This Afternoon: Larry Summers Reflux; Tax Credits Bandied About; Debt Market Infantile and Still Supposedly Paralyzed
Support Is Building for a Tax Credit to Help Hiring (NYT)
Now they're talking about it. Barack Obama had dropped it from his stimulus plan last winter.
AP Poll: Health Care Overhaul Has a Pulse (NYT)
Polls are usually bullshit, but people pay attention to them. The public is the last group of people to know what kind of health-care bill will emerge from Congress and the White House. Fact is that some kind of change will be made, has to be made. Whether it turns out to be "reform" is another matter. Intensive lobbying for the insurance industry and Big Pharma make that an almost impossible task, as this story doesn't note.
VAT's The Matter? (investors.com)
The pondered value-added tax is "a potential money gusher for strapped governments but a massive new levy on all Americans."
U.S. Recession May Erase Prior Expansion's Jobs, Goldman Says (Bloomberg)
Considering that Goldman Sachs runs the nation's economy, this is worth heeding.
California's Zigzag on Welfare Rules Worries Experts (NYT)
Analyzing Larry Summers (Seeking Alpha, Rortybomb)
Riffing on Ryan Lizza's profile in the New Yorker.
Wall Street Regulation Won't Be Completed This Year, Bair Says (Bloomberg)
Debt-Market Paralysis Deepens Credit Drought (NYT)
SEC Probing Biggest Hospital Company (WashPost)
What a surprise: Possible violations of securities laws at the creepily named "Hospital Corporation of America," controlled by former senator Bill Frist and his family.
Stocks and Gold Gain as Investors Shun the Dollar (NYT)
See my earlier item: "Gold, Oil Trouncing Dollar; Rumor of New Currency for Oil May Not Be True, But It Propels Markets." Gold guys miffed that much of the media is "apathetic" and ignoring gold's dramatic rise.
For Gun-Shy Consumers, Debit Is Replacing Credit (WashPost)
In E-Books, It's an Army vs. Google (NYT)
Lots of authors, academic, librarians, and activists are against Google's plan to erect a huge digital library/bookstore. The giant may still win.
YouTube Eases the Way to More Revenue (NYT)
Finally, ads to accompany fart videos.
Ex-Political Boss Pleads Guilty in Pension Case (NYT)
The saga of Ray Harding takes another well-deserved bad turn with a guilty plea in the NY pension case.
Trade Groups Seek More Limited Plan to Regulate Derivatives Market (WashPost)
This is what the Obama administration wanted all along — weak or no reform — when the president appointed Gary Gensler to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. No need to lobby him too hard about softening any new laws regarding this very loosely regulated segment of trading.
