Michael Lewis reviews Billionaires: Reflections on the Upper Crust by Darrell West and notes “there is a growing awareness that the yawning gap between rich and poor is no longer a matter of simple justice but also the enemy of economic success and human happiness. It’s not just bad for the poor. It’s also bad for the rich. It’s funny, when you think about it, how many rich people don’t know this.”
Wonk Wire: Are we inured to a new gilded age?
The U.S. economy added 214,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 5.8% last month, the Wall Street Journal reports. That’s the lowest level since 2008.
Washington Post: “The latest encouraging numbers keep the nation on pace for its best labor market year since 1999 and stand in noted contrast to a wave of discontent that helped Republicans sweep a round of midterm elections this week. Though wage growth has been sluggish in recent years, Americans — helped by falling oil prices — are seeing their purchasing power rise. And they are now finding jobs with reliability unseen since the Great Recession.”
Wonk Wire: But when will wages grow?
“After years of gridlock in Washington, American business is gearing up for a major push on long-sought goals like an overhaul of the corporate tax system, building the Keystone XL oil pipeline, lighter environmental and financial regulation and winning congressional backing for trade deals with Asia and Europe. Business interests face a much more receptive audience now that Republicans are poised to control both the House and Senate next year,” the New York Times reports.
“But despite plenty of public talk of more aggressive action — like a rollback of the Affordable Care Act or the Dodd-Frank rules passed after the financial crisis — lobbyists, experts on Wall Street and political veterans say the actual legislative agenda will be much more limited.”
You already know the problem: the same story can look completely different depending on where you read it — and some barely show up at all because algorithms decide what you see.
My goal for Political Wire is to help you get outside those filters — to understand not just what happened, but how it’s being covered and who might be missing it. That’s why I use and recommend Ground News.
It’s an app and website that brings together global news from across the political spectrum, showing each source’s bias, factuality, and ownership.
What I find especially useful is the Blindspot Feed. It highlights stories getting heavy coverage on one side but little on the other — a quick way to see what your usual news diet may be missing.
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“Newly empowered congressional Republicans plan on moving quickly to demonstrate that they can effectively legislate, aware that they risk a backlash in two years if they fail to deliver,” the New York Times reports.
“Anticipating for months that they would take the Senate and pad their majority in the House, Republicans have been quietly discussing their agenda and approach after regularly accusing Democrats, led by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, of thwarting their priorities. They say they will focus on balancing the budget, restoring an orderly process for spending bills, revising if not repealing the health care law and enacting a major overhaul of the tax code — ambitious goals, given years of stalemate and discord.”
“Before taking up the issue of immigration, Republicans are likely to see what unilateral action President Obama undertakes, and how the country reacts to it.”
Washington Post: “McConnell and Boehner are both eager to shed the party’s image as an unruly collection of obstructionists and far-right ideologues. The remedy, they have decided: Act quickly to send President Obama bills with bipartisan support to fast-track international trade agreements, repeal an unpopular tax on medical devices and approve the Keystone XL pipeline.”
“I mean, we suck. We really do.”
— U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez, quoted by Bloomberg, on the minimum wage.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said he doesn’t want anymore discussion about the minimum wage, TPM reports.
Said Christie: “I gotta tell you the truth, I’m tired of hearing about the minimum wage, I really am.”
He added: “I don’t think there’s a mother or father sitting around a kitchen table tonight in America who are saying, ‘You know honey, if my son or daughter could just make a higher minimum wage, my God, all our dreams would be realized,” he added. “Is that what parents aspire to for their children?”
“We don’t have a jobs problem in this state. We have a work problem.”
— Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), quoted by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
“You can shoot me, but listen to me first. I want education for your sons and daughters. Now I have spoken, so do whatever you want.”
— Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, quoted by the Washington Post, on what she would have said to the Pakistani Taliban extremist who shot her if she had the chance.
This is fascinating: An Enormous Divide on Economic Recovery
Sarah Silverman released a very funny but probably not safe for work video on pay equity.
The U.S. economy added 248,000 jobs added in September while the unemployment rate fell to 5.9%, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew “announced new rules aiming to make it more difficult for United States companies to relocate overseas to lower their tax bills and wipe out the benefits for those that do. It is the administration’s latest move to sidestep a paralyzed Congress and tackle a politically charged element of President Obama’s agenda,” the New York Times reports.
Said Obama: “While there’s no substitute for congressional action, my administration will act wherever we can to protect the progress the American people have worked so hard to bring about.”
Wall Street Journal: “Some experts have questioned how much authority the Treasury Department actually has in the area, and legal challenges to Monday’s actions remain a possibility.”
NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll: “By 63% to 35%, Republicans believe that the United States is a country where anyone can succeed, regardless of background. Democrats, by a 69% to 29% margin, disagree saying the widening income gap undermines that idea. Independents side with Democrats, 62% to 34%.”
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds that “a commanding majority of people, cutting across party lines, lacks confidence that the world will be a better place for their children.”
“That economic anxiety also cuts across all income groups, regions of the country, and levels of education. And at a time when there are big differences of opinion between men and women on a range of issues, the polled showed, this is one thing they largely agreed on: The kids are not all right.”
Wonk Wire: The economy grows faster under Democratic presidents
A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds Americans “are registering record levels of anxiety about the opportunities available to younger generations and are pessimistic about the nation’s long-term prospects, directing their blame at elected leaders in Washington.”
Key findings: “76% of adults lack confidence that their children’s generation will have a better life than they do–an all-time high. Some 71% of adults think the country is on the wrong track, a leap of 8 points from a June survey, and 60% believe the U.S. is in a state of decline.”
“What’s more, seven in 10 adults blamed the malaise more on Washington leaders than on any deeper economic trends, and 79% expressed some level of dissatisfaction with the American political system.”
“The U.S. economy rebounded strongly this spring after a first-quarter contraction, eking out positive growth over the past six months and raising hopes for sustained growth in the second half of 2014,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
The U.S. economy added 288,000 jobs in June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The economy has now added more than 200,000 jobs a month for five straight months, the best stretch since January 2000.
The unemployment rate also dropped to 6.1%, the lowest it’s been since September 2008.
New York Times: “Nearly six years later, some of the scars remain — like a historically low rate of Americans in the work force. But the job market has been showing signs of health, even as the overall economic growth rate has been anemic.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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