. As a Republican governor of a Republican state, he was going to enact the dream. Taxes on small businesses went down to zero. Personal income taxes went down. The tax rate on the highest income bracket went down about 25 percent. Brownback promised prosperous times for the state once government got out of the way. Reviving productivity is a moral imperative Trump, Pence lobby U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert in all-out effort to pass GOP health-care plan