Simon Johnson, author of 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown (which is on the coffee table in my living room right now, waiting its turn to be read), also has a blog called The Baseline Scenario. Today, Johnson writes about the megabanks’ mixed success at defeating financial reform:
The bank lobbyists have the champagne out – the Brown-Kaufman amendment, which would have capped the size and leverage of our largest banks – was defeated in the Senate last night, 33-61. Feeling ascendant, the big banks swarm forward to take on their next foe – the Kanjorski amendment (that would greatly strengthen the power of regulators to break up megabanks), which they plan to gut in the backrooms.
Only three Republicans voted to support this amendment, which was co-sponsored by Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Ted Kaufman (D-Delaware). And 27 Democrats — including Sen. Chris Dodd and Sen. Evan “I love helping our citizens make the most of their lives” Bayh — voted for the financial interests of Wall Street and the nation’s six biggest banks, and against the interests of Main Street and the vast majority of ordinary Americans.
Steve Benen flags Mike Pence’s bizarre response to the latest (excellent) statistics from the BLS:
This morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the best monthly jobs report in four years. A total of 290,000 jobs were created in April — easily the strongest performance since the start of the Great Recession — and job creation in American manufacturing saw its biggest jump in 12 years.Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Republican Conference, responded with a fascinating, 96-word statement.
“These are difficult times for America’s families and today’s unemployment report delivers even more bad news. Democrats continue to advance a liberal agenda that is doing more harm than good. The Democrat [sic] policies of taxing, spending and bailouts are having a chilling effect on job creators across the country.
“The American people want Washington to enact policies that will help create jobs. House Republicans are ready to work on common sense solutions that will put people back to work, starting with fast-acting tax relief for working families and small businesses and fiscal discipline here in Washington.”
Up is down, black is white, and good news is “bad news.”
There’s a lot of that going around. John Boehner had only one question about the addition of 290,000 new jobs to the economy last month: “Where are the jobs?”
House member Roy Blunt put it in a slightly different way: “Show me the jobs.”
Rachel Maddow compared it to someone who gets a cookie and then asks, “Where’s my cookie”?
But wait a minute. How come there are so many more people in the store now, looking for cookies?
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